[1965 Pontiac Parisienne]

Sorry..have i miss something??
I´m looking for my 65 Bonneville for new tires and the 215 75 14" are very rare and expensive in Europe, because we need load and speed index ..
15" whitewall tires are easy to get ...
Question:
Are the 8 lug wheels are now available in 15" or 16" or 17" ?? Does it working? How expensive they are in 15" ? Who offering?
Any experiences?
Thx, Bjoern

[mike389]

you did miss anything just asked if '65 up came with 15" wheels!!! and being all 60's B bodies should be close and letting you know the clearance may help you!
http://www.bopengineering.com/pontiac_full_size.shtml Chrome 16x7" were $1200. 15's much cheaper!!

[Stuart]

14" wheels were standard on full size Pontiacs from the late 1950s through 1968. They went to 15" as standard in 1969.

Board member 61 389-348 just put some 16" eight lug wheels on his 1963 Grand Prix, pictures are in this thread: http://forums.maxperformanceinc.com/...d.php?t=727684 Scroll down to the bottom of the page.

[Deadhead]

Originally Posted by misterp266

I figured this would be the place to ask about wheels for a '66 Catalina. I would like to put 15x7 American Torque Thrust TTO wheels on my Catalina. They have a back space of 3.76" which as close as I can measure is the same as the 14x6 wheels I have on the car now. With about 1 1/2" of clearance between the tire and the body in the rear I am thinking that the extra 1 inch of wheel width and the same backspace would give me a 1/2" of clearance depending on the tires used. Has anyone put 15x7 Torque Thrust wheels on a '66? PIcs are always great!

Thanks, Rob...

Rob,

Did you end up getting these installed? What tires did you use? I am thinking about putting similar on my '66 GP so I can go to 15" tires. Shame to lose the 8 lugs, but too much $ to convert 2 sets to 15" and or get the repros for any that may need linings or what have you.

Just re-read this whole thing, and I am now clueless. Want to do 15X7 Torque D as long as I can fit in with skirts.

[PONTIAC LARRY]

Originally Posted by AROWHED

I would like to see those photos for sure.

To the best of my knowledge, and this applies to the rear end only for 65-66(and maybe up to 1970?) B-body Pontiac, I've come up with this....

To perfectly CENTER the wheel in the wheel opening between frame and quarter lip (which may require trimming with the wider rims anyway):

A 6" rim must have 4.375" (111mm) backspacing.
A 7" rim must have 4.875" (124mm) backspacing.

Obviously 6 and 7" rims need not be perfectly centered due to being so narrow already.
But centering is critical as we go wider....

A 8" rim must have 5.375" (136mm) backspacing.
This is exactly what I have right now on my 65GP, the rims modified by Stockton. Very tight fit with 285/70 tires...had to roll the quarter lip up. Don't run fender skirts anymore, too painful to deal with.

A 9" rim must have 5.875" (149mm) backspacing.
A 9.5" rim must have 6.125" (155mm) backspacing.
A 10" rim must have 6.375" (162mm) backspacing.

So while all these rims widths change, the thing they have in common (for perfect centering) is their "offset"....it always stays at 22mm, about .9". You can verify that on that tire sizer site... http://www.rimsntires.com/specs.jsp

I see on Ebay Motors that for at least the MB 17 x 9.5" wheels, they tend to have a 6mm offset, that is just not enough..with the factory drum brake 65.50" wide rearend, it's won't allow your wheel\tires to be centered between frame and quarter lip...pushing them over half an inch closer to the quarter lip, and away from the frame.

Based on this great info above. I have been thinking of a cheap 15x8 steel wheel for 28x9x15 MT slicks for the 67 Cat 2+2 , Wheel Vintiques has a Chevy Ralley 5x5 in 15x8 with a 5.0 BS so not quite 5.375 BS but I would be rolling the lip in anyway. Stil a bit worried of rubbing, I know Milt runs this size slick on his 66 with a 15X8 ? 8 lug wheel but he still runs skirt and I will not be. Also need to check the 15x7 and 15x8 Silverado Rally and see what the BS is , is the 15x7 around 4.5 or 4.0 BS ?

[ChiefPonch]

20x8.5 with 265/35's on the rear.
18x8 with 245/40's on the front.

About 1/4" of clearance in the back between the tire and quarter lip & same on the front when the wheel is fully turned. I believe the offset is either 0 or +2mm on both front and rear.

[63gpman]

Thought I would post some info to this thread. I am trying to figure out wheels for my 66 Vert and noticed that the rally II's on it are super tight to the wheel opening and wanted to measure things up. I do not see any codes on the wheels but they are 15x7 with a 4" backspacing or 0 offset. My guess is they may be reproductions??? Anyway, this will give a great baseline for some of us.

Wheels = 15x7 with 0 offset
Tires = 215/70/15 = measure 9" wide with the bulge

I'll take some photos with them on to show how tight things are. The photo angles don't show exact measurements, but are accurate in my statements here (I hope )

There are signs of tire rub from touching the wheel opening. Depending on what tire you are going to run will play into the clearance of running a 7" wheel with 0 offset. These tires have more bulge where as a 50 series on a 17 or 18" rim would not have as much bulge. On this setup, the tires bulge past the rim 1" on either side. The tire calculators show this tire as being 8.5" total width, but as you can see it is at 9" or just slightly above

[63gpman]

Here are the pics of the tires installed on the rear of the car. As you can see it is tight. only about 1/4" clearance on either side.

Hope this helps anyone wondering.

[Engine-Ear]

Whew, that is close! Imagine if the body rocks sideways on a curve...

[63gpman]

Yup, that is why I am going to change things up!! Just not sure exactly what I am going to do. Since the car is going to get painted, I think I am going to crate a little clearance around the wheel opening so that I can keep my options open.

Basically this is showing that there is no more than 4.5" from the hub face to the outer wheel opening before it touches. I would say at most 4.25 for clearance purposes and even at that you would want to have things tight in the rear and maybe a little extra shaved off the wheel openings.

[Stuart]

How much room is there on the back side, between the tire and the inner wheel well and frame? I wonder if a wheel with different offset would work better. Maybe you could get a new rim put on the Rallye center section that would fit better. I know of a guy in Iowa (I think he's in Des Moines) who does that sort of work for a pretty reasonable price.

[63gpman]

Yea, thought about that, but the 66 is going to be more of a custom job anyway. Some will like some will not. I am likely going with some larger size Troq thrust wheels like the car below.

The guy that owns this is from Sweden, but says the car came from the MN Metro area. Do you know the car Stuart?

[AROWHED]

Brad I measured my KD coded 15 x 7 rally II wheels again tonight, backspacing is exactly 4-3/8". The KD is stamped near the valve stem hole.

[63gpman]

Originally Posted by AROWHED

Brad I measured my KD coded 15 x 7 rally II wheels again tonight, backspacing is exactly 4-3/8". The KD is stamped near the valve stem hole.

Thanks. I checked all the usual spots for any markings and did not see a thing. With no markings as well as the backspacing on these, I am going to say these are wheel vintiques or some other reproduction that they use to make.

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by 63gpman

The guy that owns this is from Sweden, but says the car came from the MN Metro area. Do you know the car Stuart?

Yes, I know the car. I think it belonged to Al Longley, but I'm not 100% sure on that.

[t walgamuth]

Originally Posted by 63gpman

Here are the pics of the tires installed on the rear of the car. As you can see it is tight. only about 1/4" clearance on either side.

Hope this helps anyone wondering.

That's gonna hit.

[70ra455]

Read every post ... and man am I more confused than ever ... lol

I just wanted to put 15 x 7's on my '66 and now can't figure if any tire will fit under the skirts ... I may just have to go 15 x 6 but didn't want to ...

or just scrap it and put the 14" 8 lugs on the car and cry about tires ...

crazy ...

[RonBurgundy]

Originally Posted by 70ra455

Read every post ... and man am I more confused than ever ... lol

I just wanted to put 15 x 7's on my '66 and now can't figure if any tire will fit under the skirts ... I may just have to go 15 x 6 but didn't want to ...

or just scrap it and put the 14" 8 lugs on the car and cry about tires ...

crazy ...

Haha me too! Hopefully someone out there can help me with my question. If I run a larger rim (17 inch or larger) can I also run a wider rim on my 65 Cat? For example 17x9 or 18x9? I'd like to go that route but from what I've gathered the largest rim I can run is a 15x7 on a 225/70/15. Anything larger than that will have fitment issues...right?

[63gpman]

you can, but you have to get the right backspacing and may end up with a custom made wheel.

I may go with a set of 18x7 torque thrust wheels as they have a 4.25 backspacing and have seen them on other vehicles. I would go with 17x7, but the backspacing is only avail in 4" and will be tighter than I would like. 5x5 or 5x127 is the bolt pattern so options are limited.

[RonBurgundy]

Originally Posted by 63gpman

you can, but you have to get the right backspacing and may end up with a custom made wheel.

I may go with a set of 18x7 torque thrust wheels as they have a 4.25 backspacing and have seen them on other vehicles. I would go with 17x7, but the backspacing is only avail in 4" and will be tighter than I would like. 5x5 or 5x127 is the bolt pattern so options are limited.

Thanks for the info. What's the optimal back spacing to look for?