Ok - here's one...

I want to change the 'attitude' of my 1973 Dodge Dart 4-Door Custom Sedan in regards to wheels and rims. I'm still restoring mechanicals and body right now, but I wonder if anyone knows the answer to a few questions:

(1) If I were so inclined, could I paint the stock 14" wheels the same colour as
the car and then use Dog Dish hubcaps? If so, what size (diameter) caps
would I need to fit the stock rims?

(2) Would the stock rims fit 215/70 R14 tires? If not, what would be the
largest tire that would be recommended for this stock rim size?

Advice, suggestions, gripes, bitches and complaints are welcomed. I'm trying to stay away from chrome rims for the car.

Thanks, Laddies: Shawn

1) Yes you can have the rims sand blasted and either paint them or have them powder coated. You can use dog dishes (although powder coating option may make it difficult to install if they put a good layer on it...)...
Most of the common late 60's-80's caps are the same size and fit the 14" and 15" stock rims... that being said, I tried to get a set of non marked poverty caps, or even the cop car caps for my son's car and the suckers are now pushing $30 each for a set of 4 (the late 60's Dart caps with the dodge trifoil are pushing 10 times that amount since the stamped sections can be painted red and become "hemi dart" caps... wish I kept the set of black painted inset ones off my mom's car...)...
Other options also can include Rallye's or even the Rallye II wheels found on some Cordoba and Mirada cars if you want to go that route later.

2) If they are the 5.5" rims that would be the limit I would feel safe with on the 14" rim, 205's are a bit better and I've used those on my cars for daily driving tires and worked better than the 195/75/14.... you will also have to watch it in your rear wheel wells, I seem to remember that I had a bear of a time pulling the rear rims off a 1974 Dart Custom with 215/75/14's one summer, it gets tight in the sedans pretty quick compared to the Duster/Demon/Dart Sport body...

I went with 205/70R14 on mine because I wanted to keep the outer circumference about the same as the stock 6.95/14 polyglas tires. As best I could figure, that circumference was 79.5 inches. The 205/70R14 gives you exactly that. 215/70R14 gives you 81.2 inches of circumference or 3/8 inch of extra radius (which means extra ride height and a new speedometer gear unless you don't mind your speedometer and odometer being off).

As for the width, it doesn't seem to me that another 10mm of width and 3/8" of radius (i.e. 215/70R14) would cause a problem fitting into the wheel wells on my 1974 Swinger. Any bigger than that and I would start to worry.

As to the max width supported by the rim, tire shops (including tirerack.com) will tell you the minimum rim width required for a given tire. You may not be able to tell if you have 4.5" or 5.5" wide rims until you remove the tires and can see the stamp on the rim. My car had 2 of each width.