[elefantrider]

I'm going to order a 9" housing for my '64 tempest.

Should i order a standard-width housing for '64-65 or is there any advantage by going shorter/longer? I'd like to run the widest wheel possible without modifying the wheelwells.

All the companies offering drop-in housings seem to list one for all years, '64-72, but i know the 64-65s are shorter.

Also, what can i run for disk brakes and will putting on disks make it wider than with drums?

[elefantrider]

I'm going to order a 9" housing for my '64 tempest.

Should i order a standard-width housing for '64-65 or is there any advantage by going shorter/longer? I'd like to run the widest wheel possible without modifying the wheelwells.

All the companies offering drop-in housings seem to list one for all years, '64-72, but i know the 64-65s are shorter.

Also, what can i run for disk brakes and will putting on disks make it wider than with drums?

[Shadowjack]

There's a limit to how narrow you can go with a rear before the tire hits the control arms or shock brackets. I imagine the vendor knows how far you can go, but I would ask them. I would get the narrowest one I easily could because all the neat rims are wider to the outside.
If you want disk brakes you need to address that before ordering the rear, so if it needs bracket work, they maybe can do that for you. There are several types and vendors for disk kits, but nothing really off-the-car in the yards, I don't think.

[Bill Eveland]

If your going disc, it makes a differance on which housing ends to use, Explorer disc brakes are the best deal for the money. Only the thickness differance between the rotor hat and drum thickness- hardly any differance.

[b-man]

The tire will rub the frame rail/inner wheel well long before it can hit the shock mount bracket.

My best advice would be to actually measure a bare wheel on the car with all of the car's weight resting on the suspension. Get two bare 15X7 wheels or whatever you have and put wood blocks under them tall enough to simulate the sidewall height.

Measure your clearance inside to the frame/innner wheelwell and outside and subtract about 3/4" to 1" from both the inner and outer measurements. This will tell you how wide a wheel will fit in there (17" or 18" in diameter), and you can then calculate the backspacing as well (if trying to keep the rear stock in width). You'll have to subtract more like 1-1/4" to 1-1/2" from each measurement to use 15" or 16" wheels.

Now you know how wide the rear wheel can be. Remember that the taller wheels (17"-18") used with lower profile tires (40/45 series) can be the widest since the sidewalls don't bulge out like on the 15"-16" wheels used with 50 to 60 series tires.

My '02 WS6 T/A came from the factory with 275/40-17s on a 9" wide rim, the sidewall bulges out less than 1/4" past the rim lip. The 9" rim is actually 10" wide overall (must include the rim lips) and with the tire bulge the total width is 10.5". To package just about any 50 or 60 series 275 tire on a smaller diameter wheel and keep the sidewall width (section width) to 10.5" would require running a rim with less than a 9" width for sure. Get it?

Once you decide on the wheels you want THEN decide what the width of the rear end needs to be to make them fit. I did this on my '64 GTO drag car, I had the Ford 9" narrowed to fit my 15X8.5" Centerlines and 10X28 slicks. With the GTO being only a straight-line car I was able to make the side to side clearance very tight (too tight for a road car). The slicks will rub the inner frame rail a bit if I hit the turnoff at the end of the track a little too fast.

In the case of my own '64 Tempest I was having the steel 17X8 wheels custom-made so I was of course able to make the wheels fit the car/standard width '64-'65 rear end.

[Scarebird]

If you decide to use the Ford Explorer disc, first see how ell it balances with your fron t calipers, as the Ford calipers are quite small...

[elefantrider]

thanks to all for the tips.

I've got 15x7 chevy rally wheels with 275x60x15 tires temporarily mounted on the back of my '65. They have about an inch of clearance on both sides. One tire rubs the inner body around LT turns only, which i have attributed to sidewall flex as B-man carefully pointed out.

My new wheels will be 17x8&9.5" billet aluminum rally 2s or body color-painted billet smoothies with dog dish caps like B-man's. Off the original thread topic (but hey, at least i started it), I'd like to know if early dog dish caps came with "Pontiac or "Pontiac Motor Division" lettering. Which is correct for '64-'65? I've seen both versions and i know these caps were used on cars until '69.

[TRKN]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by elefantrider:
thanks to all for the tips.

I've got 15x7 chevy rally wheels with 275x60x15 tires temporarily mounted on the back of my '65. They have about an inch of clearance on both sides. One tire rubs the inner body around LT turns only, which i have attributed to sidewall flex as B-man carefully pointed out.

My new wheels will be 17x8&9.5" billet aluminum rally 2s or body color-painted billet smoothies with dog dish caps like B-man's. Off the original thread topic (but hey, at least i started it), I'd like to know if early dog dish caps came with "Pontiac or "Pontiac Motor Division" lettering. Which is correct for '64-'65? I've seen both versions and i know these caps were used on cars until '69. </div></BLOCKQUOTE> I narrowed the 9 inch in my car 3" over all and run torq II's 15x7 with 27 x 10.5 et streets. I have some room left before hitting the in the inner wheel house. To the best of my belief the caps should say Pontiac motor division, the others I was told came on early seventies stripper firebirds? Hope maybe this helped?