Louisiana Classic Truck Club

I am having some trouble finding the wheels I need. The problem I am running into is my fault since I put the T/A disc brake rear in. It narrower and that is making it hard to find a nice wheel over 15" thats not sucked way up underneath the truck and that dont cost WAY more than I am willing to spend on wheels.

My first choice was Coys, but they only offer 1 backspacing option for the 17x9 and only 2 for the 20x10, both of which are useless with my setup. Can you even get custom offsets from Coys?

Next choice was the 17" Steel Smoothies from Wheel Vintiques but they must have completely lost their minds! First they want $232.00 for a 17x9 BARE STEEL wheel. Then I would have custom order them reversed to get the right offset and thats another $35.00 per wheel. I am just no willing to spend $270.00 + shipping for a bare steel wheel when I can get larger an better looking aluminum wheels for the same price and cheaper. Thats also without caps and trim rings, it would be around $350.00 per wheel complete.

So, now I down to a few options.

1, I can just put the truck rear back in and make it easy to put custom wheels like Coys on. Only problem there is that I will have car and truck bolt patterns. I couldnt rotate them anyway due to the width difference from front to rear so that shouldnt be much of a problem other than deciding which pattern spare to carry and hope thats the one that goes flat or carry two spares when I go anywhere in it.

2, I could ditch the whole camaro setup.

3, I could run 15" wheels and get really nice wheels for almost nothing in just about any backspacing or width I could imagine, but I am not realy sure how I would like running the smaller 15" wheels. I dont think I want to spend any money on something I dont really want just to have something other than a stock wheel.

I would just rather put my money into the motor/overdrive/A/C/ interior, stuff like that, and make it really clean, dependable and usable and not have to sacrafice other areas just to have nicer wheels.

I am REALLY leaning towards selling the camaro setup and just throw together more of a stock truck with a 4/6 drop on the stock swb frame I have , use the 83 to convert it to 5 lug and possibly running truck rallyes that I already have. Its not really what I was wanting to do but it would get me driving in a very short time, with the money in the right places for now!

Hit me with it, What would you guys do?

as low as its going to sit i dont think 15's would look all that bad

Hey Bud!

Yeah, the wheels I had on it in the build pics are 15's and they dont look bad, I just really wanted to run the 20" Coys but with only 1 or 2 backspacings available they really dont leave any options other than truck suspension setup with airride.

I dont know, I am almost finished with the frame, theres very little welding left to do on it. The 15" smoothies are really cheap and would go with the way I wanted to build it. I need to start looking for some pics.


Thanks Jeff. I havent forgotten about coming over. The 54 is sealed and ready to spray so I should have some breaks next week.

This was what I was going for but with a 17". Theres no way I would pay that for a bare steel wheel though.

15's like these still might look alright.

Ever thought about having something re-drilled? You could use the truck rear and have the axle flanges and discs drilled for the car pattern. Or have the front rotors drilled to the truck pattern. Just another option.

I didnt think of that. I could put the truck rear back in and have the axles drilled to the 5 on 4 3/4 pattern.

Thanks Mike!

I don't know which way I'd go Keith, but I like Jeff & Mike's ideas. I say go which ever route gets it on the road faster.

The 15's will make it much easier and faster. I can get the 15x10 or 15x12 with the exact backspacing I need at no extra cost and they are $70 for the fronts, $80-$125 for the rear depending on width. I can put my money were it counts, in that 455, a brand new overdrive and a air unit! Tires will be cheaper too.

I guess for now I will just go with the 15", they will look alright especially if I go with the 12" wide, meaty!

Thanks.

Keith, if you still want the Coy's wheels, you need to check their website again. They now have 20x10's with 3.5" and 4" backspacing. I guess too many people didn't buy from them because their backspacing choice was so limited.

THANKS STEVEN!

I missed that, its all the way at the bottom and I didnt scroll down that far. I need exactly 4 inches of backspace on a 10" wheel. Those will be a PERFECT fit! It will also solve the brake cable problem I was showing you when you came out. Nice DEEP inset too!

Thanks a million Steven, I would have never seen that. I agree, their backspacing options were probrably killing their sales. You just cant have 1 or 2 options and expect good sales.

What would be a good size tire for a 20x10? Any suggestions?

A 295/40 R20 (29.29 Inches Tall) is the usual size I see. A 315/35 R20 (28.68 Inches Tall) would fit and give a little rounder sidewall while being a little shorter than the 295.

Thanks Steven. I need to check into tire prices. Thanks again bud.

That guy Steven is a real f@$! smeller, huh Keith?
I mean smart feller........

Yeah, he is! I was stoked till I saw the price. Those just arent in my budget right now and thats all I really want on it.

I am kind of bummed right now with this truck and getting sick of messing with it and trying to get it driving. I got screwed by a "freind" on a car I bought for my daily driver and had to sell it while I still could to get something back out of it. Unlike my "freind" I cant sell something without telling people whats wrong the car, and ended up taking a HUGE loss to get it sold. That put me having to focus on getting this truck finished quick so I could use it as a daily driver, problem is I dont have the funds to build it the way I want. I know its being picky but I just dont want something I am not going to be happy with when its done or have to redo it later. I hate having to settle when I am building something, for myself, I would just rather not do it at all.

Right now I am ready to just sell everything. I have already moved it to the back corner of the shop to get it out of my way and make room for new stuff to come in. I have to use my dads truck and right now I need to focus on buying something already driving or find something REAL easy to do, like a motor swap, mimor maintanance, and alittle cosmetic work. This one is out right now, to much to do and not enough time or money to get it driving.

Sorry for venting guys, I am just in a bad mood trying to decide if I can really deal with not building this truck the way I want it!

Don't sell it Keith. Selling still won't make the love for it go away. Take your time and buy a part when you can. It's tough to wait like that, I know, but the wait will make it better in the end. I've been working on mine for 9 years now, and there is no way that I could have afforded to build it as nice as I have, any quicker than I did. AND, there is no way that I could afford to buy it already done. Sometimes I think that my priorities are screwed up because I spend so much money on it, but if you really love the image in your head, you've just got to be patient and find a way to get it done. You also need to advertise more or charge more or something because for the amount of knowledge and skills that you have, you are way underpaid!