im restoring a 1950 studebaker truck. my issue is the ford 9" rearend and wheels. i have a s-10 front frame that transitions under the cab to a home made 2x4 metal bar frame. ive mounted the ford rear end and its springs, and heres where my issues begin... I need 4 wheels and tires, that match. I really would like to have the old style solid steel black wheels of the past. tires... doesnt matter to me as long as they will fit. so two of the wheels need to be the standard chevy 5 lug pattern for an s-10. the ford rearend is 5 lug 5 1/4" or 3 1/4 centerline to center line lug to lug. no issues up front with room, and not sure waht size rims and tires i need. that ford rear end is a little longer than i expected, so the rear wheels need to be 5 1/2" of the wheel and tire towards the inside and 3 1/2" to the outside. it seems possible so im not giving up. so I need 4 rat rod style solid wheels to use poverty caps with. all wheels need to match as close as possible, AND i need the ford wheels to have the bulk of the tire back up into the well. any, and I mean any, help would greatly be appreciated!!! i looked high and low before asking so I wouldn't be repeating a question asked. and if your selling wheels and tires, im in st. louis and im all ears.<!-- google_ad_section_end --> <!-- begin adsense --><!-- end adsense --><!-- / message -->
get a set of adapters either from ford to chevy or chevy to ford. I put an s10 sub frame under my wifes 51 ford and got an adapter from chevy to ford. I needed about an inch wider on each side and the adapters were 1 inch thick. works fine.
A couple of suggestions.........your method of measuring the Ford bolt pattern is in error. Fomoco bolt patterns circles are 4 1/2" and 5 1/2" most commonly and some are 5" (Merc/Edsel). If yours measures 5 1/4" nearly across it is likely 5 1/2" truck or Bronco. If you need wheels with a deeper backside measurement to keep the wheels/tires within the fender, a wheel adapter will worsen the problem. A solution to consider is to re-drill your Ford axle flanges/drums to the Chev 4 3/4" bolt circle. That with give you like on both ends and make it easier to find 4 matching wheels. Chevy cars from 1949 up thru 1970 will then be potential donors of wheels for your project. From '54 up they used the bumps on the wheel center to retain poverty caps, before that they had the spring clips. most of the full size p***enger car 15" wheels during the earlier part of that period were relatively narrow rims (5", 5 1/2", 6",.. later some at 6 1/2 to 7") but all with fairly deep back side measurements. '54 thru '56 Chev (narrowest) or '69/'70 full size Chev and '70 thru '72 Monte Carlo would be good ones to check out. Ray
Any custom wheel vendor like Rally America or Wheelsmith can make you what you want. You could use Chevy and Ford centers for the two ends of the truck, or you could use dual-pattern centers which would work on either end. The width of the rims and the offset is your choice. Generic steel wheels from vendors like these aren't very expensive -- if you don't need exotic centers, they'll probably be like $65 each in bare metal.
Why didn't you just use the rear end from the S110 and that would have solved the problem and made it alot easier?
Yes, or any of a zillion other GM rears have that bolt pattern. Redrill the rear to match the front is probably the best option, maybe you can scare up a Chevy drum that's dimensionally correct so you don't have to drill those too.
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