Biggest rims for a '73 Dart Swinger...

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BoredandStroked

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Hello guys and gals for this wonderful site !

I was wondering what would be the max. width of a rim on a '73 Dart Swinger. I am NOT moving the springs in or tubbing the wheel wells. Would it be 8 or 9 inches? I would like to put 15x6 up front and 15x8 in the rear or put on 17x7 front and 17x9 in the rear. Is this possible or am I just going crazy in my head again hahaha. Thank you all for your help!
 
This car (see link below) has 18x9's and 18x10s. I'll be running the same sizes or very similar
If I'm not mistaken the tires are 245/45 and 295/35

Actually I have to back up a second. I'm running 17's, similar widths though. I was going to run 18's but in the interest of saving weight, I've gone back to 17s. I'm going to have 255/40's and 285/40s. 335/35's on the rear for the track(roadcoursre). I have a duster, so my rear clearance is a little more forgiving.




http://www.schwartzperformance.com/poison dart.htm
 
That car has been Mini-tubbed, I have looked into this before and will be running the biggest that I can in the back of my 73, which is 15x8s with 10" tires. I have measured it out and it will give me about 1/2" or 3/4" clearance on both sides of the rear tires if I remember correctly. Im not really sure on the fronts, because Im not looking for much width, Ill be running 14x6s on the front, which is stock size. I hope this helps.
 
Wow... old thread I started here. Yeah I have seen that car before... awesome car and I did want to do that but now I want to drag race it more than make a g-machine.

But... how tall of a tire can I get in the wheel housing? 28 inch tall tires looks kinda hard to fit but might not be depending. Any ideas from you other guys?
 
28 inches is going to be REALLY tight on the front wheel well openings. I'm looking at it also, but I don't think I can swing it. I'm either going with 255/60R15 or 295/50R15 on the rear.

I currently have 235/60s on the rear, and they are too narrow for my new 15x8 Draglites.
 
I agree those are to narrow for a set of new rims. Can you fit a 28 inch tall tire in the rear? I will probably put 26 up front and 28 out back if they can fit. Thanks superdart!
 
Originally I had 215/60s on 15x6 up front and 235/60s on 15x6.5 out back.

Now I have 15x7s up front and 15x8s on the back, and the tires just don't cut it (I get free mounting, so I just kept my original tires for the time being). I'm going to move the 235/60s to the front as they should fit the 7" wheels fine, and get at least a 255/60 on the back. Just looking at it with a measuring tape, I'm only going to have 1/8" of clearance on the front of the tire, if I go with a 275/60 (28") tire.

Luckily Discount tire will mock them up to see if they fit. If they do, great. If not, I'll be "settling" for the 255s (which will still look good).

I've considered the 295/50, but the width is a concern. I think it will get into the inner fender something fierce, and my 8" rim is the extreme lower limit that is recommended for that fat tire. My car isn't making enough power to warrant that kind of traction anyway.

Oh yeah...and I have seen an A body with 16" wheels on it and it was sweet. I wouldn't go larger than that though, out of personal preference. More wheel is more weight too (boo, hiss)...LOL
 
Hahaha... I have seen a Vailent with 17 inch wheels and in my opinion it looked nice. I will put a pic of it up here when I can. So you have 1/8th of an inch with the 28 inch tall tires in the rear... sounds good to me haha. Just tell me how they fit when you mock them up. I am not to worried about the front since I am putting either 15 x 4 or 15 x 3.5 haha. Thanks for your help!

P.S. Might be getting a 66 Fury II so my 73 Dart Swinger isnt to lonely in the garge haha... wish me luck!
 
Oh yeah...and I have seen an A body with 16" wheels on it and it was sweet

Ok I will concede that I was going to rewrite mine to saw anything larger than 16" looks GOOFY...kinda like a Cartoon Car. :)
 
Superdart's got a good point about the traction vs. power idea. It doesn't make much sense to go crazy big with the tires if you don't need it. It didn't take very long to smoke the clutch after I got the rear chassis set up right and started getting good traction. 255 60s is plenty for the basically stock 340 I'm running right now. Bigger tires would just eat 10ths off from parasitic loss.
 
Ok here is that 17 inch Valient.

72ValiantEffort.jpg



Well if I have lets say I have 500 hp out of my small block with a 727 transmission and a 8 3/4 rear geared 3.91 or 4.10... what would you say the height of my tire would need to be?
 
Nice looking car LOVE the color..hate the wheels :( too much RIM not enough tire.
 
15x8 wheels on the FRONT?

My 15x7s are about as big as I would go. I don't know if more backspace is possible without getting into your strut rods when you turn sharp. Making it front space would look goofy as it would probably hang out past the fender.

But I could be wrong....
 
I am running 15x10 in the rear with 295/50/15 BF drag with a very snuge fit on the sides and in the front I have 14x6 195/75/14
 
I have 15x9's with 275/60/15's in the rear and 15x7's with 205/60/15's on the front. The tires in the back are tight but i like how they look
 
Did you have to use the shackle risers on the rear springs to fit the tires? Or was that optional on your part?

Moparbrian - Can you post a pic of your rear tire setup? I'm interested to se how it sets with those tires.
 
I have tried my 15x8's with 5.5 inch of backspace, on the front of my 73 and the only clearance issue I ran into was the caliper hit the inner edge of the area where the two pieces of wheel are welded together, I think with just 5" of backspacing it would be just fine, but do not have wheels to prove or disprove, but I do have 7" wide stock steel with standard backspace of 3.5 or 4, not sure what but will measure next time I take the front wheel off, I run 245/60 15 on all four corners with the 15x8's on the rear. I must also note that I run the 11 3/4" front disks so if I had the smaller rotors I dont think there would have been a problem with 5.5" back space on the front. I also have an 8 3/4 rear from an unkown source other than to say it was late 50's and the right rear tire JUST clears the fender lip, plenty of room on the drivers side (quarter on the right has some bondo from a prior owner, needs a 1/4 panel). Every car is different so measure, measure, measure. Then buy. Unless your like me and have access to a tire machine and can try lots of different tires and wheels to find what fits yours best.
 
I have shackles on my car but i kinda wish i didnt cause they look goofy and my leaf springs are flattend out but i dont wanna put air shocks on the car cause they ride terribly
 
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