I like wheel vintiques Gennie rims and will use a modern tire. My 54 F100 is stock. I want all four to be same size and fill the wheel wells in reasonable proportion to the opening. What wheel specs and tire sizes have you used to match what I want. Pictures would be great. Also, new hubcaps came with the truck from the PO and I want to use them. They fit the stock OEM rims. Thanks
Bob

 

All the wheel hubcaps should fit interchangeably.

I have 15 inch wheels on my 51. I just got bigger tires put on it to both fill the wheel wells and give me a few more MPH at RPM.

I'm running different sizes front and back though. 215/75R15 front, 235/75R15 rear.

I'll edit back in a picture and you can look at the two different wheel sizes.







OBTW, I got an extra 7 MPH out of the truck at 2300 rpm by going with back tires that were 3 inches taller - for those of you thinking about overdrive to give you a little more speed with a little less RPM.

 

I'm looking at those same rims for my '51 F1. I'm toying with the idea of moving up to 16" rims, however. I'd like to run 60 series tires, and I don't want it to look like a roller skate.

-Dv

 

I'm in the process of searching for P235/75-15's. I may go with LT235/75-15's if I can get the tread I want (all-season) but worry about the stiffness of 6-ply's. Right now I am running P225/70-15's and they look like station wagon tires, are short (<28" rolling diameter), and don't fill the wheel wells.

 

my panel had some 15" chrome wheels when i bought it, now it has 60's 16x5 stock wheels (outside hubcap bump) with LT215/85r16 and '51 ford car caps. they fill up the wheel well and drop the rpm's, the stock 16x5 (inside hubcap bump) are $$$ and hard to find. if i were to buy new wheels i would go with rally america, i've heard of wheel vintiques wheels not being straight.

Rally America "Street Rod's, Custom wheels and Wire wheels are our Specailty."

 

Julie what width are your rims? What brand are they? Great F1! The proportion in front is what I want but I need to see it in a 53-55.
Oldtimer, LTs are a taller tire right? Rally America's site is very helpful. Looks to me like they re-sell wheel vintques gennies?? I will email and ask them. I read elsewhere that wheel vintques have quality control issues. I believe the hubcaps I have need the "inside bump", will check. They are a new in the box Bob Drake product.
Given the range of tire sizes I am after, do I need to specify a wheel backset dimension other than close to stock? I will measure one of the stock rims.Thanks guys and gal. Bob
PS Oldtimer some day I'm going to spring for a set of boomerangs like yours. Boy they are over priced!

 

LT= light truck (more plys). the "85" is the aspect ratio (the side wall is 85% of the tread width) and there are 2 common sizes for the 85 series, 215 and 235 (235 was to wide). i wanted something tall, square (bias ply looking) and narrow, so i went with a bf commercial t/a. i believe rally america makes their own wheels (welds the centers to the rim) so you can get any offset you need. if your going wide (8" or more) you might want to get some more offset (backspacing on wheel) then stock. also if you caps are from drake i would assume they're for inside bump wheels...53-55 trucks used the 47-48 car caps. the outside of the truck is how i bought it, just had to redo brakes, rear end, trans cooler and line, motor mounting and running.......but at least the outside looked good .

 

Julie,

I like the way your tire/wheel choices fill-out the wheel wells. I'm going to be buying my tires soon. I've already bought 15x8 wheels to go all the way around. I assume that you went with 215/75's on the front to make it a little easier to turn?

I'd like to go 235/75's all the way around. Since I have power steering, I'm not as concerned about how hard it is to turn. I do have some clearance issues up front however because of the Monte Carlo clip. I may have to drop back to something narrower up front to get the clearance.

-DV

 

Hi DV,

Ross (Albuq F1) just re tired with the 235s all the way around I believe.

I went withthe smaller ones up front because the original set I had were proportionally smaller in the front and I like the slight slope they provided.

Actually, I bought the front ones to fill the wheel wells better and the back ones to proved extra MPH at a given RPM. I did the front ones at the tire dealer by sight and th eback ones I calculated the tire size to give me the MPH at a given RPM. Worked out great! 215/75s up front are nice riding if you need tofall back to those.

 

Here's mine with the stock set up.

After: Wheels are Gennie's 15x7. The tires are 235/75 R15 on all 4. I know they look a little smaller but they are actually the same height as stock.

 

Mike
That's what I'm looking for. Would you post a picture looking straight on from the side? And can I have the boomerangs?
Bob

 

I like the originality of your wheels. When you add your own personal touch it adds your personality.

 

235/75R15 all around, Cooper tires. They don't grip worth a ****, but that didn't much matter for the driving conditions I see; they fit the budget. And they're on 15" steels from wheel vintiques, with stock style dog dish caps. If you end up going with wheel vintiques, summit sells wheel vintiques wheels with powdercoat primer for the same price as wheel vintiques sells the bare steel, go figure.

 

Peecubed thanks for the picture. Went to your gallery. Real nice job. I think that wheel / tire combination is what I want. What rim width did you use? Did you specify any special offset?
Bob

 

The rims on Peecubed's truck are 15x7 Gennie, 5-5 1/2, 4 1/2" back spacing.

T900, the financial backer