I want the widest I can get under a stock 71 chevelle wheel well. I have rolled the lip on the 1/4 panel to take away the edges. I did not 'roll out' the lip to create a buldging fender of any sort. I have narrowed the rear end axle tubes about 1 3/4" (but no frame notching). The car will be lowered some, but not too much. Wheel diameter is 18" and I am loosly decided on Rushforth Super Spokes.

My questions are:

1.) Can I order wheels now even though my body is not back on my frame yet and still be able to maximize width/fitment? Or, are the wheel hoop sizes not incremental to such a small degree? i.e. Am I getting a 10" wide wheel regardless and back spacing is my only alteration. What about 10.5" or 11" or 11.5 wide hoops?

2.) I plan to drive the car a lot and exercise the pro-touring suspension. To that end, should I be concerned about having too wide of tires and rear end movement might lead to rubbing? I will have Currie upper and lower arms with Spherical joints on the upper pumpkin ears.

Thanks!

You can't get your measurements accurate unless the body is on the frame. The rear upper wheel wells narrow a bit so if you're going for a real tall tire, you might have to keep it a little narrower to keep from rubbing.
I have 315/35 17s on an 11" wide wheel on my '69 and I can occassionally rub the driver's side rear tire on the upper portion of the wheel well when driving real aggressive. I plan on lowering the rear a little more but I will compensate with more spring rate.

I want the widest I can get under a stock 71 chevelle wheel well. I have rolled the lip on the 1/4 panel to take away the edges. I did not 'roll out' the lip to create a buldging fender of any sort. I have narrowed the rear end axle tubes about 1 3/4" (but no frame notching). The car will be lowered some, but not too much. Wheel diameter is 18" and I am loosly decided on Rushforth Super Spokes.

My questions are:

1.) Can I order wheels now even though my body is not back on my frame yet and still be able to maximize width/fitment? Or, are the wheel hoop sizes not incremental to such a small degree? i.e. Am I getting a 10" wide wheel regardless and back spacing is my only alteration. What about 10.5" or 11" or 11.5 wide hoops?

2.) I plan to drive the car a lot and exercise the pro-touring suspension. To that end, should I be concerned about having too wide of tires and rear end movement might lead to rubbing? I will have Currie upper and lower arms with Spherical joints on the upper pumpkin ears.

Thanks!

If you didn't change the frame and still have basically a stock wheel well, how did narrowing the axle tubes help fit a larger wheel/tire combo....
:confused:

It didn't. Just another detail (room for error) to consider. But yeah, it will just be a math thing for that part.

I always com eback to waiting for the body on the frame, but I'd really like to roll the body around and I don't have "donor" wheels for the bigger brakes. I guess I can just put on my 15" wheels with tires and leave the brake rotors off... maybe but that's when the shortened rear axle might cause a problem with something like a 275/60 on a 4.5" BS.

Did you narrow the rear 1.75" on each side or total? If it's on each side,you can subtract 1.75" from the backspace number you needed for a stock-width rear. For example,let's say you wanted an 18x10 wheel,zero offset would be 5.5" backspace and would be what you would need on a 68-72 stock-width rear. With your narrower set-up,you would order a wheel with 3.75" backspace,instead. With that backspace,your wheels would sure have an impressive lip.

With stock frame i've heard all our cars can handle is 11" wide. Anything more and it wont work. Personally i want to go with 11" wide rears but thats just because i want to say i went as wide as i could go! Knowing 10" is probably best performance wise as far as rubbing, and hard cornering. plus if you went 9.5" in the front and 10" the handling of the car wouldnt be so radical actually it would be more balanced, and the fronts wont want to be pushed as easily in a hard corner by those Huge 11"s out back.

Mike - for a roller, my stock 14's fit around my Wilwood vented GT rotors (13+ inch) and also my rear wilwoods (12) with the calipers removed. Left the hub and disc on and they just barely tucked inside the stock 14 inch SS wheels. I have about a 1/2 inch or less of clearance but they fit. I didnt think they would but sure enough.

i narrowed my rear about 2.5" and ran into the same problem with my old rollers. all i did was turn them inside out and put a piece of 1/2" ply as a spacer. it works great for rolling it around.

Tim

I too have the ol' plywood handy and might just do that. I do have some really long studs to work with.

Beuax,
That's good to hear, I will plan on doing what you did. My rolling chassis, in all its glory, is going to look like total crapola with old wheels on it. :D


I'll have to think long and hard about the 11" wheel. How about a 10" wheel and a slightly wider tire stock on it?

what members on her with a 68-72 has 11" wheels out back?

I have 18x10's with a 305 on my 72 Chevelle.

what members on here with a 68-72 has 11" wheels out back?


:waving: 17x11" 6.25bs - oem width 12bolt, fenders rolled. - 315/35 rubber