I’m pulling my hair out here! I’m trying to find wheels and tires for my ‘81 and it’s been such a headache.

I’m trying to find modern black wheels, ideally 18x8 and 20x9.5, that don’t require spacers - which means they’d likely have to be around -12 to +1 offset to really sit right.

I’ve found one wheel that KINDA works - US Mag Ramblers. Their matte black come in 18x8 and 18x9.5 in +1 offset (in a 5x120.65 bolt pattern), so I guess I’d have to do 18s all around. However, I’d need a 255/45R18 all around to get the same height, and even with that they sit basically flush to where the original wheels sat (I was hoping for a tad bit more poke). To make matters worse, 18x9.5 are on a national back order and I’d have to either wait for god knows how long or just compromise to 18x8 all around.

I’ve scoured every corner of this forum when it comes to wheels, and I can’t find any modern-style wheels I like that don’t require spacers. I’ve been at this for months!

So this begs the question…are you all just running spacers?! I’ve been trying to stay away from spacers, because I don’t want to introduce a point of failure, but I’m getting to the point where I’m about to say screw it!

 

Check the wheel and tire sticky at the top of this sections. Might answer your questions.

 

Oh I’ve been there…multiple times lol

 

Spacers vs adapters. Spacers are just a large washer, drilled out for the 5 lugs that fits over the stock bolts. Your issue may be that the bolts are not long enough and you don't have enough thread leftover to run the nuts up tight. You run out of threads before the nut is on far enough and that is a major safety concern. Adapters are different. The adapter goes over the lugs, as if it were just the center part of a wheel. And it tightens accordingly. But built into the adapter, in between the holes for the lug bolts,is another set of lug bolts. They are what attaches to your wheel. SO there are no issues with the stock bolts being too short, and the lug bolts on the adapter are long enough to get the lug nuts tight. Some will argue that it puts too much stress on the hub etc, but that has been an argument for a long time. I have adapters on my 78 and have never had an issue.

Adapter

 

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/U...06145#overview I have these on my 77 with stock t-arms...

 

Those are the exact ones I’m looking at, except in matte black. You have 18x8 all around? Mind if I ask what tire sizes you went with and if you’re at stock ride height or lowered?

 

18x8 and I lowered the front about 1"
I think they are 45 series tires.... i can check this week

 

You can order the Rambler with a custom offset.
Rambler Black Forged 2pc
https://www.wheelsforless.com/US_Mag...ed_Wheels.html

 

BMW wheels perhaps?

I run adapters. After snapping some wheel studs, I'd avoid spacers, unless they are 1/2" or less.

 

I've been using 1/2" spacers for about 10 years. Replaced stock studs with longer ARP studs, tensile strength of 200,000 psi. No issues.

 

Semantics

A spacer is a spacer whether it is bolt on or not.

IMO an adapter adapts things that weren't meant to be in the sense of the pattern. Like bolting a ford wheel onto a chevy and so fourth. Some will even call these a conversion spacer.

Bottom line, if you google search wheel spacer a bazillion hits will come with with spacers or as you want to call adapters with studs in them because they bolt on and well space things out lol.

All that aside, OP there is nothing wrong with running a bolt on spacer as long as it is hubcentric and of reasonable quality.

Some people are terrified of them but most of those don't know why other than they heard they are deadly on the internet.

 

Dan! good to see you are still kickin out there.

 

One thing to consider is a cast wheel will only offer very few,if any offset options opposed to a 2,3 piece wheel. I've had several sets of wheel made over the years and I always start with an OEM wheel for the car I'm working on then add the additional width I need on the inside of the wheel. There's offset and back spacing,I don't know the difference I just go on what I can see. At some point I'll have a set of aluminum ralleys made for my car and I'll climb underneath to see how much room I have for a 9.5 in 18 inch. I had an 18.8 on the back of this Nova with less than a 1/4 inch between the tire,leaf spring.

 

Backspace and offset are very simple, and you actually know what they are without realizing it. Offset is where the hub hooks up to the wheel in relation to the center of the wheel. 0 offset means the hub is directly in the middle of the wheel, + offset means it’s closer to the front of the wheel, and - offset means it’s closer to the back of the wheel (think deep dish wheels).

Backspace is simply how far the back of wheel goes beyond that mounting point. For an 8” wide wheel with a 0 offset, the backspace should be 4” because the mounting surface is in the center of the wheel. + offset will increase the backspace (because you’re pushing the mounting point closer to the face) and - offset will reduce backspace.

So to your point, backspace dictates whether the wheel on your car is going to contact the leaf spring. Add an additional 1/4” to the backspace of your current wheels, and now you no longer have that 1/4” gap you mentioned. You can do that while keeping the width of the wheel the same; you’d simply be moving the mounting service 1/4” closer to the face of the wheel, resulting in roughly 6mm of positive offset and bringing the spokes of the wheel closer to the face of the rim.

The way I learned to use them together is that I utilize the offset to determine “frontspace”, in a sense. That way I know where the wheel is going to sit under the fender/flush to fender/poke a bit. Once I have that determined so I get the look I want, I look at the backspace to determine if the wheel is going to contact leaf spring/trailing arms/etc.

My issue is that I’m struggling to find wheels with the right offset/backspace for this particular car.

 

Actually a 8" wide wheel with 4" backspace has an offset of -12mm. an 8" wheel has a bead width of 8" but the actual overall wheel width is aprox 9" when you add in the lip on each side. when they calculate offset it is the relation of backspace to the overall wheel width which is the outer edges of the wheel. a 8" wheel with 0 offset would have a 4.5" backspace.
Pat

 

Thank you!

This is correct. All wheels are assumed to have two 1/2" beads.

Here's a handy calculator, that I used to select my adapters (not spacers). I needed to make up 2".

https://tiresize.com/wheel-offset-calculator/

 

I put 17x8 Ansen Sprints on my 79 and they just barely rubbed the calipers. 1/8" billet aluminum spacers was all it took to fix it. I check my wheel torque every year but I can't imagine only 1/8" would make a difference.

 

I was told wheels off a 2005 Pontiac GTO wouldn't fit a 1991 Chevy S-10
Sometimes you just have to get creative ( helps to have a decent lathe & milling machine )
made my own adaptors because I'm poor
Ended up pulling them off after a few hundred miles

Personally don't like running different size rim/tire combinations just for the fact of a flat tire happing

ended up buying some Boyd Coddington rims (run out less than .005 in both planes = in 17' x 8" = simple, can carry a spare.