I am now starting to add parts and pieces back to my 68 Coronet 500. I wanted to start with the rear wheels since I had lots of questions about my plan to begin with.
First off, I LOVE the slotted aluminum wheels since I had them on my 68 Coronet 500 in high school. I appreciate that you may not have this same love as I do, but please understand that this is a non-negotiable in this discussion
And I want MEATS! The wider the better.
I had I picked up some 14” x 10" wheels in Carlisle a couple years and quickly decided those weren’t tall enough and all the cool kids were going with 15”. So I picked up a number (six total) 15” x 10” for the rear. One of the sets was a local purchase and had rubber on them.
The thing is, all these old slotted wheels had only 3.5” backspacing … which means 6.5” is sticking out from the hub. Which means that all my mini-tubbing is for naught:
I have three choices and want your opinion.
Option #1: Run what you brung. I could just leave things alone and mount what I have (I’d probably opt for taller tires which isn’t a big deal). Positives: easy, doesn’t suck too much. Negatives: sucks a little to have the tires sticking out a bit … especially with all that available real estate inboard.
Option #2: I could try to find modern 10” wide slotted wheels with 4.5-6.5” backspacing (instead of the 3.5” on my current wheels). Problem is, I don’t think I’ll find any slotted wheels. I could try 16” or even 17” (lord knows there’s room), but I WANT THE SLOTS!
Option #3: Narrow the rear end. This is a little like shrinking your head because you LOVE that bit-too-small baseball cap. In addition to purchasing a leaf spring relocation kit for $399, there’s some cutting of the frame to weld the kit pieces in place … which I’ve done before so that doesn’t worry me too much. However, I would also then need to cut a 3” (or so) section out of each side of the axle housing AND the axle itself. And that scares me a bit (at least the axle part since I assume I cut the three inches off the spline end that connects to the differential and I don’t think you can simply hack it off…)
Thoughts?
First off, I LOVE the slotted aluminum wheels since I had them on my 68 Coronet 500 in high school. I appreciate that you may not have this same love as I do, but please understand that this is a non-negotiable in this discussion
And I want MEATS! The wider the better.I had I picked up some 14” x 10" wheels in Carlisle a couple years and quickly decided those weren’t tall enough and all the cool kids were going with 15”. So I picked up a number (six total) 15” x 10” for the rear. One of the sets was a local purchase and had rubber on them.
The thing is, all these old slotted wheels had only 3.5” backspacing … which means 6.5” is sticking out from the hub. Which means that all my mini-tubbing is for naught:
I have three choices and want your opinion.
Option #1: Run what you brung. I could just leave things alone and mount what I have (I’d probably opt for taller tires which isn’t a big deal). Positives: easy, doesn’t suck too much. Negatives: sucks a little to have the tires sticking out a bit … especially with all that available real estate inboard.
Option #2: I could try to find modern 10” wide slotted wheels with 4.5-6.5” backspacing (instead of the 3.5” on my current wheels). Problem is, I don’t think I’ll find any slotted wheels. I could try 16” or even 17” (lord knows there’s room), but I WANT THE SLOTS!
Option #3: Narrow the rear end. This is a little like shrinking your head because you LOVE that bit-too-small baseball cap. In addition to purchasing a leaf spring relocation kit for $399, there’s some cutting of the frame to weld the kit pieces in place … which I’ve done before so that doesn’t worry me too much. However, I would also then need to cut a 3” (or so) section out of each side of the axle housing AND the axle itself. And that scares me a bit (at least the axle part since I assume I cut the three inches off the spline end that connects to the differential and I don’t think you can simply hack it off…)
Thoughts?
