Will they fit?

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metallidart

metallidart

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Well, I got my Dart Sport back together, at least enough to move it home, and realized that the wheels are not only mismatched, but also butt-ugly. I have been pondering 17" wheels, but I have very little money. So, here is my question.

Does anyone know of any oem, be it mopar, ford, whatever, 17" steel wheels that will fit and not look stupid? I found a website, www.discountedwheelwarehouse.com,that has a pretty sweet bolt pattern/offset reference chart. It looks like the 2004-up 300c has our bolt pattern, not the slightly larger 115mm. Some say medium offset instead of high offset. I am thinking those would be the best bet, but I just wanted to see if anyone else has tried. I don't want to go to 18's, it's either 17 or 15. Since I don't have a garage now, it will be outside and, well, I want a good looking driveway decoration!

Otherwise, I will just clean up and paint the pair of 15" skinnies for the front, and try to get my brother to part with the pair of 15x8 steelies off of his ramcharger that he sold and will never use.

Thanks in advance!
 
I think the crown vic cop car steelies are 17". A member here uses them on a Duster and painted them up to look like Mopar Rallyes, he even used the Rallye centers. they look sharp!
Just remember the center register is different so the rotor snout will have to be machined in the front and axle centers turned down out back, unless you get axles with the ford sized centers or just use spacers. -pauly
 
This isn't the car I was thinking of, but this member has done pretty much the same thing. PM "dwire67" for info on this setup, it's his car. -pauly
 

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Pauly, you're probably thinking of GDemon, pretty much what dwire67 copied (based on observation). But they aren't Crown Vic wheels, they are Chrysler 300 wheels.

Not sure what they did for the center register, though. I don't really know if you have to fix some interference or not if you use the Mopar wheels. Based on the fact that neither of them referenced any register work, I'm guessing you don't have to.

In both cases above, the tires are 225/50R17 and 275/50R17. The 275's are a bit exclusive, only found some Nitto's on Summit's website for a pretty penny.

Problem with Crown Vic wheel is (as best I understand), they were 16" up to 03 (I think) and when they went 17" they also went to a really high postive offset, like +50mm or something like that. So you can run a 16" with a more moderate offset, or 17" with a high offset.

And don't think you have to look for 300 wheels only, the Chargers/Challenger/Magnums used the same steel wheels.
 
Here's GDemons car with the 2007 300 wheels.
 

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In the interest of full discloure, you should be aware that there are varying views on whether or not the later Mopars are a 114.3mm/4.5" bolt pattern or a 115mm bolt pattern. I've checked wheels before and found them to be 4.5", but other's have arrived at the opposite view. You should come to your own conclusion before you run the wheels.

Just an FYI.
 
DionR said:
In the interest of full discloure, you should be aware that there are varying views on whether or not the later Mopars are a 114.3mm/4.5" bolt pattern or a 115mm bolt pattern. I've checked wheels before and found them to be 4.5", but other's have arrived at the opposite view. You should come to your own conclusion before you run the wheels.

Just an FYI.
Click to expand...

even if the pattern isn't metric the center register of the wheel isn't big enough and needs to be opened up
 
pauly v.100 said:
I like the looks of those wheels. -pauly
Click to expand...

I do too. Wish they were wider, they are too narrow for me and I don't want to spend the money to widen them.

Wonder what they weight. Always heard steel wheels were heavy, but I've seen some OEM aluminum ones that weren't all that light.
 
DionR said:
I do too. Wish they were wider, they are too narrow for me and I don't want to spend the money to widen them.

Wonder what they weight. Always heard steel wheels were heavy, but I've seen some OEM aluminum ones that weren't all that light.
Click to expand...

True that!
the Cobra wheels I've been using seem to weigh a ton! Having said that, later today I'll be picking up my freshly machined rotors so I can install these. They weigh in at 22 lbs.
 

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Holy cow! I just had the chance to check this thread, you guys gave me a ton of good info! To be honest, I had thought of the wheels as temporary, but I really like how that demon looks. I may have to ask him what he had to do to make it all work.

And pauly, those are some sharp wheels!
 
thanks, I'll have to get the car on the ground before I'll know if I like them, I may decide they look better in hotrod black.
That would be great if there aren't any center register or backspace issues with the wheels that are on those Dusters. They look like a great alternative.

a peek at new sneakers...
 

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I kinda like the way they look, I can't picture black wheels on it though. Either way it is an awesome car! I think I may hit the local junkyard some time this week and take some measurements at the very least.
 
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