I've been hunting for new wheels for my mostly-stock '68 Skylark convertible. Found a potential deal in: Torque Thrust II's The fronts are 17x7 with 4 backspacing and 215/50-17 tires. The rears are 17x8 with 4 backspacing and 255/45-17 tires. Read the forums to death. Sounds like I'm pushing my luck with with the 4" backspace in back on a 8" wide rim (4.5"+ reads as safe). Anyone have experience with this? Much appreciation!
Unless you plan on jacking the car up for the redneck rake and cutting the inner lip off, I would look for rims with more backspacing. I have 16x8's with 4.5 backspacing on my 6 and I had to cut my inner wheel well lip due to having had fender skirts originally.
Ah! Thanks Tim. I didn't even think of fender skirt attachment points. The car is in storage until I get my garage cleared - not easy to check those things. Seeing as how few 'Larks have skirts I think I'll keep 'em. Probably a new topic - now I wonder what safe offset is with skirts. Obviously varies with rim width. Especially with Wheel Vintiques Series 57 (the Buick reproduction) in 15x6" or 15x7".
It's not good with the skirts. I had trouble getting a stock 14" rally off when I picked up a screw in the garage. I had to really jack it up to get it to slide by the center section that juts out. I thought I would stick with them until that fiasco.:af:
