51 Ford pickup

[wfo guy]

The rear is 235 65 17 and the original fronts are 215 70 15. The other front is 235 55 17. Those wheels have to deep a backspace to clear the front end parts. I bought them before I had the front end to measure. That was a real surprise.

[brawls43]

Bummer about the mustang's not working. How big of a spacer would you have you to use? They're not ideal, but lots of people run wheel spacers, even thick ones. Its interesting to me that the side wall you currently have is basically the same:
Rear tire: 29" OD, 6" sidewall
Front tire: 26.9" OD, 5.9" sidewall
Mustang front: 27" OD, 5.1" sidewall

IMO, it seems like the 15" wheel size is throwing off the look more then the tire, the center section being so much smaller. It makes the silver barrel of the wheel look thicker, even though they seem to be the same (front to rear). I'm not sure a 16" wheel would help fix the look enough. But maybe I'm just a bigger fan of keeping wheel sizes the same. I like the staggered, raked look on tire size, but to me, I just prefer the same wheel size. I think its easier to pull off different wheel sizes when you're talking 19" vs 20". Just my $0.02, your truck still looks amazing!

[wfo guy]

brawls43, it would take around 3" of spacer to make them work. Not doable by any good standards. I agree with what you said about wheel size. Big n littles is part of hot rod culture but there's no hard rule about wheel diameters. I'll probably do a lot of thinking before I spend more money. Thanks for the compliments.

[brawls43]

Wow, yeah 3" is a LOT. I'd maybe do an inch, but feel weird about it. Good plan on thinking it through, its so hard spending big money on wheels without knowing how they're going to look. I did the crown vic suspension on my 1950, and I need the deep backspacing (high positive offset). Luckily for now I can just run stock Crown Vic wheels, and worry about bigger wheels in the future.

[Gojeep]

All you need to do is cut the rear wheel arches bigger to match the front!
Will give you something to do seeing you have had a break from body work. ;)

[wfo guy]

Gojeep, I'll consider that!

[Gojeep]

Here is a quick a dirty photochop. Think i went a little too high and big, but gives you an idea anyway.

[wfo guy]

^^^^^^
Food for thought!

[wfo guy]

New wheels. It now has 17's front and back. I raised the rear 1 inch to allow some more sidewall to be seen and to facilitate removal of the tire without having to need 2 jacks in case of a flat tire. Better safe than sorry. This should be a stopping point as far as wheels and tires are concerned. I also added blue led lights to the rest of the dash controls so everything matches the gauge panel.

[brawls43]

Wheels and tires look good!

[Motown 454]

I agree, They do look nice

[keepat]

New wheels. It now has 17's front and back. I raised the rear 1 inch to allow some more sidewall to be seen and to facilitate removal of the tire without having to need 2 jacks in case of a flat tire. Better safe than sorry. This should be a stopping point as far as wheels and tires are concerned. I also added blue led lights to the rest of the dash controls so everything matches the gauge panel.

Very nice wheels, and great stance!
Pat

[brawls43]

What size tires did you up with for reference? I'm still trying to decide on my tire size.

[wfo guy]

235 65 17 and 215 60 17. 29" and right at 27" The 235 is the same height as a 255 70 15.

[wfo guy]

I just installed rack and pinion number 3. At least this one was under warranty. I'm not a real fan of rebuilt steering gear. I had a man that does lots of these front end installs tell me this would happen. If this one fails, I'll buy a new one. They're not cheap but if 1000 miles is all the others will last, there won't be another discussion.

[windows]

Just got up to date with your build. Looking really good man. Hope you get the steering sorted out without having to spend a G-note.

[wfo guy]

The replacement rack is doing as it should. Maybe I got a good one this time.

[wfo guy]

The last item to be rebuilt was the hood hinges. I spent a lot of time on these. I probably won't ever open the hood enough to see if I did good. I welded up all the 3/8" holes and machined them to the original size. The rivet ends were bored to size and bronze PTFE bushings installed. I used shoulder bolts to replace the rivets. They hinges will have to be removed later to paint them when it warms up. Happy New Year, everybody!

[Gojeep]

Having good hinges can save a lot of aggravation when trying to line the gaps up and stop chipping edges from too much movement, so worth while spending the time doing them.

[Motown 454]

They look good.