What does it take to fit 11 wide wheel on a 65 stang?

MrBobMarley · Mar 27, 2004

Are axle shortening or fender flaring the only ways?

Could I get away with spacers? Thanks

D.Hearne · Mar 27, 2004

a cutting torch would be a good start

fastcoupe68 · Mar 28, 2004

are you trying to get a 11'' tire or rim on the car either way without rolling the lip and running a wheel with almost 5" of back spacing you can only get about 10" max tire on the back of that car.

zookeeper · Mar 28, 2004

When I first saw this thread, I dismissed it as a joke. But since there are no smilies in your message, I'm thinking you're serious. My first question is, why? If Billy Glidden could get a car deep into the 7's with less tire, I doubt you need the traction. Also, where did you find 11 inch wide rims? Most wheels are in even numbers such as 8's, 10's or 12's, with the exception being 5 inch and 7 inch wide wheels being the only others I can think of, but I certainly don't know everything. My method for finding the largest wheel is to first remove the stock wheel and measure the overall width and then the backspacing. For instance, say you have a 14x5 inch rim stock with 3 1/2 inch backspace. Now bolt the wheel back on, put the car on axle stands and crawl underneath with a tape measure. To see what will fit (I assume we're talking about the rear) hold a straightedge to the lip of the fender where a tire might clear and measure from the rim to that edge. Let's say you come up with 2 inches. Now measure to a similar spot on the inside of the rim and look for the part a wide wheel would hit first (such as the leaf spring). Let's say you came up with 3 inches there. Now you might think that you have an extra 5 inches clearance total which would mean that you could squeeze a 10 inch rim in there. Not quite. I'd allow at least an inch, and more like an inch and half of rim clearance for tire bulge, etc. That means that you may squeeze and 8 inch rim on there and more like a 7 inch if you plan on dropping the car at all. While fitting big rubber is no problem at all with surgery (think Pro Street), bolting on wheels to a stock chassis is another story.

fastcoupe68 · Mar 28, 2004

I put a 15x8 weld with 4.5 back spacing and a 27'' tall by 9'' wide slick on a 66 fstbk it was tight but it fit with a little mod to the wheel lip. trimmed it with a cutoff wheel about half the lip was removed.

MrBobMarley · Mar 28, 2004

Holy crap, bad grammar in my thread title and in my post. I must have been tired last night

Well about the wheels, I'm no expert but I do know they come in 9, 10, 10.5, 11 and others all day long but maybe I'm on crack.

Here's the deal, I have 16x7's on the stang now, and they're fine but I'm always looking to go up if I find a deal, otherwise it's not worth it to me right now. Just so happens I found a SWEET deal on a set of used torq thrust II's from a 94 gt, 17x9.5 up front and 17x11 in the rear. I'd be a moron to pass it up, unless I couldn't make it work on my car which is why I asked here.

Now I know that the max we classic guys have been able to run correctly is 17x8 with numerous tire dimensions. I know this, my question was not intended as a joke. I wanted to know what would be involved because I figure, someone must have done this already, or something close to it. I dunno about you guys, but if I had known better I would have gone with the 17x8's all around in the first place, then I would be content.

Once, while my buddy had the factory wheels off his stock 97 gt I took one of my rears off and test fitted his on there for kicks. I'm not positive but I believe it was a 17x9(8 maybe) and it smacked on my rear leafs in no time. So I know it would take major surgery to adapt the 11's(not just spacers), I just wondered if it could be done and how. Thanks for the help so far guys.

And if any of you need an idea of what these wheels look like on a car here ya go.

MrBobMarley · Mar 28, 2004

And speaking of rear leafs, has anyone come out with a rear coilover setup yet that isn't going to cost me my college fund? I've been out of the suspension aftermaket loop for a little while.

allcarfan · Mar 28, 2004

If you cut out your stock fender flares and mold in a 3.5" flare, you should be able to fit that size wheel/tire in there...

go to streetortrack.com. Then click view products, then click view pictures. There is a 65/66 fastback with flares and HUGE wheel/tires in the rear. Email 'Shaun'...I believe its info@streetortrack.com and ask him to put you in touch with that guy. I have spoken with him a few times and he will tell you what he has. I just remember him saying....fender flares were the only mod (to that part)

dodgestang · Mar 28, 2004

They will fit with the 3.5 inch flares, you will off course need a big arsed spacer as well since the backspacing will be TOTALLY AND COMPLETELY WRONG.

So in a nut shell, any great savings you see because of what a great deal these wheels are will be more than eaten up and result in a greater expenditure than buying a set of wheels that fit the car. Now if you were planning to get and run flares in the first place more power to you....I still wouldn't use those wheels because I don't particularly car for spacers in the size you will need.

D.Hearne · Mar 28, 2004

I think that what y'all have to remember on wheel sizes, is this; The advertised width of wheels is misleading, the actual width of the wheel is greater than the advertised width. Wheel widths are measured from the inside lips not the overall width from rim to rim. same applies to the diameter. So a 10 inch wheel is actually closer to 11" overall. And a 15" diameter wheel is actually closer to 17" ( not that this measurement matters after you mount the tires)

GaPonyFarm · Mar 28, 2004

Personally, I'd pass on the deal. Its a lot of work getting something that wide on the back, much less getting the 9.5" wheels to work on the front. I don't like the idea of spacers, just another part to fail at exactly the wrong time.

At least try to put them on your car to assess the work required to make them work, before making the deal.

MrBobMarley · Mar 28, 2004

Holy giant dish batman! That is one DEEP dish on that wheel. What's the story on the car in that pic dodgestang?

Thanks for the street or track link allcarfan, nice site.

Good point on the wheel size hearne, I remember reading that somewhere now.

GaPonyFarm, I think I agree with you. I'm just gonna go ahead and build up that mean 351 I've been planning and wait a bit on the wheel thing. Thanks guys.

1320stang · Mar 28, 2004

Well, if you don't already have a 9" rearend, you could buy a 9" out of a big car and not have to narrow it.

But I also don't like the idea.

GaPonyFarm · Mar 28, 2004

Good choice MrBobMarley... You can never have too much power or torque, but you can certainly have too much tire & wheel!

btw... I've seen new TT IIs with new rubber for around $950 on ebay, and in sizes that won't require major surgery.

efi66r331 · Mar 29, 2004

There's always a time for a first post, so here it goes (I have been living on corral for a couple years).

I know that Billy Glidden can do it with a 7" tire, but I want to have good traction on a street tire that can survive potholes and high speed corners. So.....you can never have too much tire. I will run a smaller tire for open track events because I do not want the weight.

I am doing the same thing to my '66. Here is my approach:

71-73 9" rear
Trim and roll fender lip
Lightly push out fender (severe caution on this one, you can really screw things up)
Cut and reshape front side of rear inner wheel well
Pan hard bar required to control movement
Low profile very hard sidewall tires

I had a Versailles rear with lightly rolled lip and reshaped inner wheel well using 17x9 Cobra Rs w ith 275/40-17s and had only limited rub because of no pan hard bar (tire scuff only).

You will have much more trouble in the front. The upper a-arm will rub the wheel with late model offset rims. You can run a spacer, but then get ready for BIG front flares. I can get away with it because I am running a Griggs suspension.

As far as rear coil over setups, all that I have found will break the bank.

1320stang · Mar 29, 2004

I want to put to rest a thing about Billy Glidden and the 10.5 tire deal. First, let me state that I respect Billy and he's probably the best at getting down the track on a little tire. Billy runs on a 10.5W which is wider than 12" (12.2-5" I believe). I'm not sure of the size rim he runs, but I bet it's in the 12-14" range. I do know for a fact that the SSO guys that run on a true 10.5" tire use 12" wide rims. It looks a little funny, but for some reason it works.

zookeeper · Mar 29, 2004

I agree with your observations about Glidden, I should have specified a 10.5 SIZE tire, which is larger than 10 1/2 inches but still much smaller than some of the funny car rubber that I see some 12 sec cars with at our local strip. One thing that lots of people forget is just because a new Mustang looks killer with that size rollers, doesn't necessarily mean your '65 will. At the risk of stating the obvious, they are different size cars, therefore the proportions (which is what ultimately determines how bitchin your car looks) would be way off. Modern cars have huge wheel well openings and therefore it takes a taller wheel/tire combo to make them look "right". Bottom line, you'd end up with a watermelon and mustard sandwich, in a manner of speaking, two nice things that don't go well together. It's your car and with a little innovation and a lot of work you can make anything from any car fit, but it seems as though you want a set of wheels that are a good deal, and are hoping they'll simply bolt on without work, things are rarely that easy. Sorry, just the facts...

BAD67FUN · Mar 29, 2004

A most spectacular observation!!

zookeeper said:
I agree with your observations about Glidden, I should have specified a 10.5 SIZE tire, which is larger than 10 1/2 inches but still much smaller than some of the funny car rubber that I see some 12 sec cars with at our local strip. One thing that lots of people forget is just because a new Mustang looks killer with that size rollers, doesn't necessarily mean your '65 will. At the risk of stating the obvious, they are different size cars, therefore the proportions (which is what ultimately determines how bitchin your car looks) would be way off. Modern cars have huge wheel well openings and therefore it takes a taller wheel/tire combo to make them look "right". Bottom line, you'd end up with a watermelon and mustard sandwich, in a manner of speaking, two nice things that don't go well together. It's your car and with a little innovation and a lot of work you can make anything from any car fit, but it seems as though you want a set of wheels that are a good deal, and are hoping they'll simply bolt on without work, things are rarely that easy. Sorry, just the facts...

MrBobMarley · Mar 29, 2004

but it seems as though you want a set of wheels that are a good deal, and are hoping they'll simply bolt on without work, things are rarely that easy. Sorry, just the facts...

How do you come up with that after I posted this:

Now I know that the max we classic guys have been able to run correctly is 17x8 with numerous tire dimensions. I know this, my question was not intended as a joke. I wanted to know what would be involved because I figure, someone must have done this already, or something close to it. I dunno about you guys, but if I had known better I would have gone with the 17x8's all around in the first place, then I would be content.

Once, while my buddy had the factory wheels off his stock 97 gt I took one of my rears off and test fitted his on there for kicks. I'm not positive but I believe it was a 17x9(8 maybe) and it smacked on my rear leafs in no time. So I know it would take major surgery to adapt the 11's(not just spacers), I just wondered if it could be done and how. Thanks for the help so far guys.

Check wording "major surgery" in my quote.

Other than that, good point about the wheel/car proportions, I'm an artist so trust me I know how that works. When this deal on the wheels came about it got me thinkin about if they would work, etc etc, hence this very thread. I actually have always thought 17's are the limit for classics, because they are like the equivalent of 18's on a late model imo, proportion wise. Now the 11 inch width however, when being judged appearance wise is a personal thing. I think it would look badass, simple as that, regardless of traction concern.

Efi66r331, that sounds like a nice ride you got there. Got any pics/onfo?

Yea, and I hear you guys on the 9 inch rear. I'll help the wheels fit, but my little stock 289 just isn't gonna move that thing like it should. Infact I hear the 9 inch (though bulletproof) would slow me down a bit. Just gotta keep sayin it, 351, 351, 351, boost, boost, boost hehehe.

zookeeper · Mar 30, 2004

It seems as though we got off to a bad start, probably due to my impression that you were looking for the easy way to stuff huge rubber under your car. For that I apologize and hope we can start again. Here's some numbers that I got from my car that may (or may not) interest you as well as give you some food for thought. The width of the wheelwell on my '68 fastback is approximately 12" from inner fender to the inside of the fender lip. At a glance, it seems as though that's also about the same as the distance from the spring to the same point on the fender lip, so while it may contact the leaf spring first, the inner fender won't be far off, but still, 12" is much more than I thought it had. My rear tires (which are off the car) measure about 10" across the tread and are a 245/50-15. Here's the interesting part: the rear leaf springs (on my '68 anyway) are farther apart at the rear (shackle end) than they are at the front end. What's this mean? This means that you could build some offset shackles or possibly alter the mount and get a foot of rubber under a '68! Now a bit of fender massaging may be necessary, but certainly not the width of the ones in the picture posted earlier. However as anyone will tell you, '65-'66 cars have smaller wheel openings (both width and in diameter) than the larger '67 and up cars, but still, take a tape measure, and size up the wheelwells on your car, then the tires you plan on stuffing in there and if measurement "A" (the fender) is greater than measurement "B" (the tire) it's just a matter of offset to get them in there. Hope this helps and I again apologize for anything I may have said earlier that may have tweaked you off!

What does it take to fit 11 wide wheel on a 65 stang?

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