Wheels and tire for the bird

[430bird]

Well, im new to this forum, I have had a 1960 t-bird that belonged to my grandparents for about 10 years. Its been sitting in the garage collecting dust for about that long also..
Im finally able to start doing something with it and am thinging of having wheels and tire put on it just to get me going.. So my question for all of you is what is the largest wheel and tire combo you have seen on a square bird. I have seen some with 17" wheels but im thinking of 18" or maybe even 20" if they will fit..

Its an origional 430 car and only has about 40k on it. But its been sitting for along time and has very minimal rust.(just a little in the dog legs) My grandpa bought it for my grandma but she never learned how to drive so it just sat in the garage and about the only time it would get driven was on special events or when grandpa and I would take it in the 4 of July parade..

Thanks in advance for any help or suggestions..

[Dakota Boy]

I have 15" x 7" rims and 215/65R-15 radials on the front.

They seem to fit fine, with quite a bit of room to spare.

[RustyNCa]

Not sure if you have ever seen this car, but if I remember right it runs 18 up front and 20 in the rear.

It is all a matter of offsets and quite possibly narrowing the rear end in this cars case.

The high end wheel shops allow you to order wheels in custom offsets which allow lots of playing around, but those rims don't come cheap.

Or you can go the route of wheel spacers the get the clearance you may need, that is what I did to get my 17s to fit.

[430bird]

Thats kind of the look im going for. Those would look even better if they were on a hard top..And the car was a different color.. In my opinion. Im not to fond of the convertibles, pardon the pun but it looks like something is missing..

I have a 15x8 on there now and don't have any issues but I can remember what size tire off the top if my head.

The wheels im looking at are 20x8 for the front and 20x10 in the rear. The only thing that worries me is its kind of a heavy car and with a 30 or 35 series tire thats not much between the road and the wheel..

[RustyNCa]

Thats kind of the look im going for. Those would look even better if they were on a hard top..And the car was a different color.. In my opinion. Im not to fond of the convertibles, pardon the pun but it looks like something is missing..

I have a 15x8 on there now and don't have any issues but I can remember what size tire off the top if my head.

The wheels im looking at are 20x8 for the front and 20x10 in the rear. The only thing that worries me is its kind of a heavy car and with a 30 or 35 series tire thats not much between the road and the wheel..

Well, it all depends on how you like to drive the car. I tend to drive on the "hard" side, IE, I don't drive any of my cars easy. That being said I have managed to bend two rims on my olds, and at that time I was running 17x8 with 245x45 tires on the front. I had them re-hooped to 17x10 and now have them on the back

I have friends running 20x8 and 20x10 on their 56 shoeboxes and they have had no problems, but I have to say, they don't "drive" their cars like I probably would. They are very easy on them.

Personally I think the squarebird, with a nice lowered stance can run the 20s and still look good because it is a big low slung car. Most of the time, I don't like wheels on older cars bigger than 17" up front and 18" in the rear, but that is just me.....

Here is my 58 rolling on factory ford 17x8 bullits. I am happy with how it looks considering my investment was in the spacers and tires. The rims I snagged for free.



I need to get some new, better photos of her I guess.

[tbird430]

Not sure if you have ever seen this car, but if I remember right it runs 18 up front and 20 in the rear.

It is all a matter of offsets and quite possibly narrowing the rear end in this cars case.

The high end wheel shops allow you to order wheels in custom offsets which allow lots of playing around, but those rims don't come cheap.

Or you can go the route of wheel spacers the get the clearance you may need, that is what I did to get my 17s to fit.

I'd really like to see the oil pan on this car. I mean the guy had to have added skid plates!!!

[430bird]

I drive it pretty easy, I like the way yours sits. Whats the deal with the spacers? did you have to put spacers on them because of the hub size? which engine do you have? I have kind of noticed that the birds with the 430's seam to sit a little lower than most.. Was that a factory thing or just because of the added weight on the front? I would love to see some more pics of your car. mine looks almost identical becides the tail lights and it looks like your hood has something done to it paint wise but I cant tell..

[tbird430]

I'm pretty sure the hood is a solid paint color, like the rest of Rusty's '58. It looks like the hood is just "popped" open and resting on the safety catch mechanism. It is just a weird picture angle, that's all....

[RustyNCa]

I'm pretty sure the hood is a solid paint color, like the rest of Rusty's '58. It looks like the hood is just "popped" open and resting on the safety catch mechanism. It is just a weird picture angle, that's all....

Yeah, it's a picture I took with my cell phone, hood is popped open.

[RustyNCa]

I drive it pretty easy, I like the way yours sits. Whats the deal with the spacers? did you have to put spacers on them because of the hub size? which engine do you have? I have kind of noticed that the birds with the 430's seam to sit a little lower than most.. Was that a factory thing or just because of the added weight on the front? I would love to see some more pics of your car. mine looks almost identical becides the tail lights and it looks like your hood has something done to it paint wise but I cant tell..

The bullits have alot of negative(positive) offset, I can't remember which is which , but the spacers were required to get the wheels to clear the spindle up front, and in the back it was to clear the inside of the wheel well, IE, I had to move the wheels out toward the skirts.

If the 430 sit lower in front that is a good thing. I am running a 390 now. I had to lower the front on my car a ton, it sat way to way high in the front.

Here is how it sat after I rebuilt the front end, and yes, the motor is in the car..... It looked awful, so I pulled the front end apart, did some cutting on the coils and put it back together...... The rear end I haven't touched other than replacing the shocks for some KYB's,.

[dgs]

I'm running 17" x 8" all around with 235/55R17 tires. My wheels are zero offset, meaning that the mounting surface is right in the middle of the wheel width. Rusty's, and most modern cars (like the Mustang his wheels were made for), have a lot of positive offset (I think), meaning there's more 'depth' on the back side of the wheel. Negative offset is what folks used to refer to as 'reverse' rims, more depth in the from verses the rear.

I think with zero offset and the right tire choice, 20" x 8" is doable in the front. 20" x 10" should work in the rear too, even with the skirts, but I'm not sure what the offset should be. Let the wheel manufacturer determine that so they're on the hook if it's wrong. That's what I did when I bought mine. Boyd Coddington and Discount tire told me what offset I needed and it worked out great.

Here's a couple of shots of my car, more in my gallery (including some before and after shots at at the end comparing the 17" to the old 14"). I'm running stock springs and ride height, would like to lower the nose a bit at some point.