Soooo....

Today I trial mounted a 245/60R15 on a 15 x 8 rim onto a stock '65 Valiant. Good news - it fit! But just barely. There was a little less than a 1/4" clearance between the tire and wheel lip. I rocked the car back and forth and pushed it up and down and there was no apparent contact. Of course doing this while the car stationary on the ground is not real scientific, but for a visual aid, it worked. However, I'm definitely pondering rolling the rear wheel lip for the extra room.

Anyone ever roll the rear wheel opening lip? Does the baseball bat trick work? Should I use a cutting wheel to cut reliefs and and hammer it back?

Also, I'm planning on going with 2 different tire sizes front to rear - 245 rear and 205 front. Anyone run this combo? Any thoughts on handling issues with this staggered set up? 245 is 26.6" dia. and the 205 is 24.7", a difference of almost 2".

I like the big'n'little look, plus I have two different rim sizes, 15 x8 and 15 x 5.5.

BTW, 245's on steel rims look bad ass.


Greg

The largest that I have run on the rear is 235 with a 7" rim and 4 1/4 backspace. The only rubbing that happened was with 5 guys in the car going through a turn. I have never used the ball bat method but have trimmed the lip and also tapped it up with a hammer to gain a little more clearance. Good luck

On my Valaint 235s are easy and 245s rub now and then......the lower it goes the less it rubs.

245s on the rear and 205 on the front would not work where I live.

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Yeah....Im the one who destroyed this rare, vintage automobile.....

Thanks Romeo. I'm thinking it won't be too hard to tap the lip back with a hammer and dolly. It is pretty tight, esp. above the lip where the opening bulges out.

New shocks will be going in, but I can't imagine that would change the ride height much. The leaf springs are shot, but they're staying for now.

Changes the whole look of the car from milquetoast to brawler.

My '66 Dart used to run 235/60R15 and 205/50R15 both on 15x7" cop car wheels. The only rubbing I ever got was on the inside rear when going into or our of steep driveways when one rear wheel would be pushed up and the other would droop. It made a shiny spot on the inner rear fender.

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Joshua

Sandy, can you elaborate?

I drive on mountain highways,,,,and need a "balanced "vehicle. I surmise Brooklyn is less challenging.

I like the neutral handling of same size tires front and rear.

Keep in mind my car hardly ever sees a stoplight....and never a freeway.

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Yeah....Im the one who destroyed this rare, vintage automobile.....

Brooklyn is not without it's challenges! There's all sorts of driving around here: stop-and-go, avoiding surly pedestrians who like to walk in front of swiftly moving cars, gaping potholes and pushy delivery trucks. The roads take a beating here, they're under constant re-construction. Handling sometimes becomes can become an issue when your car has a complete lack of it and you have to think about how to maneuver around here.

My concern with the unbalanced tire selection would be some sort of oversteer.

Also, the rep at Tire Rack was very concerned I was buying the different sizes. Kinda made me think about it a little. Honestly, I don't think I'm way off, but better safe than sorry.

Depending on a lot of other factors it would make your car understeer.

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Yeah....Im the one who destroyed this rare, vintage automobile.....

I am running 205/60x15 and 235/60x15 on my '65. No problems with handling. But then, any tire combination is better the 6.50x13's these cars came with from the factory.

Rolling the lip is easy, I usually notched the lip every inch with a hack saw and use a 2x4 as the backing when hammering it flat. Once you roll the lip, then you get to worry about the inner fenders. Depending on the rear height, you will hit the inner fenders, they were not designed for that size of tire, remember 6.50x13 was the design parameter.

The 235's on 7" rims don't require the rolled lip and are as just as effective as the 245's on 8" rims.

I have ran 235/60x14s with 7" rims on the front of a '66 and a '71. The '66 required the front lower corner of the fender to be cut, about 1/2" back for clearance issues. The '71 just looked silly. Oh the cars didn't handle any better then with the 205's that I am running on my current '65.

The big rears and little fronts will create serious understeer. I'm running 205/60/15's in the front and 275/50/15's in the rear of my Dart - it pushes like crazy. That one is a v8 car though (sorry), and the issue can be offset a bit by adding gas through the corners.

For the record, my friends hate riding with me because they don't like the way it feels being on the gas in the turns, but it's the only way to make the thing act even remotely neutral.

As for rolling fender lips, I've had good luck just using a flat faced body hammer and some caution; just make sure everything is rust proofed in there. You will be creating a place for water to hang out, and you'll probably knock a little paint of the inside lip.