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What size rims?


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I was gonna buy some weld wheels draglites for my 70. Should I use 15x8 in rear and 15x7 in front?  Would car ride better with the 15x7 in the front or should I go with 15x8 all around? Also what size tires would you guys put on these wheels? I believe the back space is 4.5”. Here is a pick to show what it would look like.

E63BC6A4-2EFF-4E24-9825-858264DDF303.jpeg

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Jeff, careful measurements show (and lots of member experience confirms) that to keep any wheel/tire combo centered within the available factory wheel well opening on a first gen Monte, your wheels need to have + 12 mm of offset in the rear and + 6 mm offset in the front.

A 15 x 8 rim with 4.5" backspace has 0 offset which places the wheel/tire combo 1/2" further outboard than centered.  The largest tire you can safely run without modifying the wheel well opening lip is likely 255/60-15.  If you go to a 5" back space (+ 12 mm offset) on that rim, you can easily go up to a 275/60-15.

Factory 15 x 7 rally rims have a 4.3" backspace or +8 mm offset. That will also handle up to a 255/60-15 on front or rear.

I personally would not go with 15 x 8 rims all around if they only had 4.5" backspace because it would not allow the larger tires I prefer.  Instead, I would choose 15x7 with 4.25 backspace on front and 15x8 with 5" backspace on the rear.  That allows up to 255/60s on the front and 275/60s on the rear.  However, if a particular wheel you want is only available in one given backspace, then you will need to choose tires whose width will not create clearance problems.

I highly recommend using the excellent online tools at https://tiresize.com/ to decide what tires will work best with any wheel you choose or what wheel specs you will need to run the size of tires you want. Specifically look at their Tire Size Calculator, Tire Size Comparison and Wheel Offset Calculator tools.  Determine the exact specs of whatever wheel/tire combos are currently on your Monte and measure the existing clearances.  Then, enter that data as your Current Setup and compare every other wheel/tire combo you want to consider as the New Setup.  It will show you both visually and quantitatively how your clearances will change with any new setup.  Good luck.

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