70 dart wheels. Pro touring please help

-

joemoy29

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 8, 2014
Messages
85
Reaction score
14
Location
NJ
Hello I am building a "semi" pro touring car. I have hotchkis rear springs in the back and 1.03 torsion bars. I am thinking the car will be 1-1.5 inch lower than stock. I am running a b body 8 3/4 rear that is about .5 inch wider each side. I like the look of 18 in rear and 17 in front. I will have my suspension mocked up next week. How do I measure backspacing and overall size. Thanks for the help
Joe.
 
Or measure from the face of the brake drum with a carpenters square.
 
Do you know which B-body rear end you have in the car? From your description I'm going to assume its probably a 65-67 B rear, which would make it 54.25" flange to flange, and actually a little more than 3/4" wider per side than an A body rear.

Do you have the spring perches in the stock A-body position, 43" C-C?

If you do, and you're running the 65-67 B rear, you'd be looking at an 18x9 with an offset of ~20mm, which would be an 18x9 with a 5.8" backspace. Widest tire you can fit in the back with the stock spring location is a 255, and it will be tight. That would be a 255/40/18 if you go with 18's in the back. You might need to trim/roll the quarter lip a bit for those.

Or you could run an 18x8 with the same 20mm offset, which would be a 5.3" backspace, and run 245/40/18's. That would give you a little more "wiggle room" out back and eliminate the possibility of needing to trim the quarter lip, if that bothers you.

Either the 18x9 with 20mm offset and 255's or the 18x8 with 20mm offset and 245's would fit up front as well, so you could run the same wheels on all 4 corners.

All of that assumes the stock spring location and a B rear that's 54.25" flange to flange.
 
Hello all. New here so not sure if Im in the right spot for this question, but I have a 1970 Dart with a Alter K tion front clip, and I was wondering if a 18x8.5 wheel with an 35 mm offset would work up front. the rear has the heidts independent set up and Im looking to run a 18 x 10.5 with a 15 mm offset. Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
 
Hello all. New here so not sure if Im in the right spot for this question, but I have a 1970 Dart with a Alter K tion front clip, and I was wondering if a 18x8.5 wheel with an 35 mm offset would work up front. the rear has the heidts independent set up and Im looking to run a 18 x 10.5 with a 15 mm offset. Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

So at this point you really haven't posted enough information to say for sure what sizes will fit your car. The problem is that both your Alter-K and the Heidts rear independent set up change the track width of your car. The body is the same, but without knowing the track width and other suspension clearance issues it's hard to say what will or what won't work for you.

Wracks71 was a member here, he had an Alter-K front suspension and was running 18x9's with 275/35/18's on the front of his Duster with his RMS Alterkation. He said they're from American Muscle, which lists the specs on their FR500 replica's as 18x9's with a +30mm offset, which is a 6.2" backspace. He also said he's running wilwoods on his RMS Alterkation, although I don't know which ones and different brake packages can change the track width a little bit. Based on that information it would seem likely that your choice for the front wheels would probably work, or would at least be close enough to get by with a small spacer. RMS can also provide wheel and tire information for you for their kit.

In the back without knowing the width of the rear axle and any modifications required to fit it we'd just be guessing. Normally a '70 Dart with stock wheel tubs wouldn't be well matched to a 10.5" wide wheel regardless of the rear axle width, as there's usually only about 12" from the inside wall of the wheel well to the quarter lip. A wheel advertised at 10.5" wide is actually 11.5" wide from outside lip to outside lip, the 10.5" measurement is where the tire bead seats. So unless you also have a mini-tub those rims would be too wide. You need about a 1/2" of clearance on each side of the tire, plus the sidewall width that overhangs the rim. Realistically, with 12" from the inner wall to the quarter lip, a 9.5" wide wheel would be about the max for the stock wheel tub.
 
So at this point you really haven't posted enough information to say for sure what sizes will fit your car. The problem is that both your Alter-K and the Heidts rear independent set up change the track width of your car. The body is the same, but without knowing the track width and other suspension clearance issues it's hard to say what will or what won't work for you.

Wracks71 was a member here, he had an Alter-K front suspension and was running 18x9's with 275/35/18's on the front of his Duster with his RMS Alterkation. He said they're from American Muscle, which lists the specs on their FR500 replica's as 18x9's with a +30mm offset, which is a 6.2" backspace. He also said he's running wilwoods on his RMS Alterkation, although I don't know which ones and different brake packages can change the track width a little bit. Based on that information it would seem likely that your choice for the front wheels would probably work, or would at least be close enough to get by with a small spacer. RMS can also provide wheel and tire information for you for their kit.

In the back without knowing the width of the rear axle and any modifications required to fit it we'd just be guessing. Normally a '70 Dart with stock wheel tubs wouldn't be well matched to a 10.5" wide wheel regardless of the rear axle width, as there's usually only about 12" from the inside wall of the wheel well to the quarter lip. A wheel advertised at 10.5" wide is actually 11.5" wide from outside lip to outside lip, the 10.5" measurement is where the tire bead seats. So unless you also have a mini-tub those rims would be too wide. You need about a 1/2" of clearance on each side of the tire, plus the sidewall width that overhangs the rim. Realistically, with 12" from the inner wall to the quarter lip, a 9.5" wide wheel would be about the max for the stock wheel tub.
Thanks for the reply, I will try and gather more info . It is mini tubbed in the rear. I am actually in the process of purchasing this car, it currently has 19x8 on the front and 20x 10 on the rear. not sure of any offsets or back spacing. was wanting to remove that wheel combo and step down to the 18 inch size. . I was looking at a certain wheel and those were the advertised offsets for them
 
Thanks for the reply, I will try and gather more info . It is mini tubbed in the rear. I am actually in the process of purchasing this car, it currently has 19x8 on the front and 20x 10 on the rear. not sure of any offsets or back spacing. was wanting to remove that wheel combo and step down to the 18 inch size. . I was looking at a certain wheel and those were the advertised offsets for them

Well if the current wheels fit the easiest thing to do would just be to find out the offset on those and go from there
 
Well if the current wheels fit the easiest thing to do would just be to find out the offset on those and go from there
Will see what I can find out about the current wheel specs. the problem I seem to be having is finding out what rims they actually are. the description says modern muscle but that leads me nowhere when I try to look them up and the dealer selling the car doesn't seem to know. My avatar picture is the actual car with the current 19/20 setup, if anyone knows what wheel manufacturer makes them that would be a great help
 
-
Back
Top