'60 Bird Wheel/Tire Combos

[Guest]

Just thought I'd share some info..

After driving my local "Big O" tire store crazy, I finally ended up with what I wanted. I used to have a set of Zenith-reverse offset wire wheels on my bird, and I liked the 3" of extra (above spec) track that they gave me, but after finding the sixth broken spoke, I decided I better bite the bullet and buy some wheels. I wanted to go with the vintage Cragar style, and had seen a number of birds sporting the new Cragar-copys made by American Racing, but the offsets I would have to buy, without going to their custom shop at $350 per wheel, would take away alot of that added track. I assumed that the old Cragar wheels were no longer available, but I was wrong. I ended up on the Cragar site one night and found out the same old two-piece wheels are still available, but they are being discontinued this year and replaced with a one piece wheel. The two piece design allows the manufacturer to easily make different offsets. My old reverse wheels were made before wheel manufacturers started using the new -/+ rating system for offset, so even Zenith couldn't tell me what offset they were, only that they had a 3 inch backspacing. Using an equation I found on the net, I figured the spec using the old wheel's backspacing to be a -38 on the 8" wheel. I had a little rubbing problem before, so I brought the backspacing in to 3 3/4" which equalled a -25 offset on an 8" wheel width.
I don't have no stinking Cragar "copies" now..I got me some real Cragars!!
17" Cragars w/-25 backspacing and BF Goodrich T/A's at 245/45/17..
They fit like a glove, ride like glass, and corner awesome.
Won't be available much longer.
I wish I could post a picture here for you all, but I have no idea how. Every time I try the system asks me for an HTML file..my pictures are all jpg. Huh?

[tbird430]

Well I'm glad u have it all "squared" away now...

[RustyNCa]

Regarding how to post pictures

I wish I could post a picture here for you all, but I have no idea how. Every time I try the system asks me for an HTML file..my pictures are all jpg. Huh?

What you need is to setup an account at photobucket, upload the photos and the photobucket system will help create the string for posting the photos. It's what I have been using and thankfully it works really well.

I'd like to see how they look, sounds very nice.

[dgs]

There are two ways to measure the wheel's mounting positions (where it contacts the drum) relative to the wheel width. The newer way is called 'offset' which is how far away from the center line of the wheel is. A zero offset means that the mounting surface is centered in the wheel width. Most wheels have positive offset meaning more space in the back than in the front. My 17" x 8" Boyd's are zero offset.

The second way is to measure 'backspacing' That's the distance from the back lip of the wheel to the mounting surface. The trouble with this method is that the thickness of the lip is a variable. An 8" wide wheel is 8" inside the lip (where the bead goes). The actual overall with of the wheel is more, depening on how thick the wheel lip is. On aluminum wheels, the lip is pretty thick, steel wheels it's thinner. I think my Boyd's have at least a 1/4" lip, so the 8" wheel is actually 8 1/2" wide altogether. That would make my zero offset wheels have something like a 4 1/4" back space.

A -25 offset indicates that there is more wheel outside than inside, the reverse of most wheels (hendce the name - 'reverse wheels'). The 25 is probably in millimeters, that's essentially an inch.

My tires are 235/55R17, I'm surprised with the reverse offset and the extra 10mm in tire width (245 vs. 235) that you don't have some rubbing on the outside. Mine fit pretty snug.

Oh, and yes, get us some pictures!

[Guest]

Ok, here goes nothing...using photobucket.

http://s291.photobucket.com/albums/ll310/JCLipka/?action=view&current=P1310972.jpg

[dgs]

Looks great. These cars, and so many others of the era, look fantastic with just a wheel swap, nothing else. Maybe a little drop.

Here's one of mine, more here:

[Guest]

Pic Posting

Apparently, I'm still doing something wrong..everyone elses pics show on their posts...mine don't. Any ideas?
John Lipka

[dgs]

When entering your post, there's a little square button for an image. Click it and it will ask for the address of your image. That's not the address of the web page the image is on but the address of the image file itself.

For example, the link in your last post is to a web page on Photobucket. Your wheel image is on that page, and it has it's own address. You can find that my right clicking on the image and selecting properties at the bottom of the menu. A box pops up and shows it's address. You can highlight it and right click on it and select copy. It's address is:

http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll310/JCLipka/P1310972.jpg

If I click the yellow image button and paste that address in the pop up box (delete the 'http://' that's already there), it should show up:



Now, sometimes sites like Photobucket don't like you doing this (it's called an 'external link') and it won't work because they block it. Sometimes it'll work at first, but then it will stop working. I was a little suprised that it worked here.