[66sprint6]

I scored a great deal on some 7” X 15” Rally II’s. I’m picking them up this afternoon and I’ll check the backset. Right now, I have 6’s in the front and I’d like to see if I could fill the front wheel wells a little more. With the 6’s, the wheels look like they could be outboard more. The backs look great with 7” wheels and 255/60/15 tires. On the front, I presently have 215/70/15’s. I chose those because the tire height is exactly the same as the rears. I see on Tiresize.com that this 215 tire fits a 7” wide wheel. Alternatively, I can go a little wider with 225/70/15’s. Only 1/2” wider but sometimes that makes all the difference. They are only 3/16” taller overall.
Will I have any fitment issues? I don’t want any rubbing. I just want it to look more balanced. I looked at 235/60/15’s but they are a full inch shorter than the existing tires. Definitely don’t want that.

[The Champ]

Depending on the backspacing, you might consider trying a 245/60/15 up front. Just slightly shorter than the 255/60/15's on the back.

I ran 235/60's up front and 255/60's out back on my '64 GTO for years with 15x7" rims with 4.25" BS - photo below.

I personally don't like the idea of having a taller tire on the front than the rear.

[b-man]

225/70-15s are huge.

No way they’ll fit without rubbing.

235/60s look good and are a safe bet.

215/70s are also pretty big but you might get way with those.

[ZeGermanHam]

Originally Posted by 66sprint6

I looked at 235/60/15’s but they are a full inch shorter than the existing tires. Definitely don’t want that.

A 235/60R15 is 0.74" shorter than your existing 215/70R15 fronts, and 0.94" shorter than your 255/60R15 rears.

I definitely would not use a taller tire on the front of the car. If you want to keep your 255/60s in the rear, I like the 255/60 (rear) 235/60 (front) combo as shown by Champ above.

[The Champ]

One thing you need to remember - even though the 235's are about 1" shorter, that only means about a .5" change in ride height.

Sometimes people forget that the radius (diameter divided by 2) is the number to compare when evaluating how the stance of your car will change.

[66sprint6]

I got the rims. 15" X 7" HM code Rally II's, 4 1/4" Backset. So that means 2 3/4" +/-deep on the outside, correct? I searched the web and it seems that the 15" X 6" wheels that I have on the front (rare, apparently) have a 4" backset. So that's 2" on the face side. So if this is the case, then the outside edge of the front wheels will be pushed outboard about 3/4" from where they are now by just switching wheels. I think that alone would make the difference that I'm lookng for and I can just flip the tires over to the new rims. Thoughts?

[b-man]

Add another inch to your front spacing calculations, a 6 inch wheel is 7 inches from lip to lip and a 7 inch wheel is 8 inches wide overall. Put a measuring tape against a bare wheel and you’ll understand what I’m saying.

No matter, should work out fine swapping to the 7 inch wheels keeping your same tires.

[66sprint6]

Oh, of course. How could I forget. That's how I ended up with the 6"s. The guy advertised them as 7", because he measured the overall width. I just wanted 15's so I grabbed them.

[The Champ]

The rims on my '64 in the photo I posted have the same BS as your new rims. The 235/60's cleared everything just fine with the drum brakes at the time. When I converted to front discs, I did experience a very slight rub occasionally, but at the time I converted to front discs I also replaced the factory A arms with GW tubular units and lowered the front end with Koni coilovers.

I now run 17's on the car and added .375" BS to solve the occasional rub that I had due to the front discs.

[66sprint6]

Thanks for the input, guys. All good stuff. I was thinking about disk brakes later and I've heard that they push the wheels out about 3/8". I still don't think that would be an issue, though.
I'm bummed out that I can't mount these right away. The darker portion is all wrong. The guy had them professionally finished but the darker portion is like an olive-y grey. And it's a flatter sheen than the silver. I grabbed the Duplicolor Graphite wheel paint at the store, so I'll get on that later.