FC Wagon tyre sizes

[PeteR]

Hi,
Can any of you give me some advice on ideal tyre sizes?
My wagon has 13" HR "jellybean" mags, a HR disc front end and a HR rear end.
At the moment the front tyres are 205/65 and the rears are 225/65 (they came with the mags ) and are about half worn with minimal feathering. The steering gets a little "iffy" at speed and the car tramlines/traintracks quite badly (steering box has been rebuilt and a wheel alignment done).
I realise that new tyres will improve things but when the time comes what widths should I opt for?
Thanks,
Pete

[FC-V8]

Hi Pete
      You said your rims were 13in but do you know how wide they are ? & what the back space(offset)is ?
I know at the back you have got approx 265mm between the outer guard & the inner rails on a stock wagon. so consider these before buying your tyres otherwise they could be too wide or to small for your rims or the wrong size to fit your wheel arches & scrap every time you go over a bump or the car has a bit of body roll.
cheers
Glenn

[PeteR]

Hi Glenn,
The rims are 7" wide and have a 4" offset. The l/h rear tyre touches only rarely (no visible sign), however I think 225's are a bit big.
The engineer's report states that the maximum rim width is 6.5" (oops!) and that the car sould be considered as a HR from an engineering POV.
Thanks,
Pete

[FC-V8]

Hi Pete
      In my wagon i will be running a 7in rim on the rear
with a 5 1/4in backspace with 235 tyres. If you stick your head under the back & have a look i bet you would have about 1 1/2in in between the inside face of the tyre & the inner guard. If this is right you have 3 options to get bigger tyres under the back
1. different rims with larger offset.
2. use a shorter diff housing.(i think torana are shorter)
3. flare the rear outer guards.
or you could just put a 210 on the rear rims.
hope this helps
Glenn  

[PeteR]

Thanks Glenn,
I think I'll put up with the idiosyncratic steering for a while until she needs new rubber. When the time comes I think I'll go for 195's on the front and 215's on the back (gotta do that 'tractor' thing )  I was tempted by the Tasman mags on ebay (14 inchers, gear it up a bit and stop it revving so hard)....but I think I'll stay with the jellybeans/kidneys.
The old girl needs a bit of attention in other areas so the money could be better spent. But you know, I'm really just grateful to be driving around everyday in such a wonderfully cool old car!

On a side note, how hard is it really to jam a V8 in that engine bay?

Cheers,
Pete

[FC-V8]

Hi Pete
     To fit the V8 is pretty easy the hard part is to make it look like it should be there. The conversion is made a lot easier by the Hadfield kit from CRS,(some people on this forum think they look like a back yard job but i think that for the amount of different kits he does for different models they are very well engineered). It will be strange for you to see my wagon when it is finished as it exactly the same colours as yours. When i saw the photo of your wagon i had to take a second look as i thought it was mine.
cheers
Glenn