Hello Friends, As much as a like the 15" Mags the car came with, I want to do something a little different. At what point do the rims look too gaudy? Also, I really like American Racing, but I don't want the Torqs because I see them a lot. Any suggestions?
Different is good! But me personally, I'm not a fan of big wheels and rubber band size tires on old cars. Young people like that look but not me. JMHO
I wasn't thinking of doing that. The largest I would probably go is 17s. But I wanted to know if anyone else had some pictures or experiences with 17s that I could take from. Haven't thought of tires just yet. Will proceed when I pick out the rims.
I'm old and new school but seriously think choosing the correct OVERALL tire heights is key to looking good either way you go here. My basic rule is that if it's lowered a great deal then bigger wheels with lower profile tires look much better. I personally think 17's look awesome on older cars that have been lowered and restomod'd. Just need to be careful about too narrow tires in much too low sidewall aspect ratios. Like a 225/55/17 tires is approximately 27" tall while a slightly wider 235/45/17 tires is almost 1.5 inches shorter at 25.5".. the lower profile versions quickly get too small in diameter and start to look funny when you can't see much of the tires sidewall and the gap shows back up. 50 and 55 series tires usually have enough sidewall height to be tall enough so they fill the wheelwells and look proportionately sized to our cars. But if your taste runs towards taller stances and wee bit of wheelwell gap then I like the oldshool method of stuffing taller tires in to fill them up. IMHO, a 26.5 - 27" tire is about perfect fit in these wheelwells.. 26" at bare minimum. 28" fill the rear wheelwell nicely and gives that stuffed fat tire look for mass appeal. If you choose wheel offset correctly for these cars it's surprising how much rubber can be stuffed in there without much if any modification. Plenty of guys around here running 265 and 275mm rear tire with only rolled fender lips. PS. if you want to compare tire specs and pricing this is the worlds largest tire retailer website. This is where most of the big chain tire stores source for their retail supply before they mark it up and put it "on sale". https://www.tirerack.com/content/tirerack/desktop/en/homepage.html
You are so right, the tires I have for mine aren't as tall as I would have liked. They were cheap and I was in need of tires to roll it so they are what I have for now. They don't look bad but could be better.