Where the rubber meets the road...
Restarting on a ramble from another page somewhere, when I first bought my car it had some American Racing smoothe type wheels that just didn't give me the pop that I was looking for. If I turn on my old computer I might try and dig up some of those pictures, but until then I'll just go on with what I have.
My original wheels where some kind of 14x7" American Racing with I think 205/65 crappy old tires on them. The smoothee look just doesn't do it for me. I need a rim with some personality. So, once I got the car to Macon I bought a set of 15x7 Magnum 500s with 225/65 tires. Those made a world of a difference in not only the ride quality but of the look of the car. The pony center caps were also a nice added piece of flare. "15 is the minimum pieces of flare. That's ok if you just want to do the minimum....." Can you guess where that line comes from? Oh yes, Office Space. One of the best live-action Dilbert movies ever made. The irony of that movie is that it's pretty real to life alot of the times.
I really like the way those Magnum 500's looked, especially with the side pipes. The only problem I had with them was the size of the brakes that I can squeeze under there. The front brakes were 11" rotors with 4-pistion calipers and the rear were 11" rotors with single piston calipers. I knew with the added horsepower and lovely suspension that I would want to stop my horse just as well, so I had to upgrade to something a bit bigger.
I looked around on the internet alot to find pictures of different car stances and wheel combinations. Doing this restomod, I really wanted to have rims with "depth" to them. Meaning instead of the completely filled in wheel like the Magnums were, I wanted more of the see through type. I still wanted something somewhat period correct and the old Torque D's seemed to almost fit the bill, but they were missing that connection with the rest of the car that I wanted. I kept eyeing the Vintage Wheel work series, mainly because they were an all aluminum wheel for the same price that I purchased my steel Magnum 500s for. After going back and forth between a few sets, I finally settled on their 40 series. I really like the simple 5-spoke design, and these were the straight spokes instead of the curved ones that you see alot. This really compliments the straight edges of the 66 mustang coupe's body. For some reason the curved ones always seemd like they were bubbling out of the rims for some reason.
After settling on the style I got down to the fitment of them. This went back to the brakes. While getting my order together for the suspension I opted for the 12.2" rotors with 4-piston calipers at all four corners. This gives me alot better braking performance than what I had. I was considering the 13" brakes but they were $2,000 more for the set, which in turn would of made me have to get 17" wheels, which in turn would of been $1,000 more there also for the set. $3,000 was a big chunk of cash that I much rather spend somewhere else. The other reason is 17" wheels start to look really odd on a 64-66 mustang body. These bodies were dimensionally all over smaller than the 67-up ones, so I didn't want to end up with a spagetti sized sidewall to my tires. Though that would be great for cornering reasons, I'll probably drive this more on the road than on the race-track, so I wanted something that looks great and had a bit of give to it for all those bumps and dips all over the place.
Now since the brakes were settled, I ordered up a set of 16x7 for the front and 16x8 for the rear. I think 225 rubber is about all you can muster and still be able to steer it all over the place. I know the 16x8 were going to be a bit of a stretch but I was sure I could get them under the rear without having to resort to some ugly oversized fender flares. The front tires are wrapped with some Michelin 225/55ZR16 Pilot Sport A/S Plus, and the rears are wrapped with 245/50ZR16s. Here's another interesting tid-bit, I really wanted to have at least some 255 in the rear just to be able to hold down the higher horsepower, but before you blindly say "yes, give me 255" you really need to check the actual dimension of the tire. The 245/50ZR15 I have, have a tread-width of 9.96", while the 255/45ZR17 have a thread width of 10.04" Somehow the extra 10mm for the tire "size" ended up being only 0.08" wider. Couple that with the extra $3,000 to have 17" wheels really doesn't make alot of economic sense. Hence why I have 16" rims on my car. But hey they also look alot better too. I still have a nice tire profile
Well I rambled enough about the tires, here a some before and after pictures for you to look at. There are also a few "stance" photos in there as well.
My original wheels where some kind of 14x7" American Racing with I think 205/65 crappy old tires on them. The smoothee look just doesn't do it for me. I need a rim with some personality. So, once I got the car to Macon I bought a set of 15x7 Magnum 500s with 225/65 tires. Those made a world of a difference in not only the ride quality but of the look of the car. The pony center caps were also a nice added piece of flare. "15 is the minimum pieces of flare. That's ok if you just want to do the minimum....." Can you guess where that line comes from? Oh yes, Office Space. One of the best live-action Dilbert movies ever made. The irony of that movie is that it's pretty real to life alot of the times.
I really like the way those Magnum 500's looked, especially with the side pipes. The only problem I had with them was the size of the brakes that I can squeeze under there. The front brakes were 11" rotors with 4-pistion calipers and the rear were 11" rotors with single piston calipers. I knew with the added horsepower and lovely suspension that I would want to stop my horse just as well, so I had to upgrade to something a bit bigger.
I looked around on the internet alot to find pictures of different car stances and wheel combinations. Doing this restomod, I really wanted to have rims with "depth" to them. Meaning instead of the completely filled in wheel like the Magnums were, I wanted more of the see through type. I still wanted something somewhat period correct and the old Torque D's seemed to almost fit the bill, but they were missing that connection with the rest of the car that I wanted. I kept eyeing the Vintage Wheel work series, mainly because they were an all aluminum wheel for the same price that I purchased my steel Magnum 500s for. After going back and forth between a few sets, I finally settled on their 40 series. I really like the simple 5-spoke design, and these were the straight spokes instead of the curved ones that you see alot. This really compliments the straight edges of the 66 mustang coupe's body. For some reason the curved ones always seemd like they were bubbling out of the rims for some reason.
After settling on the style I got down to the fitment of them. This went back to the brakes. While getting my order together for the suspension I opted for the 12.2" rotors with 4-piston calipers at all four corners. This gives me alot better braking performance than what I had. I was considering the 13" brakes but they were $2,000 more for the set, which in turn would of made me have to get 17" wheels, which in turn would of been $1,000 more there also for the set. $3,000 was a big chunk of cash that I much rather spend somewhere else. The other reason is 17" wheels start to look really odd on a 64-66 mustang body. These bodies were dimensionally all over smaller than the 67-up ones, so I didn't want to end up with a spagetti sized sidewall to my tires. Though that would be great for cornering reasons, I'll probably drive this more on the road than on the race-track, so I wanted something that looks great and had a bit of give to it for all those bumps and dips all over the place.
Now since the brakes were settled, I ordered up a set of 16x7 for the front and 16x8 for the rear. I think 225 rubber is about all you can muster and still be able to steer it all over the place. I know the 16x8 were going to be a bit of a stretch but I was sure I could get them under the rear without having to resort to some ugly oversized fender flares. The front tires are wrapped with some Michelin 225/55ZR16 Pilot Sport A/S Plus, and the rears are wrapped with 245/50ZR16s. Here's another interesting tid-bit, I really wanted to have at least some 255 in the rear just to be able to hold down the higher horsepower, but before you blindly say "yes, give me 255" you really need to check the actual dimension of the tire. The 245/50ZR15 I have, have a tread-width of 9.96", while the 255/45ZR17 have a thread width of 10.04" Somehow the extra 10mm for the tire "size" ended up being only 0.08" wider. Couple that with the extra $3,000 to have 17" wheels really doesn't make alot of economic sense. Hence why I have 16" rims on my car. But hey they also look alot better too. I still have a nice tire profile
Well I rambled enough about the tires, here a some before and after pictures for you to look at. There are also a few "stance" photos in there as well.
