1972 to 76 torino rims

I have 15x7 inch rims on my torino. I would like to go to 16 or 17 inch size. One will 17x8 inch clear and what tires size will fit on front and back without clearance problems.I seen some photos of a 78 cougar with 17 inch tires it does have a nice look. I do not want to go 18 and up in rim size the roads are not forgiving to very low profile set ups. I have seen to many bent rims due to pot holes in the roads.Any info out there thanks.

I have run 18"x8" rims on my 79 Ranchero for 3 or 4 years. It is virtually the same chassis as your wagon. All 4 rims have 5 inch backspacing. the front tires are 235/50/18 with the rears being 245/55/18 which incidentally is the stock tire sizes of the recent but now discontinued Mercury Marauder.

I just this week received my 73 Gran Torino Wagon (purchased off ebay) and mounted the same 18 inch rims on it with no clearance problems. If you want 17s x8's, 5 inch back spacing shouldn't be a problem and seems to be a common spacing. It's hard to say if you could get by with 5.5 or 6 backspacing - at somepoint something will rub. 235/45-17, 245/45-17, and 255/45/-17 are all common sizes made by many manufacturers. I've been quite happy with my Goodrich KDWS 18" tires.

Want to play around with tires sizes and get specs? Go to www.tirerack.com - click on shop by tire size. Enter in your desired tire and "Proceed". What ever returns from the search, click on SPECS and you can get widths and diameters for the various tires. Time spent educating yourself on tirerack.com is well worth it!
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Thanks I have 5x5 inch bolt patern like the full size fords.This is a old police pack car so I have to look around to find the right mag.I want a retro look but improved handling.The roads here in Montreal take a beating due to our winters and are full of pot holes.Drivers with low profile mags manage to damage their rims.So I have to look at all my options carefully.

Does anyone else have any info on this topic .Or have a combation they have tried

I'd be more inclinded to runa tire with some sidewall on it. I am running a 245/50/16 for now, I plan on going wider at some point, but for now I am using 16" police steels because I can't use my 16" LSC turbine wheels.
Ihad gotten a set of Eagle Alloys for my last project, a '76 Elite, and I had high offset wheels and had to use a billet bolt on spacer which I was not wild about, but the car looked good...my only thing was with 40 and 35 series tires, they were almost too wide for the wheel well.
This is a shot of the car, I have more on another computer, but this is with the "rubber band" tires.

http://groups.msn.com/TheFordTorinoC...mp;PhotoID=591
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I went with 17 and 18 inch wheels on my wagon with 225/55/17's and 285/50/18's . I wanted some tires with some sidewall to 'em , so I researched all the tire dimensions and specs that were close to what I had in 15 inch tires ( 235/60/15 and 275/60/15 ) . I ended up being pretty close width wise , and a half inch taller in front and an inch taller out back . The backspacing was measured off 15 inch magnums 4 1/4 in front and 4 1/2 out back if I remember correctly .
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Thanks once again to your replies.