New wheels for '56 Vickie (New edit)

[Grumpy Rick]

EDIT....I am simplifying the question:

Got a '56 Fairlane Victoria with a 302, AOD and EFI. Had it for almost 20 years, and the wife will not let me sell it, so I want to update it a bit.

It has the factory 15" wheels and I want to upgrade to 16" or 17" preferably steel wheels.

Does anyone know if the factory 16 or 17" steelies from a late model Crown Vic (IE: cop car type) will fit on my '56?? I can see they have 5X4.5 pattern, but need to know about clearance.

 

[miker98038]

Re: New wheels for '56 Vickie

FWIW. My 55 bird has 15-7” American salt flats. 3 1/2” backspace in front, 4” backspace in the rear. Mounts 225 60 15 BFG TA’s front, 235 60 TA’s rear. The front has a disc brake conversion that moved the front wheel out about 1/8”. You can look up the TA specs and get height and width. Maybe that will help you back into a 17” combo.

They are really tight, there’s less than 1/2” between the sidewall and the upper ball jo8nt in front. My body was slightly off center, and I had to move it to center to avoid shaving sidewall rubber on a hard left turn.

Some have commented you can use a 3 3/4 or 4” backspace in the front of a bird, but it wouldn’t work on mine.

Doing it over, I’d be using 6” wheels and slightly narrower tires. But I got away with this one.

 

[mercman from oz]

Re: New wheels for '56 Vickie

miker98038's 1955 Ford Thunderbird