f body wheel size/back space?

[barbee6043]

the 79 Volare I picked up, the PO put on those 20 inch rims, with band aide tires, huge backspace...... they are GOING away,... I know the super coupes had 15 x 8 rims, what was their backspace??????
this car is a slant, looking at 15 x 6 or 7 up front, in American TQ,... and steels in rear.... 15 x 7 cop wheel... ?????

 

[7T8 Custom]

The 15X8 Super Coupe wheels were a 4 1/2 inch offset.

 

[barbee6043]

I am going to order a set for the front, for this 79 Volare, American torq thrust the old style rims, 15 x 7 but I can oder BS of 4.5 or 3.75 inch. discs up front, either should be fine???? I realie the wheel well up there is large, will go with tall 75 series tires...... any thoughts on which will work, and fill in opening well????? cars built after 73 is new waters for me/' thanks

 

[Aspen500]

Factory 15 x 7 are 4 1/2" backspace and fit perfectly. 7" is sort of wide for a 75 series tire. I'd go with a 70 series at least and get a size that's taller. In my cars previous life it had 205/70R14 tires and they filled out the wheelwells fairly decent for example. Summit (along with others) shows the dimensions of all the tires like width, diameter, suggested wheel width, etc....
Torque Thrust's look good on any car!

 

[AJ/FormS]

My 80 Volare looks best with tall 15s. You're right, those wells are huge . Mine accepts 235/75-15s which are 29ish.. I put Ansen style slot-mags on mine, which I am partial to.
By A-body comparison, just try and install a 28..
But that car is so nice, it really IMO calls for some nice aluminum wheels.
If you start a poll, I vote for turbines, you know; General Lee turbines. And 275/60s on the back,245s on the front.
Or those Firebird Honey-Comb style.
I'm not big into spoke wheels But Yeah, maybe Torque Thrusts.
Man, I'd love to have a car like that..... Perfect home for my torquey 360combo. I can see that car with SS springs Caltracs, and 1.8 60fts I can see my 325/50-15s back there, and I would find a way to put some big fat meats up front.And lower it some. And T/A side exits. And the set-back floorshift. Yeah I could totally see that. And tinted windows. And little spoilers.
I could actually see me driving those 6-spoke forklift tires tho, for a little while anyways.

 

[barbee6043]

what really brought me to this car is: never had an F body out of how many mopars since mid 80's. ( I lose count), great rust free body, one small little crease at a rear wheel well, few gravel pecks, mint door panels, headliner, one or 2 places where front seat is, top half has been repainted one, looks great.... etc et.. but one big thing is I do not have to do body work, it runs, drives good, it doesn't nee $1000 worth interior.... needs exhaust! ha .. not a perfect car, but
I am old school and (old) ha .. I cannot do those rubberband tires,,,, just as soon as I can get a socket or turn to get those damn Gorilla locking lugs off, they will go to CL. ordered 2 15 x 7 American TQ, thanks Summit.... $ 210 shipped to my door...... I can see the slots and turbines on this car. it does need 15 in rims and tall and large tirs to fill those wells!
picked up set of window louvers before I found out member here repops them....... yes it is a slant with ALL the friggin hoses and crap of that era. I hate to even think of removing any of that as the engine compartment looks as it left the factory a few decades ago. but like said, drop in a nice SB for ton of fun, or I can drive it with the slant, the still put a big smile n my face just toolng down these back roads!!!
would I still sell it?. maybe.... it should have got snatched up with the first hint I made to sell?? I know I cannot sell it for the price offerred and replace it for that!, so it probably has found a home for at least some period of time. ha I like the sucker..

 

[Aspen500]

I agree, they look better with 15" wheels.

For reference, this is my car in it's previous lives (silver is late'80's, faded out puke green is early '90's) with the 205/70R14's. (Same tires, just different wheels) They filled out the wheel openings fairly decent. Just for the heck of it (first pic) same tires with Keystone's around 1987. (Who's that long haired YOUNG guy? LOL)

Bad pics being digital photo's of print photo's but you get the idea.

View attachment 19272

 

[Volare4life]

I have used this and it's awesome, it let's you take your stock wheel and tire combo and compare and play around with various sizes and back spaces, awesome tool to have !!!! Wheel-Tire size comparer - RIMSnTIRES.com

 

[barbee6043]

I ordered and received from Summit a pair of 15 x 7 American Torq Thrust mags, $210 total free shipping. YEA.

15 x7 steel wheels will go on back, or a pair of cop wheels.. black.

 

[kkritsilas]

I have a 1981 Mirada CMX. It has (for now) the factory steel wheels with the turbine vane hubcaps. Tires are 20570 R15s (factory size, I think). They look like this:

I also have a set of Weld Forged billet wheels left over from my 1993 Lincoln Mark VIII. They are more of a front drive pattern (5.5" backspace). Very nice wheels. i Just put them in front of the factory wheels to see what they would look like. They look like the picture at the bottom of the page.

I am thinking of getting the proper spacer/adapters to correct the backspacing and also the bolt circle issue (Weld wheels have a 5 X 108 mm bolt circle, so have to correct it to 4 X 3 1/2"). I don't know if the back spacing should be corrected to 4", 4.25", or 4.5".

Anyway, the point of this is that the older cars can look fine with larger wheels/tires, as long as they are not excessive. I know a guy who has a 55 Chevy with 20" wheels and rubber band tires. That doesn't look rignt; a less extreme wheel (say 17" or even 18") would look better.