Wheel Vintiques Steel Wheels ?s

[DartGTDan]

I want to put body colored steel wheels (with red-line dog dish caps) on my '71 Dart GT. It looks like I'm "forced" to go with 15" diameter. SummitRacing sells Wheel Vintiques 15" X 6" (3.75" back space) and 15" X 7" (4.25" back space).

My car has the factory installed 5 on 4" small bolt pattern 8 3/4" rear end (3.23:1 sure-grip). The front suspension was rebuilt, with Moog parts, and I added the SSBC front disc brakes (which allows me to keep my 5 on 4" small bolt wheel pattern (1 spare tire)). It also has factory 14" X 5 1/2" (3.75 back space) Rallyes on it currently.

Now my concerns/questions:

Should I go with 4 of the 15" X 6" wheels? Or, 2 of the 15" X 6" wheels & 2 of the 15" X 7" wheels (I do not want to mini-tub or re-locate rear springs).

If I go with 4 of the 15" X 6" wheels, should I get 4 of the same sized tires, or should I go with different (front vs. rear) sized tires?

How is Wheel Vintiques quality? Is Summit's price, ~$110 each, reasonable?

Any/all opinions welcome.

 

[moparbob71.2]

I had a set of 14x7 slots I was going to put on the back of my 69. They would rub if I had tires on them. From what I found 6" (possibly 6.5") is the max on our cars without tubbing or rolling the lip. 7" is more for Dusters and Dart Sports I think. Others may have had a different outcome. Just my 2 cents.
I sell my used 15x6's BBP for $70 but you would need to blast and repaint so I think $110 is fair.
Nice car. Hope you get it worked out.

 

[mopowers]

It's all personal preference. I'd go 6's in front, 7's or 8's in back with 255/60s and a 1/2" offset kit.

If you plan to run dog dishes, you may have trouble getting them to stay on with the Wheel Vintiques steelies. I had to weld the 'lugs' up on mine a bit and shape them with a grinder to get them to grip the caps better.

 

[halfafish]

I have the Wheel Vintiques on my Valiant, and it has less room than your Dart. 15x6 with 215/65/15 in front, 15x7 with 245/60/15 in back. I have no rubbing or clearance issues. Their quality is excellent and I thought the price was very fair. I am pleased with the wheels and tires.

 

[74ChargerSE]

I bought Wheel Vintique 15" wheels for my 64 Barracuda from Summit. Nice wheels, good price.

 

[68Dart500]

My rims were custom made by wheel vintiques. The three small lips for the dog dish hubcaps will need to be slightly ground to give them a little more of a "lip" to keep the dog dish secure. Took all of about a minute or two per rim with a grinder before painting. Personally I'd go 15x7 in the back and 15x6 in the front with bigger tires in the back. Make it look like a musclecar imo.

 

[cpearce]

I had same issues with hubcap lugs, 5 minutes work with dremel fixed this issue. Wheels well made, took very little balance weight, very true. I have 6" on front, 7" on rear. No modifications necessary. Front are 215 65 15, rear 235 70 15. Might switch rears to 245 60 15.

 

[toolmanmike]

I have 14x6 and 15x7 Vintiques on my Swinger.

 

[daves66valiant]

I had same issues with hubcap lugs, 5 minutes work with dremel fixed this issue. Wheels well made, took very little balance weight, very true. I have 6" on front, 7" on rear. No modifications necessary. Front are 215 65 15, rear 235 70 15. Might switch rears to 245 60 15.View attachment 1715349411 View attachment 1715349412

I have the same on my 68. Guess I will touch up the hubcap lugs. They seem to hold okay but would hate to loose a hubcap.

 

[AJ/FormS]

For just a couple of extra bucks, WV will put the spider almost anywhere you want it; so you can specify the backspace.
So then I would maybe go 7.5s on the front with 235s and 8.5s on the rear with the biggest tires you can stuff in there which IIRC is 255s, but not sure.
Putting fat tires on skinny rims, while possible, does nothing for handling, and can prematurely wear the tires out. Get it right with the pressures dialed in and the tires cam last ......... a really long time.

 

[duster2]

My own personal thought on this , I think after stamping thousands of wheel centers , the stamp for the small bolt wheel center is getting worn , so the nubs may not deep enough to hold the factory dogdish caps. Also the factory dogdish caps may have become stretched ( because of being taken on and off ) enough to not stay on as well. I know some of you have caps that have been barely used , so they may do a better job staying on the steel wheels.
PS... I have ran into the same problem with a few ( very few ) of the big bolt pattern steel wheels....

Frank

 

[duster2]

For just a couple of extra bucks, WV will put the spider almost anywhere you want it; so you can specify the backspace.
So then I would maybe go 7.5s on the front with 235s and 8.5s on the rear with the biggest tires you can stuff in there which IIRC is 255s, but not sure.
Putting fat tires on skinny rims, while possible, does nothing for handling, and can prematurely wear the tires out. Get it right with the pressures dialed in and the tires cam last ......... a really long time.

==============================================================================
(1) I am not sure what you mean by " spider " , if you mean the wheel center , then it can only be placed in the " drop center area " , if that doesn't get you what you want then the wheel must be reversed to get the backspace you need.
(2) So WV is now making 1/2 sizes in wheel bands , if so that is good news , so the wheels can be really customized to fit well. Last I knew , they were only making whole number sizes , no 1/2 sizes. I will have to check with my guy at Coker Tire....

Frank

 

[duster2]

What you said.....Putting fat tires on skinny rims, while possible, does nothing for handling, and can prematurely wear the tires out. Get it right with the pressures dialed in and the tires can last ......... a really long time.
=================++++++++++++++++++=========================
I fully agree..... Just because you can , don't make it right !!! Do the right thing , buy the right size rim for tires...

Frank

 

[AJ/FormS]

Frank, you understand right, what I call the spider is the center piece, and like said it can be placed Almost any where .
As to hoops IDK if they stock half sizes, I haven't talked to them since 2004.But they do custom work, for what I thought was very reasonable.

The rim sizes I suggested are minimums for the 85% rule I use. That is 85% of a 255tire is an 8.5 rim and 85% of a 235 tire is a 7.8 rim rounds either way, but on the front, fitting an 8 can be dicey, so I rounded down.
I round down for straightline work and up for cornering.

BTW
the profile numbers will change with any rim you select that is not 70% of branded size.
That is to say, a 275 tire is only a 275 when installed on a rim of 70% of the branded 275 size. So a 275 is 10.83 section and 70% of that is 7.6 inches, rounds down to 7.5. So in theory, if you mount a 275 on a 7.5 rim, you should get a section width of 275 or 10.83. In reality with rounding,your section width could be anywhere between 270.01 and 279.99, which all round to 275. This is a range of.39 inch.

but now, if you install that 275 on a 7.5 rim and run it at around 24psi in order to get the tread flat to the road, well, that's ok in straightline work. But as soon as you take a corner at say 30/35 mph, the chassis will roll over and pull up the inside edge,reducing your footprint, and if you're not careful, around you will go in a circle.
This is where my 85% rule comes in. 85% of 275 is a 9.2 rim, rounds to 9 inches. Now you will be able to run close to 30/32 psi , and the tire should remain flat to the road with all or most of it's tread gripping the road.
But what has happened to the section width?
Well it will grow more than 50% of the rimwidth change. so in this case 50% of 9.0 less 7.5=.75inch at least ,which is 19mm. So adding this 19 to the range of 270.01 to 279.99 gives us 289.01 to 298.99... which is still a .39 inch difference but now centered on 294mm or 11.6 inches +/- .2 inch. So yur 275 is now gonna be rounded to 295.
Normally this is no big deal, except when you have a limited amount of space in the wheelwell, like on a Dart,lol.

If I had a Dart, the very first thing I would do is move those stinking springs over, cuz 255s are friggin dangerous with anything over 300hp., worse with a shorter wheelbase Scamp (Edit; swb-car,lol). With 108wb cars, when the back lets go in the middle of a turn, you better be fast to catch it. In a Dart you might have a couple of milliseconds more time,lol.
And the second thing I would do is figure out how to install 275s in or under, and somewhere close to just barely not rubbing on the inner sides of the tub. This will vary with the arch of your springs, the flexibility of your bushings, the height of your shackles, the compliance of your shocks AND most importantly ; how hot you're coming in. One half inch is said to be adequate, I have run less with poly bushings, nearly flat springs, HD shocks, and not getting crazy on the gas (430 hp).

 

[mopowers]

worse with a shorter wheelbase Scamp. With 108wb cars, when the back lets go in the middle of a turn, you better be fast to catch it. In a Dart you might have a couple of milliseconds more time,lol.

Don't Scamps have the same wheelbase as a dart (111")?

 

[cpearce]

Don't Scamps have the same wheelbase as a dart (111")?

Scamp and Swingers are 111, Sport, Demon, Duster are 108. I am not sure on Valiant sedan but I believe they are 111.

 

[AJ/FormS]

It is my understanding that 2-door Scamps were 108s
If they truly are 111s then I'll stop looking for one.
So then when you read Scamp above, just sub in your favorite 108, small tub, car for same results.
Oh wait, I don't think there were any 108/small-tub,cars ever
Oh well, you'll figure it out.