1966 Chevelle Project

You Fit The 50"s under the car. Please tell... The wife wants me to stuff the wide tires under this one. I assume I have to at least do a mini
tub. Or possibly cut an 1" out of the frame. But she likes that look. Kinda like a Pro Touring look I guess. I have been reading that most guys
are going with a 17" rim . She asked for a deep dish rim on all four corners.

The car came with a 10 bolt rear.. not sure if it is an 8.5 or an 8.2 . I can't seem to locate a 12 bolt for it.
But I have been reading where the guys have been beefing up the 8.5 's and they have been surviving .

I am thinking for her driving habits... a 3.42 gear with a 30" tire might be good with 200R trans. The overdrive will help on the highway for sure.

Also, I need to get more info on how the car will handle with the wider tires . Safety is my number one concern , being it is going to be her car.
 
I am going to need some info on how to bring back the polish and luster on all the trim.
It is all piled up inside the car.
 
Unforgiven said:
You Fit The 50"s under the car. Please tell... The wife wants me to stuff the wide tires under this one. I assume I have to at least do a mini
tub. Or possibly cut an 1" out of the frame. But she likes that look. Kinda like a Pro Touring look I guess. I have been reading that most guys
are going with a 17" rim . She asked for a deep dish rim on all four corners.

The car came with a 10 bolt rear.. not sure if it is an 8.5 or an 8.2 . I can't seem to locate a 12 bolt for it.
But I have been reading where the guys have been beefing up the 8.5 's and they have been surviving .

I am thinking for her driving habits... a 3.42 gear with a 30" tire might be good with 200R trans. The overdrive will help on the highway for sure.

Also, I need to get more info on how the car will handle with the wider tires . Safety is my number one concern , being it is going to be her car.
Click to expand...
Yes they fit! I was teenager, but my Daddy was a very smart man, he pulled out a plum bob, we did some measuring and had to look for a set of rims with the right back spacing. The front Cragars were standard for chevelle, but we ended up getting a set of Cragars for the back that had the needed backspacing, but they had that universal pattern, we had to buy the correct washers to match the bolt pattern on the rear hubs. We did have to take a jigsaw and cut some of the inside of the wheel opening to get the side clearance for the tires. we ended up with about 5/8 to 3/4 away from the tire if I remember right!
 
Unforgiven said:
I am going to need some info on how to bring back the polish and luster on all the trim.
It is all piled up inside the car.
Click to expand...
WD-40 will clean it, get a polishing wheel for your bench grinder and some jeweler's rouge in a stick form. just take your time and slow and easy that trim is over 50 yrs old.
 
busterrm said:
Yes they fit! I was teenager, but my Daddy was a very smart man, he pulled out a plum bob, we did some measuring and had to look for a set of rims with the right back spacing. The front Cragars were standard for chevelle, but we ended up getting a set of Cragars for the back that had the needed backspacing, but they had that universal pattern, we had to buy the correct washers to match the bolt pattern on the rear hubs. We did have to take a jigsaw and cut some of the inside of the wheel opening to get the side clearance for the tires. we ended up with about 5/8 to 3/4 away from the tire if I remember right!
Click to expand...
Oh yeah, if you cut the wheel opening, they make a body saw that is a lot easier to use than a jigsaw.
 
Unforgiven said:
You Fit The 50"s under the car. Please tell... The wife wants me to stuff the wide tires under this one. I assume I have to at least do a mini
tub. Or possibly cut an 1" out of the frame. But she likes that look. Kinda like a Pro Touring look I guess. I have been reading that most guys
are going with a 17" rim . She asked for a deep dish rim on all four corners.

The car came with a 10 bolt rear.. not sure if it is an 8.5 or an 8.2 . I can't seem to locate a 12 bolt for it.
But I have been reading where the guys have been beefing up the 8.5 's and they have been surviving .

I am thinking for her driving habits... a 3.42 gear with a 30" tire might be good with 200R trans. The overdrive will help on the highway for sure.

Also, I need to get more info on how the car will handle with the wider tires . Safety is my number one concern , being it is going to be her car.
Click to expand...
We did not do a mini tub on mine, 50s were not that wide. We had about 1 inch inside the wheel well, but they weren't those big 50s they were like equal to I think a 275/50/15 in todays world, they were if memory serves a bout 10 3/4- 11 inches wide. But that was 45 yrs ago also!
A 17 inch rim would like need a 295/50/17 and they will be like 12 inches wide.
 
I will see where I can get that jeweler's rouge around here. It will be one of the things I can do while I'm waiting on other things. Wife said
I must restore the money I removed from the saving to buy the car before I can even think about starting anything on it. I should
have that covered in a couple months though. Then it's saving for the fun stuff!

I had a set of Mickey Thomson N50's on a 1967 cougar , that was my first car and I also had the unilug ( Keystone) rims on it. Those damn things
were so wide on that car that I made flares to cover the amount they stuck out of the wheel well. (LOL).. I was 16 years old then.
Two years later I bought my 1970 chevelle, it was gold color and no rust on it. That was also the year I started dating my wife.
We been together ever since.
 
Well, back then what some guys did to make them look really wide was put them on a rim that was actually too narrow. But with your cougar, you probably had rims with standard offset on the rims. That in its self will make them look wide also, because it puts the tire farther out. What my dad and I did was bought a set of rims that did exactly opposite of what standard rims do, the rims we bought put more of the tire towards the wheel well, before with standard wheels we had about 3 1/2 inches on the back side of the wheel and tire. The rims we used moved tire inside the wheel well and we ended up with about 1 inch, moving the tire 2 1/2 inches towards the wheel well. We ended up taking off about 1/2 an inch off of the lip inside the wheel opening and like above we had about 5/8-3/4 inch clearance. Then we took a file and smoothed the edge of the wheel opening and then put on some road guard on the bare metal. Today its even easier to do with new body saws available, just put some masking tape along that lip and then mark the tape with a sharpie marker where you need to cut the lip, then file it or sand the edge smooth and use something to stop it from rusting.
 
I am sure in today's day and time you can probably buy a set of wheels to fit the chevelle and get the offset set to put the tire under the car instead of stick out the wheel opening, especially with the 17 inch rims you plan on using.
 
Watch some of Barry White's "Wrecks to Riches" builds on YouTube and you'll see what I mean about the wheel openings, they did it on many of their street rod builds and they looked great.
 
you can more than likely add taxes and shipping to that price
 
If you need a little space on the outside I had success with a baseball bat between the fender and tire and pushing down on the bat and someone rolling the car back and forth until I had what I needed. I got as much as 1 1/2”. It even rolled the factory edge back.
 
This is kinda what we are shouting for. Wife said she would like the stance to be about an inch higher in the front. But the tires,
wheels, and interior design is what she is looking for. I would love to have the engine but I already have a 383 stroker engine
in the works for it.

I love the interior color of the car in the vidio. She is suggesting a pewter exterior with a two tone interior of the color in this car mixed with
some type of lighter gray.

Anyway... this guy did a fabulous job on his car.!!

 
I have to agree, its a darn impressive finished car
 
Not yet Rick. Are they getting that scarce?
I have a TH400 in the car now.
The other option was a GearVendor on the back of th TH400..... But.....DAMN!!!!!!! They are pricey!
 
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