Aftermarket wheels on a '69 coupe?
 

I originally thought big wheels on muscle cars didn't look right untill I saw a few with 17' American Racing Torq Thrust II's...so I'm considering a set of them on my '69 coupe but I'm not sure what i can fit inside the wheel wells without major alterations. First off will they fit in my wheel wells? I bought this car the way it was and it's lower than a stock '69...heard someone say i had a Shelby drop on it but I'm not really sure. Also, how wide can i go without sticking out of my wheel wells? I would like to try for the 17x11's in the back but it looks like it would take alot of heavy suspension modifications and such so that they wont stick out. It has Keystone Raider/Klassic's on it now that are old and rusted and the chrome is actually starting to wear off...plus the center caps are beyond repair.
Oh and how can you tell what kind of rear end you've got? So much of this car has been customized that theres no telling if it's original or not. Got my fingers crossed that its a 9' tho :)

If I remember correctly you can fit 17's if the backspacing is right. I dont have the numbers in front of me. But, check out the Car Craft website's archives. They used to have a good article on stuffing big wheels on stock vintage muscle cars.

17 x 11s?
 

I'm getting ready do change to 17s on my 69 GT350, I think you can do 17x9s pretty easily... maybe 10s or 10.5s but 11 in wide rims are goona be a tough fit withou modifying the wheel tubs or fender lips... (I don't want to do that to mine..) I'm currently running Crag Dragstars on mine... 15x8.5 on the back with 5.5" back spacing that fit perfectly and 15x7s on the front, which also work well... again, I'm hoping for 17x9s to go on the front and maybe, just maybe 17.0x10s for the rear, if not, 9s all the way around...

Good luck
mardyn

17 x 11s?
 

I'm getting ready to change to 17s on my 69 GT350, I think you can do 17x9s pretty easily... maybe 10s or 10.5s but 11 in wide rims are goona be a tough fit withou modifying the wheel tubs or fender lips... (I don't want to do that to mine..) I'm currently running Crag Dragstars on mine... 15x8.5 on the back with 5.5" back spacing that fit perfectly and 15x7s on the front, which also work well... again, I'm hoping for 17x9s to go on the front and maybe, just maybe 17.0x10s for the rear, if not, 9s all the way around...

Good luck
mardyn

17" wheels
 

Noticed your question regarding fitment of 17's on your car. I put some 17"x8" wheels on my coupe using 1" spacers. Looks like I could at least get a 9" rim on the rear but not sure I'd want to go much wider up front. My car is also lowered 2" all around. The rims are off a 2003 Mach 1. Check my car out in the users rides to see how they look. Good luck!

Hey Sean those wheels do look nice! I just got my 70 Vert painted in time to put it away for the winter. But now that spring is comming I'm looking for new wheels too. The beat up 14's are ok to rool it around the shop and for storage , but will never cut it on the street. Those 17's fill up the wheel well nicely. What profile tire are you running? I dont know if I'll end up lowering my stang much more though. The oil pan is already too close to the pavement! I might go with a taller tire.

I'm running 235/45/17 up front. 245/45/17 rear. I originally had 14x7 magnums that looked ok. Just had to upgrade & thought the newer style retro magnums wouldn't give up too much of the otherwise mostly original look of the car. I'll have to post some new pics as I put a new rear valence with the cutouts and original twin tips out the back. Looks waaay better now. Anyway, thanks for the nice comment.

Forgot to mention that my new tire/wheel setup is about equal to or slightly larger in overall diameter to my old 14x7 245-60-14 combo so my ride height is actually slightly higher than before.

I've got 17x8's all the way around and run 245 45 front and 275 40 rear.

They are cobra wheels with a 3/4" spacer.

on the 67' coupe.