What 5 lug wheels do you have?

[Matt_50]

I hope to have my new 5 lug disc kit installed on the front this week. So, I need to look for 5x4.75 wheels and my wife is wanting b-day ideas.....

I'd like some ideas. What do you guys have? What types and backspacing do you have?

I want a vintage look but I'm not sure what to get. I need some pictures to help me see the end result.

I had an idea to grab some 50's car wheels and clean them up. I was told 20 bucks a piece but will they fit and clear?

[dsraven]

do the math before you spend the cash. you need to know how much room you have with the final product tire size. wrong backspace wheels equals that dumb look from the wife later. like, what the heck bud? you said xxx, right? whaddya mean the spendy wheels don't fit?

[Matt_50]

Oh I definently don't want to buy a wrong size lol that's where I'm hoping you guys can help get me in right direction. I do not have any factory wheels to compare to.

[mr48chev]

First what hubcaps do you intend to run if you are running steelie wheels?

You really only need the earlier wheels if you choose a hubcap that needs those wheels to work. If that isn't an issue mid 70's GM 15 inch wheels with a 5 on 4-3/4 pattern work fine. Some like the 75/76 Cad Seville (looks like a big Nova) and maybe 75/77 Monte Carlo have a bit more offset to the outside than some of the others.

These are terrible done in the rain this morning photos of a pair of mid 70's wheels one having a Chevy car poverty cap on it I found a pair of the caps at a swap meet a few years ago.

[mr48chev]

You might have to run a spacer with the early wheels to clear the calipers. If you don't have a lug pattern gauge make one by cutting a hole in a piece of cardboard and placing it over the hub and pressing it against the lug studs and then cut out the spots the studs marked so you can lay it over the wheels.

[Matt_50]

I like the baby moon hub caps and I'd like to get it all right without needing a spacer.

[mr48chev]

A set of mid 70's disk brake wheels will work fine then.

[dsraven]

grab a piece of angle iron or stiff flat bar, drill it to fit a couple of your lug nuts, leave it long enough to fit inside the fenders but not hit anything,install and take a measurement of the back offset, front offset and then, with a small square placed on the flat edge and running out across towards the center of the vehicle, make a mark on the bar where the square hits the largest part of the brake rotor that is protruding (like where it would hit the inside of a wheel if there was a wheel on the vehicle). this should give you a good starting point when talking about wheels. the inside diameter of the wheel has to be large enough to clear the brake components, steering components (tie rods, ball joints etc) and leave some room for cooling air to access the brakes. next you probably want to know what the original size of wheel, offsets and tire the front end was made for. this is because the kingpin inclination, or steering axis inclination, is all set up to work with a particular offset and tire size. an imaginary line drawn through the kingpin or ball joint center line should intersect the ground roughly in the middle of the tire contact patch, the difference between that point and the actual center line of the tire is called the scrub radius. too much deviance from this will result in a vehicle that wears out front end parts faster and may become harder to drive because it tends to follow ruts or cracks in the road. more scrub radius will also net you more feedback to the steering wheel on roads with ruts or if you happen to, say, drive across a speed bump at an angle or hit a curb or pot hole. this angle also has affects on braking. it would make sense, then, that if you change the wheel offset or tire size you will also change the way the vehicle drives and what can be done to help that when it comes time for an alignment, since the location of the ball joints is kinda set and if you are running a solid axle the kingpin angle is not easily changed. I also recommend to run the suspension through a complete cycle of up and down with the steering cranked to it's max one way, just to make sure the tires will clear under all circumstances once you have chosen a wheel offset and tire size. grab some cheap steelies and some scrap tires just to make sure. waaaay easier on the paint and body work later, plus you aren't spending money on wheels or tires that won't work well.
here is a few links on steering geometry you may want to check out when you get a minute if you are interested.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbReLNi2JP4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUDMEd1bMZI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBrQBYzXvgc

[Matt_50]

Well.... I'm not sure I'll find any yards around here with stuff that old. Many started trashing 90s and older a couple years ago. I'll keep an eye out. The one guy I do know with his own little personal yard has 50s and 60s wheels... I'm just not sure what sizes and backspacing to look for.

[Matt_50]

You mentioned original wheel offset and size... So the closer I am to that the less likely I'll mess up my geometry?

If I stayed factory but with 5x4.75.. would that be a stiffer ride? The tires were skinnyier right?

[dsraven]

without going back through your build thread to find out what you have under the front end, I would say check out the links so you understand how steering works, then try to stay within a "stock" scenario for that front end.
things that will affect the geometry

vehicle rake angle. excessive lifting or lowering the front suspension, wheel spacers, excessive offsets or tire size change.
if you understand how the angles work you will understand how putting a 25" tall tire where a 29" tall tire used to be there will likely be some scrub radius issues unless some offsets are also changed.


https://www.wheel-size.com/calc/?whe...cl=50mm&sr=0mm

https://tiresize.com/comparison/

[Matt_50]

I decided to keep stock front and rear suspension. Changed to an opened drive shaft, but used factory springs. The front is rebuilt original axle but I'm adding the 5 lug disc kit and power steering.

Sticking with original height. Haven't adjusted height in any way front or rear.

[b-mac]

Just going to leave this here. Plywood temps. Something I saw long ago, that not many consider. Easy to measure from here.

[dsraven]

thats a great idea, sorta what I had planned with the flat bar or angle iron except nicer and able to roll the chassis around.
if you go here
http://chevy.oldcarmanualproject.com...esto/50100.htm
you will see the 3100 series trucks came with rpo of 670-15-6 or 650-16-6 tires, unless I missed something.
this is a great site for other info and you can scroll down to year specific index, click what year you want, car or truck, and come up with all sorts of stuff you need to know
-------------------------------
6.70-15 size

27.40 diameter

7.00 cross section width
------------------------------

6.50-16 size

29.30 diameter

6.80 cross section width
------------------------------


here is a chart of old tire sizes to peruse where I got the info from. scroll down for old tire sizes

https://www.turbinecar.com/tires.htm

here is a tire size calculator with tabs for diameter that may come in handy for you to find a metric size tire of the right diameter for your needs.
https://tiresize.com/comparison/

next I guess you just gotta dig into it and see what you come up with. maybe somebody out there would have some offset info for the original wheels or possibly the gm heritage center could help you out if you send them your vin.