I am getting to the point that I need to buy wheels for my 54. I am looking at some Cragar series 612P S/S 2 piece aluminum polished. I like the old school look of these wheels. I have a Mustang II power IFS on the front that I bought from Mid-Fifties (stock height) and 8.8 rearend out of a 2000 Explorer with a 4 bar suspension on the back. Cragar states that the I can get them 15X8, 5X4.5, offset -18mm, and 3 3/4" backspacing. Has anyone put these on your truck.......... and if so, did you have any problems with the fit ???

 

I'd take those specs from Cragar and physically measure clearances. Helps to make a cardboard template of the rolling diameter you are expecting and measure everything off that. You have a lot of aftermarket variables that have the potential to need provisions considered and the last thing you want to do is be shipping wheels back and forth.

 

I bought one wheel and cut and taped a cardboard template of the tire, tried it at all four corners for clearance. Summit said you could return the wheel as long as a tire had never been mounted. Another truck, I was able to borrow the same size spare tire from a buddy to test the fit before buying the wheels and tires.

 

Hmmm....Summit racing is about 90 minutes south of here. I might give that a go when I scratch up enough $.

 

I can't answer your question. But you can figure all that stuff out very exactly. First I would pick the tire size you want. Then find out the section width from the manufacturer which is the measurement of the widest portion of the inflated mounted tire sidewall to sidewall. Most list on web site, tire rack lists all that stuff as well. Now you know how wide it will be. Then look up the overall height. Now you know how tall it will be.

At that point you have settled on a wheel width and diameter size. Backspacing is measured from the outside of the wheel lip edge to the mounting surface on the wheel. So, you mentioned a 8" wheel with 3 3/4" backspacing. It would look like this:





It looks more complicated than it is, but you can plug any sizes into that. Then make a real simple tire figment gauge like this ( lifted image from the interwebs, I chucked mine ).





Cut the threaded rod to the section width of the tire and adjust it to the measurement you came up with. Check on the inside against your frame, and outside against the fender. You can use the height measurement also when building your gauge to find the top of the tire on your fender or wheel well. Not sure if that helped or not. But that is how I do it.

Good luck with it!

 

Thank you Nicholas. I will have to do this. Don't want to buy wheels and have to send them back.