ssmonte
Jul 1st, 04, 2:08 AM
I am posting this in hopes that it saves some time for others.
I have seen hundreds of tire and wheel combos on early Chevelles and many different tire and wheel sizes but they usually never gave any specifics like back spacing and cross section of the tires and wheel well specs. Based on this I did some research and found the following I hope it saves time for some of the rest of you and that it will at least give you a basic idea of what dimensions you need to know when you go tire and wheel shopping.
I purchased a 65 Chevelle paritally finished from a man who had put 17x9.5 Budniks in rear and 17x8 in front with 215x45x17 BFG Comp T/As on all four corners. Upon checking I found the rear ones had rubbed the inner lips on the wheel wells and that the back spacing on these wheels were wrong at 4 inchs which placed them 1 inch farther to the outside of the well. A 5 inch back spacing with stock frame, wheel wells and rear axle is exactly centered under the rear of 64 thru 66 Chevelles and this may also be true for later models but I had none available to check.
With stock axle dimensions of 60 inches from axle flange to axle flange and stock wheel wells measuring 11 1/2 by 33 inches the 5 inch back space puts the wheel dead center in your wheel well.
My car now has a 12 bolt posi with the Master Power Brake big 11x2 inch finned police drums in rear and the Hotchkiss front suspension kit with 12 disk brakes in front so some 15 inch wheels will not work. I choose 16 inch because American Racing has 16x8 inch on the shelf with 4 3/4 back spacing. I also found that Budnik, Coddington and Foose will make custom back spacing for about 40 bucks extra per wheel but their prices are pretty stiff on most of their wheels so be prepared to spend big bucks if you go for these. I am sure that there are other companies out there who do the same but I could not find any info on them. There must be over 100 companies now selling what I like to refer to as conastoga wagon wheels but very few still making wheels for muscle cars. I can only speak for myself but I personnaly think that things have gotten out of hand with some of these giant wheels.
With the 16x8 inch wheels front and rear I have found that 255x50x16 inch tires rear fit with just enough clearance so as not to rub and that 225x60x16 are very close to the same diameter for the front and fit with no rubbing and clear my disk brakes adequately. I hope this helps some of you other Chevelle people out there.
The specs on the 255x50x16 are 26.1 diameter, 10 inch tread width and a cross section of 10 1/2 inches on 8 inch wheels.
The fronts are 26.4 inches in diameter, 8 1/2 tread width and 9 inch cross section on 8 inch wheels. These dimensions are actual measured dimensions with 32 PSI of Air in the tires.
Now all I have to do is find a nice used 16 inch wheel for a spare.
I have seen hundreds of tire and wheel combos on early Chevelles and many different tire and wheel sizes but they usually never gave any specifics like back spacing and cross section of the tires and wheel well specs. Based on this I did some research and found the following I hope it saves time for some of the rest of you and that it will at least give you a basic idea of what dimensions you need to know when you go tire and wheel shopping.
I purchased a 65 Chevelle paritally finished from a man who had put 17x9.5 Budniks in rear and 17x8 in front with 215x45x17 BFG Comp T/As on all four corners. Upon checking I found the rear ones had rubbed the inner lips on the wheel wells and that the back spacing on these wheels were wrong at 4 inchs which placed them 1 inch farther to the outside of the well. A 5 inch back spacing with stock frame, wheel wells and rear axle is exactly centered under the rear of 64 thru 66 Chevelles and this may also be true for later models but I had none available to check.
With stock axle dimensions of 60 inches from axle flange to axle flange and stock wheel wells measuring 11 1/2 by 33 inches the 5 inch back space puts the wheel dead center in your wheel well.
My car now has a 12 bolt posi with the Master Power Brake big 11x2 inch finned police drums in rear and the Hotchkiss front suspension kit with 12 disk brakes in front so some 15 inch wheels will not work. I choose 16 inch because American Racing has 16x8 inch on the shelf with 4 3/4 back spacing. I also found that Budnik, Coddington and Foose will make custom back spacing for about 40 bucks extra per wheel but their prices are pretty stiff on most of their wheels so be prepared to spend big bucks if you go for these. I am sure that there are other companies out there who do the same but I could not find any info on them. There must be over 100 companies now selling what I like to refer to as conastoga wagon wheels but very few still making wheels for muscle cars. I can only speak for myself but I personnaly think that things have gotten out of hand with some of these giant wheels.
With the 16x8 inch wheels front and rear I have found that 255x50x16 inch tires rear fit with just enough clearance so as not to rub and that 225x60x16 are very close to the same diameter for the front and fit with no rubbing and clear my disk brakes adequately. I hope this helps some of you other Chevelle people out there.
The specs on the 255x50x16 are 26.1 diameter, 10 inch tread width and a cross section of 10 1/2 inches on 8 inch wheels.
The fronts are 26.4 inches in diameter, 8 1/2 tread width and 9 inch cross section on 8 inch wheels. These dimensions are actual measured dimensions with 32 PSI of Air in the tires.
Now all I have to do is find a nice used 16 inch wheel for a spare.