Question for those running 17" Mustang Bullitt wheels - spacers

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Greg55_99

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For those running the 17" Bullitt rims, are you using spacers? If so, are they for the Mustang or some other application? What are the specs? Are they hub centric?

Any help is appreciated.

Greg
 
I used to make hub centric spacers to put Mustang Bullit wheels on A body cars. The spacers usually need to be about .75 thick to get everything in the correct location.
 
Well, here's the question. Can I use Mustang spacers on a Mopar spindle or is the bore size not quite right?
 
seems like a lot of work to end up with wheels that look less then good
 
Look less then good? They look great as long as the theme of the rest of the car matches. But that goes for any wheel.
 
abodyjoe said:
Look less then good? They look great as long as the theme of the rest of the car matches. But that goes for any wheel.
Click to expand...

they are a classic design that got brought into the 20th century any by doing so got ruined...they look two dimensional like just about every other modern wheel out there

just look at this picture of 17X8 bullit wheel and what may have been the inspiration for it, ansen top eliminator 14X7

the bullit wheel looks less then good

2001-bullitt-mustang-wheel.jpg


ansen top eliminator.jpg
 
Friend of mine runs the Mustang wheels. Spacers.......there are at least two versions of the Mustang wheels, with different offsets.
 
I like the Mustang wheel. But taking the wheels off a newer car and putting them on a older car, Never really looks to good too me.
 
I forget which years they were originally for but the 17x8" bullits with 5.7" of backspace will work on the front with just an 1/8" spacer if you're running 73+ Mopar disks. If you use OE bullits you'll need to open up the hub bore on the wheel to clear the hubs on the rotors, so you can make the wheels hubcentric. Ideally the spacer should be as well, but you'll need ones that fit the Mopar hubs, the Ford hubs have a smaller diameter.

The back is a different story. If you've got any of the stock A-body rear axles you'll need a billet spacer/adaptor. It depends on what rear axle you got (8 3/4, 8.25 or 7.25) but you'll need .75" to 1" worth. Like these

https://www.ebay.com/itm/281342115067
 
Thanks for that info. That's what I'm trying to figure out.

OK, bottom line, if you have Mopar hubs you have to use a Mopar spacer and mill out the Bullitt wheels to suit. Correct?

Ford spacer for Ford hub will not work on a Mopar unless the hub is turned down to Ford size. Correct?

Also, the spacer you've discussed using with the Mopar disks. This is only because the caliper touches the inside of the wheel. Correct?

If it doesn't, no need for a spacer. Correct?

I hope I'm asking the right questions.
 
Greg55_99 said:
Thanks for that info. That's what I'm trying to figure out.

OK, bottom line, if you have Mopar hubs you have to use a Mopar spacer and mill out the Bullitt wheels to suit. Correct?

Ford spacer for Ford hub will not work on a Mopar unless the hub is turned down to Ford size. Correct?

Also, the spacer you've discussed using with the Mopar disks. This is only because the caliper touches the inside of the wheel. Correct?

If it doesn't, no need for a spacer. Correct?

I hope I'm asking the right questions.
Click to expand...

if you're using a .75 spacer out back, you dont need to mill out the wheel's center register.
the interference in front is from the tie rod end, not caliper. depending on spacer thickness, you may not need to mill the front registers either.
 
These are hubcentric 20mm and 25mm thick boltpattern adapters to go from 5x108mm to 5x4.75"

spacers.png
 
Greg55_99 said:
Thanks for that info. That's what I'm trying to figure out.

OK, bottom line, if you have Mopar hubs you have to use a Mopar spacer and mill out the Bullitt wheels to suit. Correct?

Ford spacer for Ford hub will not work on a Mopar unless the hub is turned down to Ford size. Correct?

Also, the spacer you've discussed using with the Mopar disks. This is only because the caliper touches the inside of the wheel. Correct?

If it doesn't, no need for a spacer. Correct?

I hope I'm asking the right questions.
Click to expand...

pauly v.100 said:
if you're using a .75 spacer out back, you dont need to mill out the wheel's center register.
the interference in front is from the tie rod end, not caliper. depending on spacer thickness, you may not need to mill the front registers either.
Click to expand...

In the front you need to use a spacer that will fit over the hub. Typically the spacers made for the newer Ford Mustang's have a 70.5mm hub bore, the Mopar hub for the 73+ disks is more like 71mm. Although it does depend on who made your rotors, the hubs can vary a little because they aren't always finished the same. Usually they're on the larger side of 71mm if they're different. It isn't much, but like the wheels the spacers need to be opened up a bit, or the hubs turned down a little. The Mopar hubs also protrude out more, so, even though the wheels may work at the mounting surface a lot of the wheels will have hub bores that taper down to a smaller wheel cap. That doesn't usually work, the mopar hubs will stick out past the wheel with a lot of wheel designs, so you have to machine the hub bore to be uniform all the way through. That's what I had to do to my Enkei RPF1's. They start at 73.1mm at the mounting surface, but taper down to a like a 2.5" cap which doesn't work well with my 2.7" diameter hubs (Dr. Diff 13" brake kit).

Pauly has it right on the wheel clearance, the issue is the tie rod in the front, not the caliper. The Bullit rims specifically run out of clearance to the tie rod end at about 5.6" of backspace, so you need about a 1/8" spacer with the 17x8's with 5.7" of backspace. Not all rims run out of clearance at 5.6", the Cobra R 5 spokes from similar year Mustangs can run almost 6" of backspace, has to do with the design and shape of the lip on the rim. The OE Bullit's are pretty well documented to need 5.6" of backspace, and that takes a spacer.

In the back you don't need to open anything up for the hub bore, the spacer takes care of it. The link I posed above goes to a set of 1" spacers than are 5x4.5" to 5x4.5", although they make them in adaptors that change pattern as well. These are them.

s-l1600.jpg
 
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