I seem to enjoy/identify with the 60's era street driven cars/hot rods, most. Since the 60's seem (to me) to be the real dawn of aftermarket custom wheels, what wheel rim width was typically run on street driven cars, hot rods, and show cars? 14x6's & 15x6's? Wider? Narrower? I ask because, by observation, the wider rims & tires on street driven cars...seems to me... to have taken off in the 70's. So, for those of you who where there in the 60's... what custom wheel rim width were you usually running on your daily drivers? Edit: follow-on question... were all 4 wheels/tires typically the same size as well (to enable regular tire rotation schedules?) Or were staggered wheel/tire sizes on street driven cars popular in the 60's as well? Thanks in advance, Scott/Gotta56forme Disclaimer: if this has already been beaten to death in another thread, I welcome a link to it.
As I remember it, we didn't care so much about wheels and more about tires; Atlas Bucrons in 9.50-14 or 8.20-15 were really desireable. If we could find them, we'd put 'em on the stock wheels. That being said, about 1962, a buddy and I started experimenting with reversed Buick rims on Ford or Chevy centers. Of course, we did 'em reversed. My buddy had a '55 Chevy we made a set for. They stuck out so far we had to radius the wheel openings (didn't matter much; it was easier than fixing the rust in the quarters). I think you are correct in thinking that the whole wide wheel thing is a '70's development. We were in Minnesota, things probably started a little earlier on the coast.
In my neck of the woods 6" was about as wide as the average guy could get under the fenders of the 60's car without scrubbing. HRP
I had a '64 Chev Impala in 1966/'67...it had a 301", 4-speed and 5:13 rear end...we ran Keystone five spoke mags on it with a width of 8 inches, there was literally no offset on the wheels so they fit under the car with no problems... R-
I agree with the 6 inch wheel guys. We took junk yard Buick wheels and drove the rivits out of the wheel removed the center and put them on ford ..chevy wheels . reversed quite a few sets at the ole gas station at night. They looked cool and we were a Esso station that sold Atlas tires the bucrons was the tire of choice.......
By 1970 there were factory 7"x 14" wheels on the "muscle" type cars [like Merc Cyclone] so in/around mid 60's a 6" wide wheel would be a wide wheel....
I worked at Blair's Speed Shop in the early '60's, made at least one trip a day to Appliance Plating in L.A. because chrome reverse wheels were the rage...not a lot of people ran mags on the street in the early '60s (they were expensive, for one thing)...by the mid-60s there were more of them.
You should clarify what part of the 1960s you're referring to...a 6" wide wheel is probably a good guess on average, but a lot changed between 1960 and 1970.
1965 Impala-in 1965-14x7 and 14x8 chrome reverse wheels from Eddie's speed shop-Fresno. 1961-had a 57 Pontiac with 14x7 chrome reverse wheels all around-Keystone I think-got from Champion muffler in Fresno
I'd rather not limit it to certain years, but encourage people to make mention of a year they may have bought aftermarket rims for their daily drivers, etc. Scott/Gotta56forme
There weren't too many wide street tires until the late 60's and even most drag classes for street type cars limited the slicks to 7 inches .
I wasn't there in the 60's, but I have had my hands on many of the first generation of aftermarket wheels, mostly debuting around 63-66, including KH Mag Stars, Fenton Hawk, Foresight Venture Drag-Mag, Keystone Kustomag, Cragar S/S, Rader single ribs, and none of those were wider than 6 inches. They may have been available, but were uncommon. What tire would they have run? Also, 14" seem to outnumber 15" diameter at least 5 to 1, although the 15" seem to be much more highly prized in the current market, which is kinda odd. The only aftermarket wheels made before 1970 that I have ever personally owned that were wider than 6" were some magnesium Halibrand wheels, and those were meant for drag slicks, although I know by the later 60's there were tires made to fit a 7" wide or wider size.
In early '65 I had a '56 Chevy 2 door wagon. Stock 15 x 5 or 5 1/2 on the front. On the back I had some 15 x 8 wheels made by a guy that had an oval track shop.
In 66 I ran Appliance 15X7 and 15X5.5 chromies with factory ford dog-dish caps on my 55 ford tudor sedan. The tires were Les Schwab recap cheater slicks on the back with 6.70s on the front..
As said, in the 60's, in northern Ohio, TIRE SIZE was more important than RIM SIZE or WIDTH. I would say 6" was probably the center of the road. We ran big and small, such as 6:00 on the front with 8:20 on the rear ..... with zero consideration for tire rotation.
I suspect the early 3/4 of the 60s, 6" wide wheels were very wide, but by the end of the 60s, 7" was probably standard with for rear wheels, but 4" was popular on the front. The only tire rotation we were concerned about was the kind that resulted in making smoke! 15 " tires are what everyone seeks these days is because the choices of 14" tires is really limited, even 15" tires are getting harder to find in some sizes. Gene
Hardly ever saw real skinny fronts on the street in the late sixties, that was a "race car only" thing. The use of skinny fronts on street cars is a modern thing. Most guys actually ran wide ovals on the front, 70 series were everywhere, and 60's were starting to show up on fronts. And only your mother ran 7"s on the back in the late sixties...
On my 63 Falcon I ran 14x6 front and rear. On my 65 Mustang, I ran 14x6 front and 14x7 rear along with chrome shackles and air shocks.
I think the wide rear rims came about with the availability of the L-60 Englewood tire. That would have been somewhere after 1965 if my memory is correct. There really was no need for a wider rim then 7 inches before that time with the tires that were available. I remember some guys running left over Indy 500 tires about that time marked "for farm tire use only" or something like that, these required wider rims also.
Back in the day (sixties) I never had enough money to even consider replacing any rims. Like tubman, all my money went to Atlas Bucron tires.
In the 60's I had three or four different street rods. I usually had something like 6.70 15's all the way around and two 9.50 Atlas Bucrons in the trunk. We always had time to unscrew the "dumps" and change tires if not I didn't race. Most of our races started at one location, where the "arrangements" were made, and then we drove to "the" location. Course this was the Houston area so I can't speak for how it was done elsewhere.