14" wheels on the front of your HotRod?

So I know that 15's are better but whats wrong with 14's? So what do you all think about runnin 14 on the front? I'm might be gettin a good deal on some 14 mags and was just curious.
-Jesse

 

We always ran 14 fronts for lighter unsprung weight, less rolling resistance and 15 rears for traction in the late 60/s early 70's. But that was on Camaros and Chevelles!

 

If it looks good,it IS good.

Sometimes,with the same size wheels front and back,the rears look smaller.
So guys will go an inch bigger on back to make it balance visually.

I had planned on 14s for the front.Of course the tires I want don't come in 14s.

 

Unkl Ian hit the nail pretty much on the head.
14" wheels look right on the front - if you have a fairly large rubber rake.
15" wheels with a small tire up front look larger than they really are.

Plus, if you use 14" wheels, you get another 1/2" drop on the front end.

All about visuality . . . izzat a word?

 

Cool, I was just seein' what you guys thought. I'm going to run Cragars up front and chrome OEMs in the rear with some cheater slicks. I like a big rubber rake on rods and true big n lil's. My pops had said that they would run 16" in the rear, and run 15"s in the front for the same reasons.
-Jesse

 

I've never run anything but 14's on the front of my hot rod. I never even considered anything else.

 

I got 14s on the front of my F-1, they been there for nearly 30 years, cause thats just the way we do it!.......OLDBEET

 

14x6 front and 15x8.5 rear

 

On my 40 GMC I run 185-70R/14 on the front and 235-75R/15 on the rear for the reasons C9 stated.

 

I'm running the same size as DrJ on my A pickup.
It just looks right.
TZ

 

Everyone hit the nail on the head. I always ran 15 rears / 14 fronts. Got the bright idea to go ET 10s and fueler rears on the 32. Well, the 10s come in 15s so I was figuring to go 16 fuelers, but the guy at Team III said it was getting hard to find tires. I was stupid and took his word for it. They look ok, but everytime I see the rears I wanna kick my****. It NEEDS 16s for the look. By the time you get a small nuff tire on the front, the wheel becomes larger, hence the rear smaller. Goofy. I been watchin all the mags since and every time I see a car with fuelers they're almost always 16s ...***** !!

 

The Fairlane has 14s in the front and 15s in the back.
Cragars rock. I'll NEVER regret getting them. That 15" wheel on the back fills up that rear wheelwell and just "looks" the part.... IMHO.

I had 14" wheels all around on that car too. The 15s make a BIG difference.

 

I'd like to add here that on a CUSTOM or a KUSTOM the wheels AND tires should be all the same size on all four corners and a matching one in the fully uphostered trunk.

BIG & LITTLES are for HOTRODS only!

 

Now you guys got me thinking about the 31 roadster.
It has 15's on both ends.
A bit of a rubber rake with 185/85R-15's up front and 235/80R-15's in the rear. (the tires are radial as indicated, narrow and have a bias ply flavor to their appearance.
Wheel widths are 5" front and 6" rear.

The car was originally slated for the lakes, but will go on the street.

Think I'll keep my eyes open for a pair of good junkyard 5" wide x 14" wheels. Should be a very do-able deal since the front bolt pattern is Chevy - 4 3/4" - and seems some of the GM cars running 14's steelies are fairly narrow.

Course, the hard part will be making the little Ford hubcaps fit - maybe.
The caps are for aftermarket steelies and sized differently than the Ford sized caps. Where they snap on anyway. Outer diameters are the same far as I know.

More stuff . . . where will it end....

 

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BIG & LITTLES are for HOTRODS only!

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Dr.J,
I'm gonna****ume that wasn't directed at me, but I DID have trouble deciding which way to go with the Fairlane....
Some here may remember that.

I was kicking the idea around of getting 14" Astros for all 4 corners and going more the custom cruiser route.
At the last minute I decided to go with the Cragars, bigs and littles.
And I gotta tell you. It was a good choice. The Fairlane is more akin to a muscle car and was meant to haul****.

BUT.....they DID use CRAGARS on 60's style customs of the past. We covered that in my Astros or Cragars post. Astros were also used on dragsters and HOT RODS and not just on customs.

But its true that the rule of thumb is. Bigs and littles = HOT ROD. same size on all corners = custom.

 

SPeaking of the ET Wheels, we are starting to have a hard time finding ANY 16" tire that looks good on the back of customer cars. The 15s are just about as bad. I am talking sizes over 255 that dont have a 4wd tread pattern. I know there is a market for a col hotrod radial for guys that wont run bias plys. Good luck finding a 29" and up tire for the back of any hiboy

 

Try the BF Goodrich TA radial in 285/70R-15.
It's a passenger car tire with 3 plies of tread and a one ply sidewall - which means it rides pretty good on a light car with the right air pressure. (20# on my 32 works well. The tire is on a 10" wide wheel fwiw.)

The tire is 30" tall, has an 8 1/2" tread width and looks right on a 10" wide wheel and would look good on an 8" wheel imho.

A further nicety is that it's a fairly soft compound and with the open diff on the 32 it grabs the street pretty well. It'll spin when you hit the throttle on the torquey Buick engine, but if you roll the throttle in and short shift it does a remarkable job on a clean road.

Available in white letters if you like that sort of thing and available all black.

It matches well with BFG's other TA offerings.
For sure, no bias ply appearance here, but it is a good looking tire and I like it.

 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
BIG & LITTLES are for HOTRODS only!

[/ QUOTE ]

Dr.J,
I'm gonna****ume that wasn't directed at me, but I DID have trouble deciding which way to go with the Fairlane....
Some here may remember that.

I was kicking the idea around of getting 14" Astros for all 4 corners and going more the custom cruiser route.
At the last minute I decided to go with the Cragars, bigs and littles.
And I gotta tell you. It was a good choice. The Fairlane is more akin to a muscle car and was meant to haul****.

BUT.....they DID use CRAGARS on 60's style customs of the past. We covered that in my Astros or Cragars post. Astros were also used on dragsters and HOT RODS and not just on customs.

But its true that the rule of thumb is. Bigs and littles = HOT ROD. same size on all corners = custom.



[/ QUOTE ]

Yes, You mentioning Fairane did make me think of that but it was not directed at you, just about the differences in what defines a custom and how it differs frome a hotrod.
And then there's the "street machines",and I'm tossing a lot into this category, including the 58 Impala from American Grafitti, that have "customizing" features but are hotrodded at the same time. I think we both know your Fairlane is in that category.
I think Crager SS wheels pretty much always fall in that category just because they are "sporty looking" while the smoother Supremes are more custom" looking and not "Hotroddy"

A good example is Vaughn's green Cadillac. it's purely a custom, until he puts the slicks on it. then it's a street machine, as much as a four speed dual quad Corvette engined '57 Chevy with Cragers and cheater slicks is.

But then what the hell do I know...

 

My '31 is running 14's mags on the front with 15's on the rear. Looks and works OK.

However a couple things to note are that you probably won't find any domestic disc brakes that will work with 14's and that '40 Ford brakes just barely fit, at least with mags which are thicker than steelies.

 

Warbird brought up an interesting point. Will Americans Or cracars fit my early juice brake drums? This is the only thing I'm really concernd of. Any experiance with this?
-Jesse

 

I prefer 15s for the front. I ran 14s on the front of my roadster for a long time, but the 15s seem to work better. As for rear tires, the 285/70-15 Radial T/A is a good tire. I ran it for a long time on my roadster, and still have some on my coupe and pickup. Currently, the roadster has P245/75-16 Continentals. They are a passenger car rated tire designed for trucks and SUVs. Nice ride, quiet, decent traction, and a good-looking tread and shoulder. Not to mention reasonably priced (got mine at Discount Tire). About 30 or so inches tall, good proportions for a hiboy; at the very least they are worth a look.

 

O yeah, 14 fronts and half bald 15s on the smokey end..

 

Interesting thread. It all depends on the look.

For my '39 Chevy two-door, I'll run 14x6 torq thrusts, if they'll clear the Camaro disc brakes. Otherwise, it'll be 15x6's. On the back, I have some 16x8.5 torq thrust copies to get a mild rake. Also, with a 4.11:1 rear end, I wanted a 29-30" tire to raise the effective ratio a little.

For my '66 Mustang, I have some 14x7 T-70's, and some 15x7 TT copies. I'd planned to run the same size all around. I'm trying to make this more of a GT type sports car than a muscle car.

On the '57 Chevy pickup, I have a full set of 15x8.5 ET II's, which is fine for "truck" use, but I also have some 15x6 ET II's so that I can run a smaller tire on the front and get more of a rake.

For the RPU that I'm slowly collecting parts for, I have some '35 Ford 16x4 wires, to run 5.50 fronts, and 7.00 or 7.50 backs.

I've seen some shots of some old time cars that ran a very skinny tire on a 17" wire spoke up front, and then a 16" with a tall sidewall on the rear. Has anyone else ever heard of a combo like that?

 

[ QUOTE ]
However a couple things to note are that you probably won't find any domestic disc brakes that will work with 14's

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Pic of 68-70 Mustang disc brakes in conjunction with 5 1/2" x 14 slot mags.
Same setup has been used with 7 x 14" slot mags.

 

Pic of 70-78 Camaro rotor and 82-84 Camaro caliper.
Shown on a 15" steelie, but the car was rolled out with the abovementioned 7 x 14" slot mags and no problems.

I have a complete list of the brake components for either setup on a solid axle if anyone is interested.

 

14-6s and 15-8s.....the only way to go

 

I run a 14x6 torq-thrust II with 185/75/R14 tires on front of my 38 Chevy with Must II front suspension and the larger 11 inch rotors. Clears fine on the disc brakes. With 15x8 t-t II's on the back with 255/70/R15 rear tires it has a nice rubber rake and rides great.

Unless you run disc brakes larger than 11 inch rotors, you should be able to clear 14 inch wheels without any troubles, unless they are early style drum-brake wheels, then you have to run a small 1/4 inch spacer I think to get the clearance.

 

They are '40-'42 drums I belive(the hub is on the inside)so I probably will have to run a spacer. Unless I can find someone that want to swap early drums for a nice sanitary set of disc breaks kinda like C9's early mustang(?) setup.
-Jesse

 

[ QUOTE ]
I'd like to add here that on a CUSTOM or a KUSTOM
the wheels AND tires should be all the same size on all
four corners and a matching one in the fully uphostered
trunk.
BIG & LITTLES are for HOTRODS only!

[/ QUOTE ]

If there different on a custom, you can't run matching hubcaps.
TZ

 

The dude at ET Wheels told me the same thing ( 16" tires are getting hard to find, make sure you can get some before you order these 16" x 12" wheels) I did Found 4 B F Goodrich 345/55-16's sittin in a local wharehouse. I bought all 4 so I have 2 back ups. I run 15's on front.

Later, Mark