18x12's on the rear of a Gbody Malibu, anybody done it successfully?

[malibulvr]

I'm wanting to try and fit 18x12's on the rear, and 17x9.5's on the front of my Gbody Malibu. Mines been frame notched and braced, and mini tubbed. My car sits pretty low but I'm planning on raising it back up a bit, tired of my exhaust scraping on speed bumps. I've seen pics of 11" wide rears but never 12's. if anybody's been able to fit them successfully without 70's style fat tire overhang or ripping the sidewalls off, then please post a few pics. Thanks in advance!

[USAZR1]

How big a rear tire do you want to run? An 18x11 is pretty much the ideal width for a 315 tire.

[astroracer]

The rim size is moot. What TIRE are you going to run? Low profile? 35 series? 40? 50? Short sidewalls make tire fitment to the rim pretty particular. A 315/35 will have a tough time stretching over a 12" wide rim. I have 345/35's on 18 x 12's for my van and we had a tough time getting those tires mounted.
You need to do some measuring to determine how wide of a tire you can stuff in there. Rim width will follow suit as will back spacing and offset to get the tire in there.
Mark

[malibulvr]

I believe the wheels currently have 335/30-18's mounted up and they are no where near streched out to fit the wheel. I was thinking a 305/35 thats rated up to a 12" wheel.

[USAZR1]

I'm running Nitto 305/30/20's on a 20x10 wheel w/o issues. A 10.5" width would probably be optimum and 11" would work fine,too. 12" might be pushing it,though.

[malibulvr]

I already have the wheels so gonna try them so I'll let y'all know what happens.

[USAZR1]

Any updates?

[malibulvr]

I guess it depends on your ride height. My car sits fairly low. With the current 335/30's mounted it's just to close for me. At 6.5" back spacing I have 1/4" on the inside and the tire is even with the outside edge of the fender lip. When notched my car I was only trying to tuck a 275/60 drag radial si I didn't do a max notch. I need to redo the rear section of my frame notch to get the extra room I need. For now I'm gonna sell these and go with a 10.5-11 rear wheel with a 305-315 tire. If my car was max notched like my last one these would fit just under the lip.

[USAZR1]

I've got 20x10's and 305/30/20's on the rear of my 70. Could probably squeeze a 315 in there but it would be a really snug fit.

[malibulvr]

yes lots of room on the &0 Chevelle's. The newer Gbody Malibu's are a whole nother story.

[USAZR1]

I thought your Malibu was minitubbed? If you can fit an 18x12 wheel w/335 tire, your car has more room than mine.

[Schwartz Performance]

Haven't seen it done on a stock frame without extensive work.

Our G-Machine Chassis has narrowed rails and a lot of room for tires.

-Dale

[malibulvr]

Thought I would update, ended up using a 18x10.5 in the rear with a 295/35 for now. No rubs or scrubs so far. Sometime soon I'll modify my frame notch a bit more and go to a 305 or 315 in the rear.