Joined: Sun Oct 22 2006, 09:26PM
Location: San Antonio
Posts: 74
Looking at a set of these for my 68 Fury III, 9 inch on the front and 10 on the rear... http://www.discounttire.com/dtcs/findWheelDetail.do?rcz=78220&rc=TXSINT&wd=18&c=1&pc=61496&rw=&bp=5-114.3*5-4.5*5-4.5%252F5 The wheel housings look quite large, larger than the housings on my Duster anyway , whaddaya think? too large? to retro? not retro enough? I always liked the torque thrust, el mirage, and cragars and these seem reasonable. I know that I wanna show off my 4 wheel discs thru the wheels, a little showing off never hurt nobody.
Joined: Tue Oct 11 2005, 01:33AM
Location: Calgary, Alberta
Posts: 5893
Holy crap 9" on the front and 10" on the rear, isn't that a little large? I was worried that putting 6" on the front and 8" on the back of mine was about as big as the car would take. With 9" on the front you may and up with a 100' turning radius. !crazy
I might be able to get you a good deal through him if you see something you like. . . . He's a start up so he needs all the help he can get <span class='smallblacktext'>[ Edited Tue Dec 12 2006, 09:55PM ]</span>
What size of tires???? That is the most important. But 18x9 up front will be a real trick, there are probably only 1 or 2 tire options that will work. I have 17x8's up front with 255/50's, it fits perfect, no rubs. I swapped the rears up front, 275/50's, and they rubbed a lot. A 18x9 might flare the tire out enough to be as wide as those 275's, could be some rubbing.
I think they'd probably look great, but you'll have to get the offset/backspace just right to fit. When you start to go that wide, those big fat wheel wells get skinny fast. Another thing to consider is that the suspension on these cars moves A LOT. Unfortunately, there isn't much you can do to limit the suspension movement since t-bars aren't really avaliable to us. Larger sways might help, but those are scarce, too.
You might look in to finding a single wheel on ePay for cheap and doing some test fitting. Or, if the guys down at your local Discount Tire are cool, see if they'll get one for you and help you fit it up. The guys near me always give me blank stares when I tell them what I want to fit on my Valiant...
Joined: Mon Oct 31 2005, 12:48PM
Location: Bakersfield, California
Posts: 1755
Whatever you end up with, I have really appreciated the America's Tire Co. here in the Bake. No one could touch the TA Radials for the price I got from them, not even Costco. However check with Steve's son-in-law; an "insider" is always a good deal!
Clair brings up a good point, make sure the front suspension is completely rebuilt.
Also when I had the 275's up front the car handled really weird, they were just too wide. It got real hard to control if the road had even the slightest ruts in it. just stepping back to the 255's made all the difference. Now it handles perfectly!
Joined: Sun Oct 22 2006, 09:26PM
Location: San Antonio
Posts: 74
Thanks for the info. Was looking at Steve Strope's 70 Newport and he has 18's on it and they look sweet, now of course I don't now if a newport has larger or smaller wheel wells. I think after I finish up this disc brake thing I'll load her up on the rollback (one of the benefits of being the Mgr. of a towing co.!!) and go to discount tire for some test fits.
I like everything about that car... except the grille. Needs SOMETHING, just not sure what. Blackout is cool, but it needs some detail. Ah, well. Not my car. I did like it enough to take a pic when Power Tour rolled through Fort Worth a few years back... (warning, 250KB jpeg file) That car really got me thinking about larger wheels, just because the larger bodies can tolerate them so much better than small cars can. 18's look pretty natural, IMHO, and I'm hoping my 16x8's will look OK, too.