Pics of my various wheel/tire setups

[ForceFed70]

Here's my car about 5 years ago.

I liked the lifted with huge tires look and still do, but I wanted to move on to someting more modern.

Sorry for the poor photo quality, my digital camara back then sucked.

Wheels were 15x10 rear and 14x7 front. 295/50/15 and 245/60/14

 

[ForceFed70]

Here's a side pic.

 

[ForceFed70]

So I bought a set of 4 18"x9" chrome bullit replica's along with 245/40/18 rubber. I also lowered the car back to factory height.

Here's a pic of the car at factory height

 

[ForceFed70]

It looked OK, but the wheels seemed too big and a little out of place.. My car sorta looked like a rollerskate. I hoped loweing it would make it look better.
Another factory height pic with the 18x9's:

 

[ForceFed70]

Lowering the car definately helped. I was really starting to like the new look at this pointL Here's a pic of the car after being lowered 2"

 

[ForceFed70]

Something still didn't seem right tho... It took me a while to figure it out, but what was bugging me was the tire to rim width. The 245's were too skinny and the rims stood out anout 0.5" wider than the rubber. I also thought the car would look better if it was a little lower.. especially the front.
Another pic of the car lowered 2"

 

[ForceFed70]

I needed wider rubber. Not a problem in the rear..I switched to 275/35/18's. The front tho was a bit of a problem. I couldn't stuff any more rubber under the fender..especially if I wanted to go lower. So I ended up sending the front 2 wheels to get narrowed 1" down to 18"x8".

Here's a pic with new 275 rubber in the rear, front wheels narrowed to 8", and lowered another 0.5" rear and 1" front (2.5rear and 3 front total).

 

[ForceFed70]

Now I think I'm happy with the new look. I ended up having to roll the front fender lips, but it was worth it. Handling is much better now also

 

[A67StangMaster]

I would drop it alittle more.. maybe 1 more inch
I like it when the tires are close to the flairs...

 

[ForceFed70]

I would drop it alittle more.. maybe 1 more inch
I like it when the tires are close to the flairs...

They are like that in the front. But in the rear they are higher. Mostly because I like a raked stance. I also don't want to worry about carrying passangers and a full tank of gas with the 275's.

 

[xoxbxfx]

did you just use a baseball bat to roll them?? Im about to roll my 66 fenders but was thinging of cutting slits in it and smashing them with a bfh

 

[Protowrxs]

It does look much better. My old car had/has the too big in the back look back then too with 14 x 10 and 50 series tires from the 70's / 80's (still have them on it right now in fact) but I will be doing the same during the rebuild.

I agree it would better a bit lower but understand stopping there.

What did you do to lower? Cut coils on the front and blocks on the back or different springs? Just curious as I need to buy springs soon.

-Stephen

 

[ForceFed70]

did you just use a baseball bat to roll them?? Im about to roll my 66 fenders but was thinging of cutting slits in it and smashing them with a bfh

Cut slits every 2" then rolled with a hammer and dolly. Was pretty easily actually.

 

[ForceFed70]

What did you do to lower? Cut coils on the front and blocks on the back or different springs? Just curious as I need to buy springs soon.

-Stephen

Cut 1&1/4 coil up front (stock coils). In the rear I replaced the stock leafs with a set of 5 leaf reverse-eye springs.

 

[Protowrxs]

Cut 1&1/4 coil up front (stock coils). In the rear I replaced the stock leafs with a set of 5 leaf reverse-eye springs.

Cool.. That is the type of rear spring I had planned on going with. Figured I'd cut coils as needed up front.

Thanks for the info!
-Stephen

 

[bnickel]

awesome bro now you really have me considering ditching my 15's at some point, i just wish i could find some 17's in the same style wheel i have now

 

[Steve69]

Nice Pics, Did you have to use spacers on the rims?

 

[mustang6788]

I agree I also like the rake it has now, major improvement over previous pictures.

 

[ForceFed70]

Nice Pics, Did you have to use spacers on the rims?

Yes and No.

These wheels come stock with 6" of backspacing.

Before I had the front wheels narrowed, I was running a 1" spacer...after narrowing 1" I ditched the spacers (another benifit of narrowing the wheels).

For the rear I originally had 1" spacers with the 245's, but changed it to 0.5" when I swapped to the 275's.

I'm really happy with the wheel/tire fitment, since rolling the front fender lips they havn't rubbed once.