ALLOY WHEELS (How Wide?)

[Blown_FC]

Can anyone tell me how wide a wheel you can put on an FC ?

I have a FC Sedan, with HR front end ( Disc Braked ), and a HR Rear End ( Drum braked ).

I am planning on 14" Dragway Indy's !

But would like to know how wide a rim I can put on the Front and on the Back, without it fouling the guards or steering arms.

Steering is Ball Joint type.

ANy help or pics are greatly appreciated

Cheers

Mark

[Phantom]

Great choice of wheels Blown, mine has a set and they really suite the car, but don't know what size they are , will get back to you tomorrow
                                       Cheers Rusty

[nicko]

offset and tyre profile can have a huge bearing on wheel choice so best to try different wheels on at tyre place before making final decision

[Glenn 'Stinky' Stankevicius]

I have just trial fitted 14x7 holden steelies with 235/60 14 Firestone tyres. When the centres had the wider rims put on I got them to just tack the two together, fitted the tyres then did some measuring.
The outer rim needed to be moved 10mm inboard for the tyres to clear evenly on both sides. The guards are not rolled and there is about 10-15mm each side clearance (from memory), the back spacing of the rim is 130mm and it is a standard FE diff.
I have heard of 245s being fitted, but you would need to get the rim backspacing right and definitely roll the guards, Dragway Indys are a two piece mag so getting them adjusted (if needed) shouldn't be a hassle.
Hope that helps.

[Jockster]

Mark
I am running two Fcs with the same front end/rear end set up as yours, one is running 14x7 centerline pro lookalikes from a HT Holden with 225x 65x14 rear tyres and 195x65x14 fronts. It has no clearance problems except you have to be careful where the flat wheel weights are put on or they foul the bal joint. There is a pic of this car in the for sale section if you want to see how it looks. The other car is running 15x7 Dragway Indys with 225x60x15 rears and 195x60x15 fronts, this car uses front wheel pacers and longer mag nuts as the wheels scraped on the brake caliper, these wer HK wheels.
Hope this helps
Cheers
Jock

[Sarge]

Mark
     My car has 14 x 7 Alloys with 215 x 65 x 14 no problems. I am going to change to 215 x 55 x 14 only for the lower profile tyre.

Regards
Mark

[Spinner]

Mark,

My (daughter's) FE has the same front & rear ends as yours.  However, it has LX discs & callipers.

Using 5·5" Torana Rims, I've found that a back spacing (measured from rim well to hub flange face) of 4" will clear all parts on the rear end and clear the tie rod ends by quarter of an inch.  The rims that came with the car have a front spacing of 3" and clear all parts of the body whilst being about 1" inside the wheel opening.

From all of this, I would suggest that you'd fit 7" wide rims which have a 1/2" negative offset (ie: 4" back spacing, 3" front spacing).  Dragway make their rims, so you can order any width/offset you like.

Before ordering any rims, see if someone (near to you) has a set of 14"x7" rims and actually try them on.  If you can't fit them to your car, measure the tyre (width, sidewall height, bulge from rim etc) and then get under your car and see where those measurements end up.  It may help to make a wire gauging model (doesn't need to be too flash) to see it all if measurements are too abstract.  The wire model might use a piece of plywood which is drilled to fit onto the studs, the stiff wire (old coathangers?) can then be fitted to the edges of the timber centre and bent to replicate the tyre/wheel profile.   Using this, any fouling locations will be quite obvious.

Cheers

Brett

[JB]

Hi Mark,

I have 16 x 7 dragway DB12's with the offset carefullly worked out for the spacing. the rear rim fits exactly in the centre of the wheel arch with 225x50 tryes fitted, however I would not go any wider with tyre or rim as when going up a steep gutter at an angle the tyre does rub a little. The front clearance isn't a problem at all.

Cheers
Jason.