I'm looking at having my rear fenders slightly pulled to accomodate some wider wheels in back. My initial thought was to go with 15" x 7" wide wheels in front and 15"x x9" wide in the back, but I think an 8" wide wheel is more realistic. Will a 205/50-15 fit fine on the 7" wheels, and a 225/45 - 15 on the 8" ones - or will they be stretched at the sidewalls? I think I'm going to go with these wheels:



Thanks in advance for the help!

thats a good combination of tire sizes and rim size....

dead on!
nice wheel BTW, what brand is that?

cheers,

Jeroen

Thanks for the replies, guys! I feel a lot more comfortable about the decision.

Jeroen - wheels are Kodiak Racing Wheels - the FX model. see them here:

Kodiak Wheels

I like those wheels, I'm curious how much you'll have to pull your fenders out to get them to fit. You're running five bolt pattern?

Yes - 5 bolts. It's a 1970 914-6 (far from original - so I feel a few modifications certainly won't hurt its value... ).

I'm curious to know how much they'll have to be pulled out as well!

Well.. You wont get it with pure pulling alone... TRUST me..

Your going to need a little hammer and dolly work, to feel comfortable. Simular to Jp steins.. my early flares, or john kelly's...

The tire/rim size is ok.. but thats running a low profile tire... As long as your ok with that, then 225's on 9's would even be fine.. but would be even HARDER to fit under the wheel wells.

Andrew

I guess I ought to clarify -

By pulling I meant very much like John Kelly's flared fenders. Guess it's just my midwestern twang comin' through!

So you thnk 225's on 9's wouldn't be to stetched???? I'd really like to put something like a 255 on there - but NOBODY makes that crazy size in a 15" diameter with a reasonable profile... heheh.

255's really wont fit with stretching... I've gone the max with stretching and I tried fitting my fathers Hoosers 255's on 9in rims.. but it rubbed.. Close... but no cigar..

Generally speaking, the larger the rim, the larger it makes the tire patch.

Were running 225 hoosers (cheaters.. yes I know..) on 9in rims.. and no tire stretch problems... I've got 235's on 17in rims with a 9in or more rim... and the less diameter rim you run, the more your side walls can stretch.. BTW.. it IS a tad hard to get 9in of clearance... I have about 10 in on all area's.. some 10.5 a couple close to 11's... Check my flare topics to see what I mean...

Andrew

yes, but 225 hoosiers are *at least* 255 in normal tires.

they LIE !
Andy

those are nice rims !!!!!

for referance, I did a test fit with 55mm offset 16x8 rims with 225/50/16 on the rear of my 914, the tire rubbed the trunk wall and touched the trailing arm, with a 3/8" spacer it might have cleared on the inside...the fender still would need tweaking, but with the use of a bat or good piece of wood between the tire and fender (not the good wheels), you should be able pull out the fender enough to clear the 225 sized tire....

why not go with 16's???? at that price that you'd already be paying for 15's, $40 more per rim is not that big of deal, the tire selection is much better as well with 16's


a 225 tire is going to look goofy and put those nice expensive rim halves in danger if you stretch them onto a 9" wide rim.......on my 911, I've got 17x8 with 225's and 17x9's with 255's...the sidewalls are perfectly straight and seem to be the perfect match for each other

Ah, now that's just giving up way to easily. I'm running 245's out back and could easily go to 255's. You gotta just keep on hammering.

-Ben M.

ps - no rubbing (right down to the bump-stops)

You must be runnin small 245's...

I put 245's in the back and had plenty of room. The 255 hoosers are like a 275 tire or more... especially since its a 255/50/16 (very tall)

Ben, How much flare do you have?

That looks small compared to mine (honestly...) Might be angle...

I've attached a picture of what 225-50s look like on a 8-1/2" rim...pretty stretched.

John www.ghiaspecialties.com

Andrew,

I'm pretty sure Ben is running the Phonedials that are from an '87 944 so his have the 55mm offset, this way with a spacer installed, he does not have to flare his fenders as much as you need to.

Ben,

Nice looking car, I've never seen a picture of your car !!!

Not a lot. I'm quite a bore, actually.

-Ben M.