All this talk about wider tires

charliemccraney · Post by **charliemccraney** » April 6, 2011, 8:29 am

I need new tires soon and all this recent talk makes me want some beefier tires in the rear. I need it because when it rains my traction sucks, and I don't have time for suspension upgrades right now to make better use of what I have.
So, I went to the junkyard and came up with some 15x8, 3.5" backspace wheels that were installed on an F150. They are aftermarket, "Superior" is in the center cap, and made in the U.S.A. on the insides. There is a date inside, 1998 so I guess that's when they were made. Has anyone heard of Superior? Nothing comes up on the web.
They should work real well. With 275-60 15s, I should have the same clearance between the bed, toward the center of the truck, and it'll fill out the wheel well toward the outside.
They're rusting chrome. I'm going to sand them and paint them. I'll get some pictures in a few days. They should look good painted but it looks like hub caps might fit. I haven't tried yet.

matt2491 · Post by **matt2491** » April 6, 2011, 8:34 am

Yep those 275/60/15s will look nice. They really fit the rear wells nicely give our trucks a bit of a hot rod look.

Obsa · Post by **Obsa** » April 6, 2011, 6:46 pm

http://articles.latimes.com/2009/jan/14 ... superior14

charliemccraney · Post by **charliemccraney** » April 9, 2011, 9:07 pm

Here they are fresh from the junk yard.

I have this notion that I've learned to trust. I'm thinking about going plum crazy with them, flat black center caps and purple wheels. We'll see how it looks. Paint's cheap.

Truckrat · Post by **Truckrat** » April 10, 2011, 2:03 pm

Charlie I have a set of those here that had chrome rims with gold centers. The gold was nothing more than powdercoat so it came off. Under the gold it looked just like yours. They were called Modular wheels and were very popular 15 - 20 years ago. Not expensive either compared to the aluminum wheels offered with that same look. Unfortunately a lot of the chrome ones weren't good chrome and rusted faily easily. I had plans to blast mine and paint them too, as they would look good that way. Don't think they have nubs to attach center caps to them. Centers are pretty flat with just a ring in the area of the lugnuts.
Try some of the orange colored rubbing compound by turtle wax to rub off the surface rust. I have had good luck with that to remove the rusty film on chrome wheels. You will have to wax them afterward to keep it from coming back, but it is even cheaper than paint. Have fun. TR

charliemccraney · Post by **charliemccraney** » April 10, 2011, 7:59 pm

Well, too late, I've already started painting. I finished the backs today. I really don't like chrome, anyway and several good sized spots are plain and simply rust. They did look pretty good once I had them ready to paint.

The screws you see around the perimeter are fake plastic things. I wasn't confident that I could get them out without destroying them so they had to be taped. I want them to remain black. I taped off the emblem in the center caps. I'm using a primer which is for rusty metal, but I got them as clean as I could with the tools available. If it works as advertised, it should be great.

The purple I found is Plum Purple. It is an engine paint I got at one of the parts stores. I've painted the backs of the wheels black because this purple is pretty hard to find and I don't want to run out with a quarter of a wheel left to paint. I didn't really want to use engine paint but it will work. It's just not very durable until it's been heated a few times. I'll get the areas that have the greatest threat of damage during tire installation with my heat gun to try to cure it. Otherwise, once it's mounted, the sun will do the job. In addition to having the center cap flat black, I'm going to paint the 1" or so of the outside of the wheel. I think the scheme will look great but hopefully it looks alright with the truck. I think it will.
Tomorrow, weather permitting, the fronts will get their paint.

charliemccraney · Post by **charliemccraney** » April 11, 2011, 4:40 pm

I like it. Center caps are flat black. They're drying so no picture yet. Once I have the center caps, I'll have a better idea, but I think I'm going to leave them as is, no flat black on the rims. It's darker which is what I wanted and the black caps will make it look a little darker.

charliemccraney · Post by **charliemccraney** » April 13, 2011, 9:57 pm

It is done. I like it a lot. Now I will paint the fronts to match.

For those of you considering the change to wider tires, here are a few before/after pictures showing just how the look of the truck is changed. I personally could not tell when I was looking at pictures of other trucks which already had the bigger tires. For reference, I'm using 275/60-15 on 15x8 rims with 3.5" backspace on a '68 axle assembly. The old tires are 225/70-15.

It's hard to see in the pictures, but I actually gained some clearance on the inside. I think 295/50-15s will fit without problems. Tomorrow I will start working on my "new" front rims which are really my old rear rims and hopefully I'll have them ready in about 2 weeks so its purple all the way around.

frdnut · Post by **frdnut** » April 13, 2011, 10:05 pm

I like it!..Looks much better with the bigger meats.. :D

blackagatha · Post by **blackagatha** » April 16, 2011, 4:24 am

now those are real tires!

strikes me as odd you're going with the old rims on the front (mismatch) too bad the set you found didnt have some skinnies on the front

blackagatha · Post by **blackagatha** » April 16, 2011, 4:25 am

now those are real tires!

strikes me as odd you're going with the old rims on the front (mismatch) too bad the set you found didnt have some skinnies on the front

charliemccraney · Post by **charliemccraney** » April 16, 2011, 6:39 am

blackagatha wrote:strikes me as odd you're going with the old rims on the front (mismatch)

Low budget. I just wanted to get wider tires on there without spending a fortune for wheels right now.
It rained last night. Still don't have much rain traction. That Y Block torque is just too strong. Posi might help but I think suspension mods will ultimately be necessary.

matt2491 · Post by **matt2491** » April 16, 2011, 10:02 am

Looks good man. My tired old 292 still surprises me.

sully5 · Post by **sully5** » April 16, 2011, 11:12 am

That paint will probably flake off the chrome pretty fast. Been there, done that. The only way to really make something stick to chrome is powder-coating.

charliemccraney · Post by **charliemccraney** » April 18, 2011, 8:35 pm

I discovered why I gained some clearance on the inside today while cleaning up the new fronts for paint. The old rims are actually 15 x 6, not 15 x 7. It's stamped on the rims in three places. So it does look like a 4" backspace 8" rim will probably work as well.