What is the biggest tire and rim width that anyone here has run on a 66 bonneville or catalina? I am thinking of having some custom made american racing salt flat specials made in 16x8's Will these fit?

The light at the end of your tunnel is just a freight train coming your way - Metallica

What is the biggest tire and rim width that anyone here has run on a 66 bonneville or catalina? I am thinking of having some custom made american racing salt flat specials made in 16x8's Will these fit?

The light at the end of your tunnel is just a freight train coming your way - Metallica

These are the wheels. I will put on the spinners as well. Should be unique as I have not seen these around anywhere. I am hoping that I can get the 16x8's to work.

The light at the end of your tunnel is just a freight train coming your way - Metallica

Be careful at the rear. The very top half of the well opening where the skirt meets dosen't give much clearance. You also have to remember that the shock mount is pretty close to the wheel too. I dunno about an 8" width. Id stay safe and go 7". You need as much backspace as possible. As big as those cars are, there isn't much room for wheels under there. Keep in mind they had a 14x6 from the factory as a standard wheel.



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I know this is a late reply, but I just recently registered!
I have a 65 GP, very similar to your 66 in this respect. Just shipped two 15 x 7 Rally II to Stockton Wheel to have them widened to 15 x 8, with 5.500" custom backspacing. These wheels will then be fitted with P285/70R15, which will have a section width just a hair over 11", and a diameter of 30". The car currently has 265/70R15, but I want a wider look than that.

Minor trimming on the inside of the fender skirts, rolling the wheel opening lip, and removal of the factory fender skirt latch and striker plate is mandatory. I now use spring-loaded 1/4" steel pins to hold my skirts in place thru the wheel opening lip, they are out of sight, of course, and a little difficult to reach. Also, lower shock mount must be relocated.. I drilled a new 1/2" hole for the shock stud that is about 1" futher inside on the lower control arm bracket than the original...it does cause the lower shock mount to not point straight backwards anymore, but it looks fine.
Also, as was already mentioned, it is difficult to imossible to fit a wide tire between the brake drum and wheel opening lip when installing \removing tire...this can be overcome by unbolting the lower shock mount to allow further axle drop.

5.500" backspacing combined with an OVERALL rim width of 9.00" (a 15 x 8 rim is 9" wide overall) plus one inch of tire sidewall bulge past the rim equals 11.00"..and the above mods should leave 12.250" between frame rail and wheel opening. There will be only .625" clearance between tire sidewall to frame, and tire sidewall to wheel opening. Poly busings in the rearend control arms will then help minimize tire rubbing. I beleive this is as max tire as you can get before major surgery on the frame is necessary. Will try to update this topic with pics once I get my rims back from Stockton.

Since I should be getting my new pair of Stockton Wheel modified 15 x 8 Rally IIs soon, here are some "before" shots of the car...it currently has 15 x 7 Rally II all around, with 225\70R15 on front, 255\70R15 rear. The new rear tire will be 285\70R15. Note the 1.5" gap between frame rail and inner sidewall, and the relocated lower shock mount, to clear the new rims when they get here. Also note tight clearance between outer sidewall to fender skirt...factory fender skirt latches had to removed to prevent rubbing, replaced them with two 1/4" steel linch pins through the wheel lip and skirt, their positions are at roughly 2 and 10 o'clock, viewed from side of car. A little hard to reach with those big tires in the way!

Rear-side view.

Very nice Mike. Glad to finally see a picture. Ed

Got the new pair of 15 x 8" 5.500" backspacing rims yesterday! Here is a test fit pic from last night...note the lower shock modification for clearance. Hope to get the rims painted tomorrow, new P285\70 tires next, then will post the "AFTER" pics.

1.5" clearance on either side, without tires. She's gonna be tight.

OK, you can get off the edge of your seats now...here are the AFTER pics! 285\70R15...I had to do some minor trimming on the fender skirts for clearance, but that was all part of the plan to fit the widest rear tires possible on the GP.

Very tight fit. Rear suspension must be allowed to drop as far as possible to allow room to slip the tire between brake drum and quarter panel. I love the look, but as I expected these taller tires are making the 3.23 gears feel like 3.08s....time to start looking for some 3.42 or 3.55s!

Side view, a little dark.

Very cool looking car!
I'm putting together a 65 GP myself. The body is still off the frame and I'm starting to put the chassis together. I really like the rake your car sits with. Are your springs replaced with stock units or did you use different springs to adjust the ride height? I've been debating what springs to get. Heavy duty (a/c springs) for better handling, station wagon springs for the rear, etc...
There's only a one inch difference in your front to rear tire diameter and I wouldn't expect that to create that much of a rake.

My car has 8-lugs on it but that may change after seeing yours. It sure has an aggresive stance that looks good.

The front and rear springs are 2 year old heavy duty units from Espo, but once installed, the car still sat mostly level, and to me was jsut too low in the rear...and I do not care for the low riding look with a factory fullsize. (The center cap on rear wheel was halfway hidden behind the fenderskirt, and it just looked bad.)

So I stretched the rear springs out by chaining the pair between a large tree and a tractor. The stretching made the springs gain about 3-4" in height unloaded, and once reinstalled (quite a task), lifted the rearend about 1.5". Then the taller 285\70 tires shown have lifted it a bit more. Ride quality is unaffected by the spring stretching. The pictures seem to make the rake look like more than it really is in person.

Another angle, rake is not quite as steep as the picture makes it look...I took the photo from a low position to show the tire tread width more.

Ponchodriven, I measured the front and rear tires for height, with air pressure set at 32psi in all four. The very center of front wheels are at 12.50" off the ground, the rears are at 14.25"...so rear tires are 1.75" taller in radius (3.5" diameter) than the fronts.

Dude, that's my car! I bought from bigcountry, who still doesn't know I'm a Metallica fan too, back in February. I don't have good close pic of the rears, but here is the best photo I have of the wheels.
Fastboy
http://a6.cpimg.com/image/90/57/2969...-028001E0-.jpg

WHERE DID YOU BUY THOSE RIMS AND DID THEY FIT RIGHT OUT OF THE BOX

The 15 x7 Rally II rims came off a 70's Grandville or Bonneville, not really sure since I bought them second-hand. They were brown and silver before sandblasting. Repainted them myself. 5" lug bolt pattern.

The front rims, with 225\70 tires on them, fit just fine...no rubbing at all.

The rear two...shipped them to Stockton Wheel in CA. to have them widened 1" (to 15 x 8 with custom backspacing of 5.50"). They fit fine but are very tight on clearance using 285\70 tires. You will have to do all the modifications on rear of car that I listed earlier in this topic to use the same rim\tire combo...assuming you have a mid-60's B-body.