Finally made tire & wheel decision!

djwhog said
I ran the 15x7s, the 8s will put it back closer to the spring and give more fender room and for the size tire you have a 7 is a perfect look, and 8 will work, will flatten the side buldge out a little and allow for a larger tire in the future, but a 255 is great for a 7, larger will fit, but I would go 8s if larger than a 255. But then some cars it gets to close to the springs..

Call Kelly at specialty at 1.800.959.5800 or talk to the folks at Newstalgia. www.newstalgiawheel.com

Here is a PDF of a word doc wih sizes, details, links and tools I used on my Cuda and Dart.

It's the back spacing that determines how close the rim will be to the spring not the width. If you can get a 7" rim with 4.125" of backspacing and an 8" rim with 4.125" of backspacing the inside edge of the rim will be in exactly the same place. The outside of the rim will be 1" closer to the the outer wheel well lip with the 8" wide wheel. I am from the era of "deep dish" rims which are just a rim with a very small amount of back spacing. I like that look and the best way to do it is with as wide a rim you can fit with back spacing that keeps it under the car.

The rims he is looking at are 8" wide with 4.25" of back spacing. The rims I have are 8" wide with 4.5" of back spacing. I have 1/2" of clearance between the rim and the spring with the 255/60 the buldge reduces it a small amount. The 4.25" backspacing is going to put the rim about 3/4" way from the spring which centers the 8" rim better in the wheel well. Either a 255/60 or 275/60 will fit with that rim.

intergalactica,
A buddy of mine has a 67 Barracuda coupe with 275/60-15 tires on 15x7 cop wheels (don't know the back spacing). They fit fine but IMHO that size tire starts to look out of place. Now that cruise season is starting I think I would make the rounds and look at some A-body Barracuda's, Dusters and Demons/Dart Sports (Valients, Scamps, Swingers and Darts have smaller wheel wells and openings) and see what you like the look of for tire sizes. Also, If you pick up a couple of lengths of 1x2 strapping you can fab up a frame that you could bolt onto the axle and sping to convince yourself you have the room (they sell adjustable ones for this too). The other thing to consider is the diameter the bigger the tire the larger the diameter which effectively lowers the rear end ratio. If you have 3.55's or 3.91's it's not going to make much difference but if you have 2.x's it's going to make off the line acceleration that much worse.

FWIW, I don't regret going with the 255/60 and will replace them with the same tire when I need new tires.