Aftermarket 17" Wheels for a 1969 Valiant

zhandfull said
15 replies and no answers? I understand the safety concern but the tires diameter is not much different than stock and the car is a stock 6 cylinder. Come on there's lots of people that have changed wheels and tire on there stock cars without issues.

The information that you posted is correct, but I will beg to differ with you on this statement. There is a significant difference in diameter and an increase in width with what is being proposed here. I own a 69 Valiant with a stock /6 and it came with 9" drums and 13" wheels. It's stopping ability was at best marginal. Now you're going to add a wheel that is at least 2" taller and easily will have a foot print twice as wide. Sure you can bolt them on, but is it the safest thing to do?

Consider this, when you're turning a wrench and the bolt not budging, you grab a wrench with a longer handle to increase your leverage and break it free. Installing bigger wheels essentially does the same thing to your brakes.
You can have brakes that are better than your wheels and tires, it's easy to see, all four wheels lock. You put on better rollers and the car stops even faster with less wheel lock. You go even larger and the wheel starts overtaking the brakes, the wheels don't lock at all and the car rolls through the Toyota in front of it. Make sense?