Widest wheels..."My plan for the sedan"

On all of the forums that I have been to with a falcon/comet section, there are about 1000 posts asking "what is the largest wheel" I can run either by moving springs inboard and possibly mini-tubbing or just in the stock wheelhouse or whatever. I as well want to know this.... And I am about to find out - for my car anyway.

I bought some Greg Weld "Racelight" wheels today for my 65 Falcon 2dr sedan on ebay that were crazy cheap. 15x5 for the front and 17x9.5 for the rear in Chrome - $399 shipped! I am planning on running somewhere between a 295 and 315 for a tire in the back and a 195 in front. The backspacing on the rears is pretty aggressive (7") that leaves 2.5" on the front side. I will definatley be cutting and tubbing the wheelhouse and may need to run a 1" to 1.25" spacer to put the rim where I want it in relation to the fender lip. I believe after measuring pretty thoroughly I can fit the rims and tires in by adding a new 2"x2" box tubing frame section just inboard of the existing frame and removing the factory sheet metal frame where it will interfere with the tire. Of coarse the leafs are moving in as well and I have the Crites kit to help with that. I think this combination will come close to the "max tire" that one of these cars can handle without rear end narrowing and ladderbars or a four link. If there is space I would like to add an air bag set-up but I am now thinking that might be pushing it. I will be starting this project this weekend and will update.
Pierre

Any guy called Pierre who's working on a Falcon street machine is okay with me. Let us know how it turns out.

Wheel/tire fitment on a modified car (aren't all old cars ultimately "modified"?) is a subjective thing. Good luck!

Small update
OK so rims have arrived and also the crites kit. Going to start "editing" the wheel wells and moving the leafs in this weekend. After doing a lot more research on tire sizes...... it seems that the consensus among tire shops is a 285 40 17 is really the biggest a 9.5" rim should have. This is the not the max size that will physically fit on the rim but the max size that is recommended by tire manufacturers. I may still go to a 295 40 17 if the deal is right.
I will be taking lots of pics during the "editing" and will post pics as it unfolds.

What are your engine specs? Trans? Gears?

Ok - I got a little side tracked this weekend with my son stepping on a nail. Pretty traumatizing for a 5 year old...... Welcome to the world of tetnus shots.

I did however manage to pull the drive shaft and transmission, cut off the exhaust and remove the gas tank. The motor is also fully disconnected and ready to lift out (170ci). The 8" out of a maverick I will be using is now in my shop and cleaned up ready to be painted after welding on new spring perches.

I am leaning toward using the 390/c6 I got for free. I may however go with a modern roller 302... Still deciding. Clearly the 302 is a better piece of engineering and is a nice tight small package that requires no shock tower editing. The 390 on the other hand was in the galaxie that my wife's late grandfather bought new and has some real family nostalgia I cannot deny. As far as gears go I will probably go with something around 355 or 373 max. It needs to accelerate fast but does not need to be top speed fast.

May I suggest that you reconsider the use of that 8" rear end, with those wide tires and an engine like a 390? I am not sure if it will last long with spirited driving.

I understand it may be a matter of funds at the moment, but you should be planning on switching to a 9" or a 8.8" rear with that combo. If you're planning on shortening that 8" to fit the tires, you may want to hold off putting money into that job.

I know the "is the 8" strong enough?" question gets debated on a regular basis, but just my experience is that the 8" aren't that great when using a tire with lots of traction.

Good luck!

I have a 9" as well from the 390 donor car. It would have to be narrowed to fit. The wheels I have will work with the 8" without narrowing. I expect that it may not last that long - if and when it pops I will probably bite the bullet and switch to the 9" and have it narrowed. On the chance that I stay with a small block the 8" may work out fine for a while. Thanks for the input.

Weekend progress. Motor is now out and gone. I started cutting the wheelwells open - and my sawzall blade broke - then my spare did as well. Managed to to test fit the rims in position and they will fit great. After the inner 1/2 of the wheelhouse is moved over about 2-3" the tires will also fit perfectly. Right now the back of the rim is touching the leafspring. Once they are relocated inboard 3" that will not be a problem at all. It looks like I might have to run a 1" wheel spacer on each side to get the wheel exactly where I want it so nothing rubs when the car is lowered. I will do away with the spacers if I switch to a 9" later.
I got a great deal on some 275 / 40 / 17 bfg g-force tires so I will be running those for now. At $20 for the pair with about 50% tread I could not say no. I am pretty happy with the style of rim on this car.
By next week end I want to have the maverick axle in and the mini tubbing finished.

Dude, keep us posted...I think a lot of people are interested in doing something like this!

Thanks...

Got an unexpected "4 hour window" of time last night to work on the car. Stock rear end out, leafs out - front bolts were a major pain in the ass. TOTALLY siezed in the spring bushing. I ended up cutting throught the bolts with the sawzall to get them off finally. Rear Crites offset shackles are in place. The aluminum bushings fit perfectly in the frame.

I cut out the inner wheelhouse on the passenger side. In one of the pics you can see the axle snubber getting removed. This is definatley required to fit bigger tires. I originally intended on trying to graft the stock inner wheelhouse sheetmetal back in to be as stock looking as possible but I now think I will just fabricate new ones out of heavy gauge sheetmetal. I will probably c-notch the frame after as well to allow more axle to frame clearance once lowered. Not sure if I will need to replace the snubber? Easy enough to do later if required.

The before and after tire shots are now possible with the wheelhouse open to fit the bigger tires. It looks like the 275/40/17 tires will have (with the right offset) about a solid 1.25" to leaf spring clearance and 1" to unrolled fender lip. Off course this means that a well placed 285 or 295 should fit too As of now though I will stay with the 275 width - it is definatley a drastic improvement over stock.


I will cut and insert the Crites front spring hangers this weekend. Then I can finally put the springs and rearend in there and really see how the rims/tires fit.
Pierre