Hi All,

I know there have been several good write ups on CV swaps. They are great, I've just become a memeber, but have been looking at these forums for a couple months now. I've been working on my own '68 SWB and the swap is pretty much done other than a few details like tires. I was hoping some of the guys that have done the swap might be able to help me with a couple questions.

What wheel/tire combo did you run? I have 17" bullitt wheels and I'm trying to figure out tire size.

My CV front suspension came out of a taxi, any one had an issue with the stock springs being too stiff? I have yet to set it on the ground since I don't have tires just yet but I'm curious. Hoping to get tires this week.

Thanks in advance.

 

Welcome to the forum. I have done a switch as well as many here. Your springs are tight probably because your donor car was an old police cruiser. If you still have access to the car look for P71 or P72 in the vin. P71 is police cruiser and P72 is fleet vehicles made for taxis. Either way your spring rating is up around 800 pounds I think. The civilian models had lighter springs around 400 pounds I think. As for the rims you will have to find rims similar to the stock rims in terms of backspacing to work since the front end is fairly wide and other backspacing probably wont clear the fenders. I have not decided on rims yet for mine so I cant give you exacts. There are many that have and you can see many pictures. I know a few have gone with Mustang wheels since the backspacing is similar to most other newer vehicles. I myself am looking at going the old steely look with hubcaps. Good luck!

SS

 

I have a P71 under my truck & with a small block the springs were way too harsh for my liking. I swapped in a set of 1 1/2" drop coils from Eaton Detroit & it rode much better. I am going with custom built steel wheels so I have no idea what type of stock wheels you would want.

 

I've had both Bullits and CV steelies on mine and I think the Bullits have a little too much backspacing.

They leave a pretty big gap between the outside of the tire and fender lip but you could always install spacers.

I'm currently running 225/60R16's up front on CV steelies and they fit really well. Out back I'm running 255/50R16's and they just clear the fender lip as well but I'm running an 80-83 F100 axle out back.

It really depends on the look you are going for. Some people don't mind having the tires tucked inside the body. I personally like to fit as wide as I can without rubbing.

Pics in my build thread of both installed.

 

Thanks guys. I've read through both elgemcdlf and Area351 builds, both very impressive and helpful. And thanks for the info Shoestring. I don't have easy access to the CV the frontend came out of, but I'm planning on changing the springs out now anyhow.

I'm planning on running the bullit wheels. I do like the tires to sit closer to the lip of the fender, but I have these wheels now so we'll see how it goes.

Again thanks for all of the info!

 

Long time lurker here as well but I recently finished the CV conversion with a Police Car donor front end so I thought I could provide some more insight. I am also running Mustang wheels from my 08 Mustang GT.

My truck is a small block 302 but I really don't mind the stiff springs, it handles great and is no stiffer than my Mustang so maybe it's all what you're use to. I have driven it with the 18's and 19's I have and it was fine.

The factory Mustang rims I run on it are 18x8.5's with a +50 offset and they are tucked in about 1.5" on the front and with 2" conversion spacers on the back they are tucked in almost 2". The tires are 235/50-18.

I recently installed my aftermarket 19" rims and with a 8.5" +30 offset front wheel (255/45-19 tire) they tuck in about 7/8" which I personally would be happy with. The 19x10 +45 offset rear rims (275/40-19) tucked in about 1.5" so If I was to stick with the spacers and stock rearend I would get some rims with a lower positive offset for the back.

Websites like AmericanMuscle and others have a lot of reasonably priced Mustang rims that give lots of choices. Once my truck is ready for rims I may get aftermarket 05-14 year rims for the front and the early 2000 Mustang rims for the back because of the lower positive offset they have.

 

Here's a couple pics, hopefully they work:

 

Both sets look Sweet. Especially if you're gonna Flat Black It.

 

Thanks. It eventually will be a green though, similar to boxwood green. The box is covered in primer because I turned it into a shortbox this winter as well
Sorry, thread hijack over.

 

hvb68, that looks great! and thanks for the info. I just got some tires today so I can set the truck on its own weight. I went with 235/55/17, a used set just to roll around on and get a starting point.

No worries on the hijack, your truck looks cool! And that is the stock rearend with 2" spacers? I was thinking about doing that or getting an 80-83 f-100 rear. But it would be nice to keep the stock rear end for the time being at least.

 

oh I meant to ask, how did you lower the rear? Did you flip and C-notch?

 

Thanks, it's a work in progress.

The 235/55-17's are a good size for the wheels and truck in my opinion.

For now I just did the front hanger flip, I have the flex-o-matic rear leafs so I couldn't easily do the rear hanger as well. It's still higher in the rear than I want but I have a 22 gallon mustang tank that I have to put in so I will see if that drops it down any more before I decide how to drop it more.
Yeah the 2" spacers are on my stock 9" to convert the bolt pattern to 5x4.5 and give me more width. They spacers seem to work fine, with no noticeable vibration. I got them off ebay and they were a cheap fix to my problem and I can always sell them when I am done with them. I don't think I will keep this setup forever but a 80-83 f100 rearend is getting harder to find all the time and I haven't convinced myself to go the 8.8 route yet or even which 8.8 to use.

 

The cheapest I could find adapters was something like $85/set. That is a pretty good dent on a rear swap if that is the future plan.

 

The 235/55-17's look pretty good on there, and the suspension compressed a bit, I'll be interested to see where it ends up once I get the rest of the parts put on. I still have the hood off, radiator out, bumper, etc.

I'm headed to the junkyard this weekend to look for a rearend to swap, that will be my first choice. If I can find one then I'll probably go for it, and use the spacers as a back up plan.

It's pretty exciting to have the truck back on its wheels. I brought this truck home about 2 months ago and have been working on it in my spare time.

 

Here is a pic of my junk with the 17" Bullit wheels wrapped in 225/50R17's.

I didn't like the look so I took them back off and put the CV steelies back on.

With the Bullit wheels, notice the space between the outside of the tire and fender lip:





With CV steelies, 225/60R16's up front and 255/50R16's out back. Notice how much closer they are to the fender lip: