Tire/wheel combos

Asked by Mike_B Oct 07, 2008 at 10:35 AM about the 1976 Chevrolet Camaro

Question type: Car Customization

Hi. I'm new to this forum & looking for advice so please be gentle. I have a 76 Rally Sport that is completely stock. The wheels are rusty and tires are begining to dry rot. I am looking to replace them with some slotted alluminum wheels and nice tires. I want the 70's muscle car wide tire, jacked up rear look. I'm a novice at this so need some experienced input. What do I need to do? what size wheels? what size tires? Oh, This was my moms car, she bought it new when I was 11 so getting rid of it and getting another is not an option. Way too much attachment to this car.

14 Answers

105

hey, i don't know if you've figured it all out yet. i have a 79 camaro and i found a good size to go with is 235/60R15 on the front and 255/60R15 on the rear. that's a good safe fit on a 15 X 7 wheel. if you're feeling brave you can do a 245/60R15 in the front and a 275/60R15 in the rear. you might have to roll the fenders though in the rear. lemme know if you need any more help. i work at a discount tire shop also so i'm the guy to ask!

5 people found this helpful.
165

hello i got 2 camaros a 1977 and a 1989. i have 17x8 crager ss rims all the way around with 245/45/17 on all four corners the rear has a little different back spacing then the frontso thay look wider i have no rubbing at all then on the 89 i have torque thrust 2 17x8 in the front and 17x9.5 in the rear i got 245/45/17 on the front and 275/40/17 on the rear thay look good and do not rub those sizes are perfect or u can use 245/50/16 215/65/15 or 235/6015 if you want all you need to do is not exceed 26 inches tall on your over all hight no matter what rim you use

3 people found this helpful.
375

you should post a picture of the 1989 camaro, i have a 1991 RS Camaro and am looking to upgrade my wheels, but am not sure of what wheels i want. I am fond of the torq thrust II though.

3 people found this helpful.
105

hey george, go to tirerack.com and you can look at wheels on your car. the torq thrust II's are a good looking wheel but depending on the color of your car you might consider the torq thrust D or torq thrust original. if you want anymore help lemme know, i do sell wheels and tires for a living so i've got a pretty good idea of what to do!

1 people found this helpful.
165

hay george here is a picture of my 89 rs look over the paint job it is aweful thats the project for this year get it painted

2 people found this helpful.
16,925

my favorite wheels on the 3rd gens are the 18" iroc wheels. just enough tire but still a good almsot original look. they come in polished and chrome. might be worth checking out too

2 people found this helpful.
105

I'm not sure if you have already decided what you were going to do, but keep in mind that if you make the tires larger than stock (height wise), you are going to screwup your speedo reading, and since that is gear driven on the Gen 2, your going to have to replace the speedo gears in the tranny or mess with the gearing to get the correct speed reading out of the speedo. I had this problem on my 3rd Gen when running taller winter tires. for a small change in diameter it through the speedo off by 1 mph every 5 mph. so if my speedo was reading 25mph I was really going around 30mph.

16,925

if you go with a larger wheel size then go with an equally thinner tire size and it wont mess with your speedometer because the diameter stays the same.

105

this is the link for the best tire calculator around if you're worried about the speedometer reading, just plug in the OE size and the size you want to run! http://www.1010tires.com/TireSizeCalculator.asp

2 people found this helpful.
15

The general rule of thumb is...as you go up one size, you have to go down one size...for instance, if your oe tires are 14", 205/65/14's, then if you go up to a 15" wheel, you have to go down a size in tire to keep the same "overall radius"...so you don't screw up your speedometer...205/60/15"...notice that I'm changing the "series" (middle digit, which represents the percentage of side wall height compared to the overall width of the tire) of the tire, not the tread width. If your desire is to "go big" in the back and put on the old monster tires, then you simpy have to figure out which is the biggest tire you can put in there ( a whole different response than what's here) by measuring your overall wheel travel, center of your axle...etc etc etc, plus you have to know going in that you will throw your speedometer off, by as much as 5 to 10 miles per hour...so you'll need to either re-calculate what the correct ratio's are (once you decide what size tires to put on, and find out what pinion gear you have in your rearend) you can determine what ratio sprocket to put in the tranny to give you the correct reading on your speedo...or you can go the "old school" way, and get your car timed (either at a drag strip, by a cop...if you can find one that will do it for you... or just have one of your buddy's drive down the road at 35, 55, and 65 with their cruise set, then get beside them and see what your speedo is reading...then you'll alway's know how far off you are and what speed you "should" be driving...

20

Can I put 15 inch Corvette rally rims styled like the late 60's early 70's on a 2015 Camaro if not then somebody make a retro wheel that would fit it?

2 people found this helpful.
10

How wide of rims can I put on the back of a 1979 camaro? Does anyone know.

1 people found this helpful.

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