Joined: Wed Aug 11 2010, 10:15AM
Location: E WA
Posts: 1230
I posted yesterday about a new set of wheels and tires for my 1967 Polara Convertible.
The purchase for the Polara was part of a plan to get a new set of wheels and tires for my 1969 LeBaron Coupe.
While searching for the 16" wheels that I wanted for for the Polara I came across many other wheels and saw a set in 15" x 8" with the correct bolt size (5 x 5" ) and offset (0 mm) for my 1969 LeBaron Coupe.
The Polara had a set of quite new 255/60/15 BFG radial TA tires and I figured that I would like to try those on the 1969 LeBaron.
The reason that I wanted to replace these tires on the Polara was because the suspension on that car has been modified to the point where it is almost too tight and I wanted to put some "softer" tires on it. The suspension on the LeBaron is un-modified although it does have a factory tow package which makes the suspension beefier than pure stock. I figured that the BFG Radial TAs would work well on the LeBaron.
The tires that were on the LeBaron were General XP2000 in 255/70/15 and those tires are close to 2" greater diameter than the BFG Radial TAs so the swap dropped the car by about 1". Also, the side walls are probably quite a bit stiffer.
Everything came together yesterday and I got the wheels/tires on the LeBaron and drove the car to work today. I would say that the ride is not any worse but the car definitely sits lower and has better handling. The car has as set of Gabriel shocks (I think) that I installed 13 years ago when I purchased the car. I have a set of KYB Gas adjust shocks to install but wanted to see the difference the tires made first.
The wheels are Vision torque 143 in gunmetal finish. I figured that the more subdued gunmetal finish would be more appropriate for an Imperial. The size of the wheel is pretty easy to find. The tough part was getting hub centric rings. As far as I can tell no other vehicle has the same hub diameter as an Imperial at 78 mm so I had to order a set of custom made hub rings. These are very spendy at $70 a set and are made in Finland but in my opinion are very important and necessary.
The wheels fit on the car only just. There is about 1/8" clearance to the calipers and about 1/2" clearance to the top of the upper ball joint. There is probably about zero clearance between the cap on the wheels and the front wheel dust caps. However it does all fit.
Depending on where the stick on weights are located for wheel balancing you might get interference between the weights and the calipers.
I have attached a couple of photos of the car. It certainly drives better and I think looks better.
