Help with wheel choice 15" or 17"

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I have run both 15's and 17's on my car. I persoanlly like the 17, 18 combo better.

Looks more modern and spices up the car a little.

Mike
 
caferacerx said:
no small bolt disk brake?
factory kelsey hayes
SSBC
willwood
scarebird
there are many options for small bolt disk brakes
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I believe he allready has factory Kelsey Hayes 4 piston setup.

Don't the SSBC and Scarebird have the same 11" diamter rotors as stock KH 4 piston setup? I'm pretty sure they do, so I don't consider them much of an upgrade from factory.

The Willwood would be interesting to see if you can fit a 12" rotor with inproved calipers on the same hub that fits SBP.

I think some of the Willwood Mopar hubs are setup to take Small and Big bolt pattern. Don't know if this same hub can be used for 12" or bigger disk setups.
 
I just bought these wheels for my 69 Barracuda with SBP. I bought the 15's after thinking on it for quite a while. A couple of things to consider. The lug nuts are tuner style with an internal spline and they fit very tight to the center hub. In my case, they were so tight that I had difficulty getting some of the lugs to start without cross threading. I took the wheels to a friends machine shop and relieved the side of the lug recess closest to the wheel center on a bridgeport with an end mill. They fit much better now, but the lug nuts are a bit of a problem. The lug nut OD centerline is not the same as the threaded centerline, so when you put the lugs on, they will turn easily for part of a turn, then bind a little on the recess in the wheel and then turn easily again after you are past that area. I'm OK with how they fit now, although I'm looking for a lug not that is manufactured to some tighter tolerences since some of the lug nuts are good and others you can look at and see that the threads are not centered in the OD of the lug nut. I was told by Scott at Team III wheels that mine were the second set of SBP wheels that he had done and that getting the lug holes drilled that close to the hub center was a bit of a challenge. I chose to try to fix them myself rather than sending them back across the country. I've tried to attach a couple of pictures to illustrate,these pics were taken before I reworked them on the mill.
 

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broughJ, Who is the MFG'r of the wheel? Did you have to use tuner lugs after you modified them on the mill?

Looks good...

Mike
 
They are ET Classic V. The tuner lug nuts were supplied with the wheels. The modification that I did was only to get a little more clearance between the lug nut and the center hub of the wheel.
 
sell the sbp discs to offset the price go to bbp and go with any wheel you like as long as its bigger than 14". i dont like it when you have to go with such a low profile tire that you only have 2" of rubber. for most old cars 17" is the limit. i put 17"s on my duster and i love it. have 15"s on my dart and probably will keep it that way. depends what you want to do.
 
That style of wheel is referred to as "Hustlers" in Australia.
15" or 17" ?
It's all going to come down to personal choise and you'll get just as many fors and againsts either way.

Personally I'm a 15" sort of person.Then get the right heights/stance/appearance/etc with tyre choice.

A few of mine all 15"

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kurt1.jpg


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I'd go with the 15s unless you plan on a big brake upgrade or something and you'd need bigger wheels for clearance. Only time I like bigger wheels on these cars is when theyre a pro-touring type build.
 
Broughj,

Thanks for posting those pics of your new ET Classic V wheels.
I think you may have just changed my mind as far as buying a set of those wheels.
While I'm sure they will look sweet on your barracuda, I'd rather not deal with fitment issues with the lug nuts and I really dont like the look of the nuts either.
And for paying over $300 bucks per wheel I dont think you should have to have the wheels machined to make clearance for the ugly lugnuts.

Best of luck with them, but i think I'll go with something else.

Merry Christmas
Scott
 
I'd go with the 15s, In my opinion, older cars with huge wheels tend to look cartoonish & tacky, save the big rims & rubber band tires for the Escalade & Navigator crowd.
 
MileHighDart said:
NQKJW,

I really dig that Ute man ! That thing is Far Out !
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Thanks for that!!!
Reasonably common over here.
The Aussie ute is/was pretty much the standard commercial/passenger offering over here much the same way as the US looks at F100/Ram/D100/etc.

Americans seem fascinated by our utes so I was thinking of starting an "Aussie Ute Thread" to show you good people all the various models.They came in vans too.
 
I kinda figured this thread would lean the other way, but it seems most like the 15. I just bought a new set of wheels and I went 15s. Old school looks, with a modern style wheel. I think some of the younger guys are more comfortable with the bigger wheels, and that's cool too. Build your car how you want!!
 
Barracuda I saw recently had those wheels on it. Seems I read they were 16s though. My memory sux. Anyway...
17 is far from stock. Leaves little space for tires' sidewall.
I'm frugal so I would keep same size on all 4 corners. Rotating the wheels and get my moneys worth out of those high dollar tires is a must for me.
 

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Your going with a "custom" wheel, so get a custom look. The best of both world's is to put 15's on the front and 17's on the back.

It's not going to look extreme with 17's front and rear. Joe's '71 is a perfect example. That looks sharp!

Think of it this way, do you want to see 'tire' at the rear wheel opening? If so, put the 15's on. Any wheel size over a 15" is most likely going to fill the opening, hiding the top of the tire in the fenderwell.
 
Even though most ole school'ers dont like the "bling".. I couldn't be happier, You have much more tire choices for the 17's plus if your looking for a modern look its the way to go. I have 17's in front and 18's out back.
Mike

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5258 said:
Even though most ole school'ers dont like the "bling"..
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I don't mind the "bling" at all, it's the rubber band looking tires that go with big wheels. The roads around here suck, and the side wall of the tire absorbs (or doesn't) a lot of the impact of bumps, cracks and pot holes.

Here is a pic of my new rear wheels and tires. Wheels are billet, so they are light and polished so they are shiny. Tires are the biggest you can fit without fully tubbing.

tiresandwheels010Medium.jpg
 
Where do I start.... let's see...
Well I may be taking this a little too much to heart, and I realize that there can be a debate on anything, but......
You "old dudes" and your tiny wheel opinions. You all take such a strong stand about "rubber band" side walls. But I can't believe you guys like "armour all'n" that 5" of side wall rubber. Unless you guys hate tire shine and still use the old brake fluid or whatever, from back in the day.
I have gotten into this debate with my boss on many occasions. I am not close minded by any means. But some of us, who did not grow up in the day that when these vehicles and mods were most popular, I think tend to take a more open mind to what is popular now to us. If the "factory look" is what you like, that's great. There should be those cars out there. I like those cars. Some of us like to be "different" i guess.
Some of these posts just crack me up. People actually said !7" wheels were "stupid", "looks like crap" and "cartoonish and tacky". Someone even mentioned an "Escalade & Navigator". WTF. This thread started out asking about 15"/17" not 22" or 24". Give me a break.
As for the "Hot Wheel" comment. I would take that as a compliment for the most part. Some of us like our "Hot Wheels" better than the "Johnny Lightnings".

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That just looks like crap! Look at those rubber band side walls.

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Too cartoonish and tacky for me.

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Well that's just stupid!


That's just my opinion.

Peace,
cb66
 
OMG that thing is just hideous!!! Ewww, yukk, nasty... lol

I love it, just got the Coy's myself. It'll prob ride like a covered wagon on a woop section.
 
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