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Convinced I am getting 17" wheels but have tire questions. Please help :-)

C

Coupe

Member
Please help me, staring at tire numbers give me Alzheimers.

On my 65 fastback one tire went south, I cant buy one now because they are not made (no major loss here)
Time for new shoes.

I have manual R&P steering, so I dont think I want to run a super wide front rim/tire combo up front I guess.

So, I would like to have all 4 wheels match (maybe a 5th for a spare when I get my package tray).

Now, the rims will be 17x7 with 4.25 back spacing. I will order them on Monday so I am in a time crunch I guess.

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The car sits about 1" low with 4.5 leaf mid-eye rear springs, arning drop with 1" drop GT springs and Koni's all around. I have the big sway bar, KH 4 piston brakes, roller perches, OTR UCA's and I added torque boxes to both sides of the front. This car could handle if I had real tires on it.

What would be a safe (fit wise) tire that I could run on all four corners that would not require me to bend the fender lips?
I would like to keep some sidewall for ride comfort if possible, and to reduce the hotwheels look just a bit.

I am pondering getting 4 215/50-17 or 4 225/50-17 BFG G-Force Sport tires. Maybe run both sizes with the bigger on the back, the rears will sit just a tick higher but thats OK I guess.
A bit wider on the rears would not bother me, but I cant figure out what size that would be.

Here is a chart that shows what 215 on the front with 225 on the rears would look like number wise.



Car with 14's. One of them went bad last week and I cant buy one tire, and I dont want to buy 4 more crappy 14" tires.

I have studied the chart by Dodgestang, but it causes headaches trying to sort out a specific car with tires and brands etc..

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Re: Convinced I am getting 17" wheels but have tire questions. Please help :)

I don't know about fit on a 65, but I'm running 17" wheels with 215s on front and 225s on the rear. Plenty of room. But my car is a 70.

Sent from my XT1058 using Tapatalk
 
Why don't you simply take measurements of your current wheel/tire combo on the car and see where you have space and do the math (or better yet, mock-up) to see if the desired new arrangement will work? Nothing better than your own actual baseline from which to work.

Current tire/wheel circumference
Tire section width
Current wheel backspacing and offset

That's all you need to figure it out.
 
I don't want to complicate things for you but wouldn't go above 16 inch rim for the simple reason.You car has a classic look paint scheme and I would go for a classic look of the rims and 16 inch rims still has that.
I think you still can buy 16" RWL tires .

My 0.02 eurocent
 
I'm with El Bruno on this one. I'm running 225/50/16 with manual steering. Sometimes wished I had put 215 on the front for slow turning.
 
Thanks for the tips, but I am not interested in a 16" wheel, I just cant find the wheel I want in that size.

As for the classic look, well to be honest I am sick to death or TT wheels on a fastback. Believe it or not you see a lot of that wheel on mustangs around here and its getting kinda tired. Everybopdy has the same wheel n tire combo on the classic Fords around here, I want to get away from the look of the white letter BFG on the TQ thrust wheel.
I figure the wheel I want is kind of a grey version of the Shelby Cragar so I dont think it would look that out of place.


I agree with you about the 225 on the front Bob, it may be a bit much for parking, so I may need to reconsider two different sizes. I guess I could run a 215/50 up front and keep the 225 out back but if I am going to stagger how much could I do under theback with the same 17x7 wheel with the 4.25bs?

Do you have a pic of your car from the front so I can see how wide your treads contact area is?
 
I've had more than one 65 mustang over the years and can tell you that if you are considering a tire that you think might be close to interfering anywhere don't base your decision only on what works on another car. Aftermarket sheet metal that I have seen/had has variance in shape/flare, etc (speaking mainly of quarter panels here). Also, one brand of the same size tire is not always going to have the same shape/contour/actual width as another. Some brands tend to lean to the narrow side once mounted.

:mark reminded me the other day of this tool.

http://www.jegs.com/i/Percy%27s/760/012 ... 7AodbggAZg
 
One other thought. Since I am soon buying the first set of wheels and tires for my fastback I have been putting quite a bit of thought into size as well. My situation is a bit different due to aftermarket brake set-up and such potentially playing with stock chassis dimensions. I'm also looking at wheels with less than desirable/recommended backspace.

Since I want a full size spare on board, I am buying a single 7" wheel (what I will run on the front) and mounting a narrow 205 tire on it in the brand I want for the actual fronts. I will use it for mock-up to see just what size I can run both front and back. I will have wider wheels out back but this will give me an "actual" off which I can measure and calculate what will work for the final wheel/tire.
 
"Coupe" said:
As for the classic look, well to be honest I am sick to death or TT wheels on a fastback.
Click to expand...


WELL....EXCUUUUUUUUUSE ME!

MarkandTonyLarge.jpg


Pay no attention to that gawd awful Prius in the background :yah
 
MSell66, I think you made my point perfectly. I saw cars just like yours and mine three times this weekend.

Minilites, those dont work for me either. Sorry, but they look like they should be on a Miata or a MINI.
And daisy wheels are more of a trans am look, a buddy has those on his 70 Boss and they look perfect, but I dont like em on a 65 car.

Horseplay, I get what you are saying, I just dont have that wheelright tool to do a proper measure, and I am not going to buy one for this one instance.

Thats why in the original post I wanted to discuss a "Safe" size option, I have no interest in running the max size I can shove under a 65 car, just a comfortable fit that looks about right at a glance. I even went so far as to mention the exact tire I am buying in the event someone has run those and can compare profiles with other brands.

This thread is in no way a "How big" thread. I just wanted to hear from guys with 65-66 cars that have done it.

I just wanted input on a safe tire size that would provide some size while accounting for any car to car variance.

I talked to the shop this weekend and I think I am just going to buy one tire and wheel (7" wide) and test fit that and just take more time before I order everything. It will take more time this way but I am not in a huge hurry.

I could take the car over to the shop, but I have zero interest in letting anyone else jack up my car or put it on a lift, so I will just bring the 225/50-17 wheel n tire home and stare at it for a while on both the front and the back.
 
"dodgestang" said:
So go get 17x7 with 4.25 backspacing and put 225 45 17 on them and you will have zero issues.
Click to expand...
This.

Here's my old 65 with 225/45/17 on front on a 17x8 wheel, with the equivalent of 4.75 backspace. Manual steering, and my wife occasionally drove it when it had the automatic. (Rears were 235/45/17 on the same wheels)

The whole secret to tight parking & manual steering is to turn the wheel while the car is rolling...

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Thanks for the info and pics, those really helped put things into context.

I guess I could get the 17x8 to get the 4.5BS just to be on the safe side, I see little downside. (Other than more cost)
 
17x7 4.25 BS will actually fit better than 17x8 4.5 BS. On a 17x8, you REALLY want 4.75 BS - that's about the max wheel you'll fit on a 65/66 - tight both inside and out. A 17x8 4.5BS runs a little tight against unmodified wheel lips in a 65/66...

The 17x7 4.25 BS gains you 1/2" of wheel clearance inside & out (compared to 17x8 4.75BS), which translates to about 3/16" extra tire clearance if running the same 225/45/17 tire on both wheels...

Knowing all I know now (plus 1/2 of what I've forgotten)..... If I were building a 65/66 "cruiser" today, I'd run a 17x7 with either 4.25 or 4.5 BS at all 4 corners with 225/45/17 tires... MAYBE consider a 235/45/17 in back if you aren't concerned about rotating tires. :hmm
 
"BobV" said:
17x7 4.25 BS will actually fit better than 17x8 4.5 BS. On a 17x8, you REALLY want 4.75 BS - that's about the max wheel you'll fit on a 65/66 - tight both inside and out. A 17x8 4.5BS runs a little tight against unmodified wheel lips in a 65/66...

The 17x7 4.25 BS gains you 1/2" of wheel clearance inside & out (compared to 17x8 4.75BS), which translates to about 3/16" extra tire clearance if running the same 225/45/17 tire on both wheels...

Knowing all I know now (plus 1/2 of what I've forgotten)..... If I were building a 65/66 "cruiser" today, I'd run a 17x7 with either 4.25 or 4.5 BS at all 4 corners with 225/45/17 tires... MAYBE consider a 235/45/17 in back if you aren't concerned about rotating tires. :hmm
Click to expand...

Outstanding information Bob, thank you. I will use that advice on the wheels. Do you think I could use 225/50 235/50 series to gain a bit of sidewall?
 
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