[Fat Cat]

Venemous Type-

I've got 17x9.5" TTII's with 295/45r17 MT street radials on the back of my '66. I don't have much for pictures on it yet but will get up to posting some soon as I've got more time. HOWEVER, I accomplished this using a narrowed Ford 9" rearend, again I need to do a write up on this as well. I do not know for sure whether or not it can be done with the stock rearend as I don't believe you can get a large enough backspace without narrowing it... Will chime in again soon as I have more info.

[MOJO Catalina]

Anybody have a photo of a 1964 Catalina with 18's or 20's on it? I'm trying to sell a car to somebody in "da hood" and it would help the imagination if I had a photo of one like that.

[65FATCAT]

Unfortunantly people outside of the hood like those too.

[MOJO Catalina]

Gag all you want, but I'd rather see a Pontiac with 20 inch rims rolling down the street instead of being crushed and sent to China. Some day when the homeys grow up, they may find some 8 lugs for it... but at least it's been saved.

[65FATCAT]

I know what you mean, do you do photo shop? i don't know how but it sounds exactly like what you need, then you can add any wheels you want to the specific car you're selling.

[MOJO Catalina]

I hadn't thought of that, but I'll try it.

[tanof]

I had 255/60 R15 on the rears with 235/60 R15 on the fronts with 15x6 Rally IIs that were on there when I bought my 65 Bonneville. I want to put 17s on my 66 Catalina. The front has one coil cut, rear is stock. I am thinking about 17x7s with a 5 inch backspacing. As for width 235s in front, 255 to 275s for the rear. Any suggestions or issues with this setup?

[63gpman]

Originally Posted by AROWHED

65-66 B body wheelwell will accommodate a little over 30".....
I would bet a very low profile (short sidewall) tire on a 17 or 18" rim would allow the rim width to grow to 9", due to much less tire sidewall bulge

I know this has been gone through many times, but I was just looking around at trying to figure out a direction with my Catalina. I am almost certain that I am going to go with rally II wheels. But in my search I came by this website that you can do a side by side comparison of wheel and tire combos. http://www.rimsntires.com/specs.jsp I am no person to give recomendations on tire or wheel sizes, but this calculator appears to help make sense of it all for me. I found it interesting that the 285/70 15s that have been proven are 30.7 in height and 11.2 in wide. If the calculator is accurate, it appears that the statement above is also correct as 235/55 17 would only be 27.2 height and 9.3 wide. Obviously you would have to get your backspacing correct, but it should clear the shock mount with no problems.

Anyone want to take a look at the calculator and give an opinion on it's accuracy?

[AROWHED]

Cool site, 65gpman...it does seems pretty accurate, except I think it lets you input tire sizes that may not exist. Does anyone make a 235/55/17? I would like to get 17 x 10" rims with 6-3/8" backspacing and run 285/60/17 on the rear only, but doubt I will find such a tire.

[63gpman]

Yea, they make a 235/55 17. On discount tire, they list 37 options for that size. It does let you put in tire sizes that you can't even purchase, but it obviously is a tool that requires the user to know what size tire they can even purchase. I thought it was fun to play around with it even though I ended up purchasing a set of 15x6 rallys for my Cat.
I thought I learned something form it.

Any suggestings on tire size for my 65 cat with 15x6 rallys. It appears that these wheels have 3 7/8 backspacing on them. from what I could tell, a 225/70 may be as big as i can get in the rear. Thoughts?

[AROWHED]

I agree it is fun to play with as long as you know what sizes are really available, like you said.

225/70 on a 6" wide rim sounds like a real squeeze play for the tire, you may end up with excessive tread wear in the center of tread. I get that with the 285/70/15 on 8" rims, no matter where I set the pressure...it's just squeezing the tire's sidewalls too close together.

Maybe 205/70 would work better and still give a tall look...if thats what you're after?

As for moving up to 17", I used your Discount tire suggestion and found that 275/60/17 tires are available...about 30" tall, 11" wide.

And for 17" rear rims, I'd like to look into these further, but there is no info on backspacing here...price is decent, however.
http://www.discounttire.com/dtcs/whe...62701&pc=23201

[63gpman]

Yea, I changed my prior post from 235 to 225. I actually purchased a set of the MB old school 15x7 with a 0 offset or 4" backspacing. I got a great deal on them. I did not put any tires on them but did bolt them up to see where they would sit. w/out any mods to the wheel lip, it appears that there is only about 1/2" of clearance from the outer wheel lip to the qtr lip. Not sure that would work. I did see on Ebay that they do sell the 17x7 MB old schools with a +6 offset. This would give a total backspacing of 4.3" not sure that that would even be enough, but would give you close to 3/4" clearance from the qtr lip.

Lots to think about on these wheels. I can snap some photos of the clearance with the 15x7's with 4" backspacing if anyone wants.

[63gpman]

Not really looking for the tall tire look, more so a wide tire look, but not able to find many 225's that have a slightly shorter sidewall without going to short or spending a lot of money to change my wheels.

[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.

[AROWHED]

At Labor Day car show yesterday found a 64 Buick Riviera with MB Wheels "Old School" 20 x 8.5 on rear and 17 x 9.5 on front...nice looking rims. These are 5 on 5" bolt pattern, but still not sure if their backspacing will work on 65-up B body, although they certainly do appear to be deep enough.

[63gpman]

I have been gone for a few days, but was able to get some photos just now. (I am starting repairs on the qtrs on my cat I will do a write up on the repop qtrs that are absolute crap) but here they are. These are 15x7 wheels with 4" bacspacing (0 offset) I picked them up as a good deal crossing my fingers that they would work. It appears that there is only 1/2 inch of clearance for the wheels only, so if any wheel bulge, they would rub for sure. I am not certain that they would work at least with the 65 and 66 cars, not sure about the earlier ones.

[AROWHED]

63Gpman, in your first photo, how much space is there between the frame rail and the rim's edge, at the closest point?

[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...

[1965 Pontiac Parisienne]

Where to buy these stock deminsions with smaal white wall or red wall with Speed and wear index like 215 75 14 T / S 98 / 102
I believe it`s more difficult to get these sizes ..

[mike389]

i have a '64 Bonneville that came with 850 14's which are 28.10" in dia. Cats came with 800 14 and 27.58 dia.
did the 1965 and up have 14's or 15's stock size??
i got the new 16x7 8 lug chrome wheels with 3 3/4" backspace 235 65 r16 tires which left 1 1/4" between side wall and wheel well ! will have to drill new shock hole 1 1/2" up to get out of removing lower bolt from shock bracket. far as clearance the rear well should be close on all the B body '60's cars!!
http://forums.maxperformanceinc.com/...d.php?t=727684 on 7/2