1968ragtop

Hi, I'm looking at putting a cool wheel and tire package on my 68 cutlass ragtop. Heres a chance to show off your ride with pride. Show me some pics, lets see some cutlass and 442s please. Heres a pic of my car now.

gearheads78

What kind of look are you after? There are so many directions to go and wheels can make or break the car.

1968ragtop

Right now I am thinking about 3 possibilities.
Weld draglite 15x7 and 15x8s
centerline autodrag 15x7 and 15x8s
Or ARE torquethrust 17x7 and 17x8s either in chrome or pollished
Any of those would look good, havn't decided which way to go yet. If anyone has pics of one of these combos please post them. Thanks!

gearheads78

Any plans to lower the car? Brake or suspension upgrades?


Centerlines lean toward an 80's threme
Draglites are a 90's hot rod
Polished TT2's have been very popular from late 90's to present. Although they still look good they are really becomming played out.

I am really liking the some of the stuff Rocket has out right now or non polished Torque Thrust wheels in a 17" or 18"

TK-65

TTIIs have been played out for about 5 years, but no one knew it 5 years ago. Everyone has those wheels.

I like the Cragar Elmininator and the Rocket Strike (Radir clone). Classic 60s look for your classic 60s Olds.

And cross Centerline anything off your list. A friend has them on his Comet, totally ruins the car.

1968ragtop

I would like to put on some disk brakes on the front and maybe a swaybar on the rear, thats about it. Right now the car sits up just a bit in the rear, I like the stance right now, these cars sat too low in the back when new in my opinion. I want wheels that will fit under the car so it doesn't have to be lifted anymore to fit. As for wheels those are my intial thoughts but if I find something else I like I may go a different way, I'm open to sugestions.

oldcutlass

As I had mentioned in a previous thread, I like American Racing Vintage style. There are plenty of flavors and styles for the old school look and they also have some styles in 17's and 18's.

gearheads78

Check out the wheel visualizer at Newstalgia Wheels. You can pick a 68 / 69 442 convertible as one of the options.

http://www.newstalgiawheel.com/wheel_visualizer.asp

1968ragtop

Thanks for the info, I think I might get bored of the torque thrusts but to me centerlines and weld wheels are a classic look. I found a couple more rims WELD "star" and WELD "S71" that look kinda cool.

covertolds

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oldcutlass

Very nice!!!!

Run to Rund

Look through the December 2010 Muscle Car Review. For example, TK65's cars haveForesight Ventures, Cragar SS. He has stock stuff for car shows also. On page 30-33 are several other wheels including the Torq-Thrust. Sam Murray uses modern super light wheels for racing, but Cragar SS for shows. His 67 is on pp. 31 and 36. My Rund car uses painted steel wheels similar to what the original car used. I had to use different (circle track) centers on the rear when I went to 5/8" wheel studs because stock centers are weaker and designed for 7/16" or 1/2" studs. I bent a set of grade 8 studs in 1/2" and decided the quarter panels were more valuable than the look of stock wheel centers and the risk of shearing the studs. BTW, several people have asked what Rund means--Doc Rund, a dentist, owned the Detroit dealership that sponsored the original car; the odd hand-drawn lettering is exactly reproduced on the re-creation.

The stock wheel and small hubcap theme has become popular, but some of the above styles in this and other posts are also nice, subject to personal preference.

Allan R

Neat link Richard. Wish there were more wheels to choose from though. Probably more sites that have similar features. Gotta say it also looks cool to see the car 'in motion'.

Joffroi

Aceshigh

Foose Legends with Nitto 555R rubber
I wanted Foose Nitrous in black, but they stopped making GM bolt patterns.
Fronts 245/40/17
Rears 285/40/18

I put 11" Baer track disc brakes on the rear with D&S rotors.
I'm putting a 13" big brake kit on the front soon.

Stock brakes from 40 years ago can't compete with modern braking systems.
Keep that in mind when choosing a rim size.


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Don't hate on the car seat pimpin!!! Mine is my daily driver in the summer.

ruf455

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Aceshigh

BITCHEN!!!! Love it all murdered out!!!!

I've been DYING to see one all blacked out with the bumpers powdercoated to match!!!!!
Any more pics of it from the side and others ??
Damn that's hot!!!!

Send me pics Nastyz28@gmail.com

1968ragtop

I found some American racing torque thrusts on ebay, they are same as a TT2 but are powder coated black with the outer lip machined. 17x7 front with 225-45-17 tires 17x8 rear with 245-45-17 rear backspace is 4.5 (8"rim with 0 offset) front is also 0 offset. tires are Nexen N-3000 This is for a 68 cutlass. Any opinions on this set up is appreciated, thanks.

ruf455

Those will fit just fine. IMHO the front tires are a bit narrow...and maybe shorter than the 245/45's....thats pretty dang short....

EDIT - its approx 3/4" shorter tire on front, so it's not a huge difference.

Here is a handy calc:

http://www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html

Aceshigh

You sure those are American Racing branded ??

Sounds like the off brand CWM (Chinese) one's I called about with the Nexen tires.
Like these > http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/17x8-...Q5fAccessories
I know someone who got them though and they were satisfied.

Just be advised those have complications with many bigger brake applications.

gearheads78

x2 that just too small IMO

TripDeuces

What wheels are those Ruf455? I like the straight spokes

1968ragtop

The wheels are on ebay from CWM They don't say they are american racing, but they do say they are licenced by american racing and the center caps say american racing on them.

What size of rim and tire should I be looking for ? I don't want anything bigger than a 17"rim

gearheads78

The wheel size is OK its the tire that is going to be too short. You are going to want a 50 series tire

1968ragtop

will a 275 tire fit on a 17x8" rim? maybe a 275-45-17 or 275-40-17?

gearheads78

Yes but a 9" / 9.5" is much better. The person that owned my wifes Mustang installed 285-40-18's on the factory rear 8" wheels. It works but the tire looks reallly sucked in.

fourtwenty

this is what 215/75r/14 look like on a 70 cutlass

fourtwenty

and this is a 245/60/15 that i will be putting on Don't freak out on the rim they were free. I will probably paint the centre to match the car

gearheads78

JMO but you need to sell those to someone with a Pontiac and put something that will look right on your car.

fourtwenty

Still looking and so are my friends but all the deals are down south and shippings a killer

Aceshigh

Ahhhh....yes you're right. They must have team up with AR.

My opinion,
Rims should probably be 17x8" up front and 17x9.5 in the rear.
Make sure if you have brake upgrade plans , that you know 100% for sure if it will clear the rims.
I've seen alot of guys try to do the C5 iirc upgrades with these and have issues.

Nexen tires seem to get all positive reviews from what I've seen. Just stay away from Kumho.

1968ragtop

There's another ebay listing with the same ARE wheels... front 17x8 with 0 offset and 235-45-17.... rear 17x9 with 0 offest (5" backspace) and 275-40-17 How would that look? would the 5"backspace fit under the fenders?

1968ragtop

finding the right wheel and tire combo is a lot of work! Anyways after some research I've found a tire size that might work.
front 17x8 rims with 245-45-17 height will be 25.7" tall
rear 17x9 rims with 275-45-17 height will be 26.7" tall
Is this still too short or will it look good? TIA

gearheads78

That should be a good combo as long as you get the stance right.

1968ragtop

I need to make sure backspace is good. The front is 17x8" with 0 offset (4.5 bs) The rear is 17x9s 0 offset (5"bs)
Anyone with a 68 or 69 thats done this, let me know what you ended up with. Thanks.

firefrost gold

come on I think you should retake that shot with some new centers

ruf455

That is what is on our car. You look at the photos of it and you be the judge. At first, I thought "To short"...but then I took a step back and realized the combo looks great IMHO. Not too tall, not too short. It took some tweaking of ride height to get it right, but said and done I and a lot of other people like it. 275/45/17's are meaty out back! All that said, I am a huge fan of 15" wheels with massive drag radials...but... not 30" tall ones.

455forgedsteelcrank

For those of you that have wondered if the new Weld Racing RT-S series wheels would be a good match for the Alumastar 2.0 front wheels here is a picture that makes it look like they were made for each other. The nice thing about the RT-S series is that they have 3 different shaped spokes to clear the larger brake packages on the market, low, medium and high pad mounts.

The wheels pictured are the Weld Alumastar 2.0 fronts in 15 X 3.5 with a 2.25 backspace, the rears are Weld RT-S S71 in 15 X 15.25 with a 5.5 backspace and a low pad mount.

70cutman

How did you convert your rear drum to disc? Where'd you get the kit and did you have any trouble or regrets?
I'm thinking about converting my 70 cutlass since she's apart now. Kinda one of those "might as wells" you know.

archeryshooter

I guess these are called coke bottle or daisy these are old school 14" but they also are around in 15" that I would like to find for the rears so when I wear out my rears I can find some 50's series to replace them with 14" are no longer available