My trucks rear end has a 4.5 bolt pattern with drum brakes and the fronts are the stock 5.5 with the stock drum brakes. I am going to buy new rims soon and was wondering if it matters if the front and rears are different?

I was going to wait and change the fronts to 4.5 when I upgraded to disc brakes. This is ideal but I am not ready to tackle the project. My plan now is to get the wheels, 4.5 rears and 5.5 fronts and when I do the front discs I will just get the 5.5 pattern.

Any thoughts on this plan?

 

Although it won't hurt anything to have 5x5.5 on the front and 5x4.5 on the rear, I don't think you will like having two different patterns. You don't want to carry two spares. If you are not ready to convert to 5x4.5 on the front yet you could just use wheel adapters on the front until you convert them. That way you can get the 4 new wheels all with the same pattern. You can get some inexpensive wheel adapters from Summit for about $40 a pair. I'm not a big fan of wheel adapters but they can be helpful in certain situations like this. Just remember that when you buy the wheels for the front the adapters will set the wheels out about one inch further on each side so allow for that.

 

Like you said, ideally you could do the disc braek swap now along with the new wheels and have everything the same bolt patter. I understand though, Its not easy to come up with a huge chunk of change all at once. I think Vern's idea is probably the best scenario for your situation. That way you can get all 4 wheels at the same time as a matching set and not have the extra expense of eventually being left with 2 wheels that don't fit anything.

What kind of wheels are you going with?

Bobby

 

I have a pair of 5.5 to 4.5 adapters that I took off my 56, one is good and the other needs some work to repair the elongated holes. Send me a PM if you're interested, I'm in El Cajon.

 

I've got the same problem on my 51 F1 because the rear end was swapped out and I now have a 65 Lincoln 9 3/8 rear end which has 4.5 x5 bolt pattern. I have the stock wheels on the front and have adaptors to allow me to run all 4.5 x 5 wheels. As previously mentioned it makes the spare tire problem go away. I was going to run this combo and just rebuild my stock front end and re spring the springs....Well, long story short, the Mustang II front end is in the mail. If you are going to re spindle/brake, you might consider the whole tamale in a Mustang II or Volare front end. But, if you go with the adaptors, be sure to retighten them after about 50 miles of driving. I got a "wabbler" and was lucky enough to be going slow.

 

Another option you can do if you are ready for new rims and they are steelies. Wheels vintque have a solid rim with a multiple stud pattern and they are not that expensive neither.

 

Unfortunately in the steelies (gennie style) the 5 x 4.5 and the 5 x 5.5 combination are not available in the same wheel. You can get either a 5 x 4.5/ 4.75 wheel or a 5 x 5.5 wheel. I am setup with Jag front (5 x 4.75) and 9 inch rear ( 5x5.5). I am not a fan of adapters but will just carry one spare with an adapter if needed for the spare.

 

The adapters are a great idea. Thanks for the advice and using them till I get the disc brakes on makes more sense. I am going with steel wheels, chrome outer with an orange power coat in the center. Should have them on in about a month. I'll post pictures.

 

Sounds great. We love pictures. Will you be using stock hubcaps or something else?

 

My1952Ford if you look in my gallery you will see my rims. They are multiple stud pattern solid rims, a lot of hot rodders use them and they are ideal for various stud patterns. It saves using those nasty spacers. You can paint them and put beauty rims on them. Hope this will help you.

 

As 49Willard already pointed out you cannot get 5x5.5 and 5x4.5 patterns on the same wheel which is what he would need. The multiple pattern wheels have both the 5x4.5 and 5x4.75 patterns and I think I have seen some 5x4.75 and 5x5 on the same wheel (but not in a long time)....unless you have something there in Australia that we don't have here.

 

If you need a point to a reputable guy who sells the adaptors, there's a guy up by you in Smog Angeles that sells them. He's called the Lug Nut King. He's usually out a Pomona and Long Beach when the swap meets are happening there.

Here is the link : Lugnutking

 

I am so glad I asked about this situation. Thanks for the lead. I plan on using hub caps of te time period. Vintage seems to have some nice choices.

 

Be sure the wheels you buy are the correct ones to accept the stock hubcaps. They have to have the nubs on the inside...

 

I just mounted my gennie wheels and rims today. I needed to finalize ride height to finalize the front jag mounts. It came out spot on-crossmember level front to rear with the front jag mounts spaced 3/4 inch below the frame rail. now I can fab the front mounts. On the Jag, to get the geometry right (caster/camber in range) the front crossmember needs to be level front to back.