finally got my stuff squared away with the astros. kept two 15x8s and got the only two 15x7s that summit had, and found rubber to fit. kind of a bitch to get a thin white wide enough to fit an 8 inch rim... 235/75/15s did it, not too bad lookin, i think. 215/70/15s up front. gained about 3/4 of an inch up front, so no more header scrape. stoked about that. gave me some more rubber rake,pretty sure i like that. fills those big ass rear wheel wells up. anyways, i think its a nice step from the black steelies and thin whites. really woke the car up, i think. here's da pics.
Totally Bitchin!!! Do you remember what offset those are? I was thinking about putting those on my '69 Wagon. Thanks, Curt
I know i've said this before, but i really dig your 65! The astro's look great on it...can't wait for an outside shot of it... There's something about 65 and 66's i love..wish i still had my old 66 SS!
if i remember, the 15x7s are 3 1/2" offset, and the 15x8s are 3 5/8" offset. summit's site will tell for sure, though like i said, they're out of 15x7s. i've got about an inch between the tire and the inner fender in the back, and about 3/8" between the front tire and the bottom tip of the front fender (fender extension). baaaarely fits, might rub if i bottom out in full lock, just gonna have to be careful! i'd have pulled it outside, but it's snowing like crazy, cold as hell. damn near froze my balls off in the time it took to pull the two old wheels and put the astros on! thanks for the compliments, guys. gonna make me have to go out and buy new quarter panels and a drivers fender to fix my first time ever body work if ya keep it up!
Time for some 3 bladed knock off center caps or some bullet spiders to finish the look, be careful though as you get into this mid custom thing, or that muscle car yellow is going to turn into a beautiful pearl job with fadaways
muscle car yeller she ain't, fellas. at least i don't think it is. color is war bonnet yellow, there's flake to it, but ya can't see it in these pictures because i had to turn the flash and the autofocus off to get anything with my camera. looks like pagan gold in the sunlight, but under flourescent paint it unfortunately gets kinda greenish. skipstitch's dad painted his 32 ford truck that color and i had no idea it was the same color i picked out a year later until i told them about it (always saw it in their garage under lighting)! weird color, originally on 71 vettes, saw it as a pretty reasonable facsimile to pagan gold, which is out of my price range! i do like the idea of fadeaways, though. like i said, in the market for better sheet metal. when i find some, might be a strong option... was thinkin about buying some radir bullets. just not crazy about the plastic center bullets the astros came with. i'll probably run them until i find something else. this is what it looks like in sunlight...
Yup, that sucker needs a little pearl power in a clear top coat, bronze and gold and parchment white pearl fadaways for sure. Nosed, decked, and smoothed of all emblems, body chrome (but not the top), and door handles (if it hasn't been already). Bar grilles front and rear (edge out and polished), blade rear bumper and rolled rear pan to match the stocker on the front. Three stock taillights and backup lights in the rear pan. Oops forgot, it's not my car. Great start on a great looking car, though.
there's actually a bunch of stuff i still wanna do with it, namely redoing some bodywork. gotta agree with ya, emblems were among the first things to go. ditched the nose and trunk stuff, got rid of the IMPALA letters, but had to leave the impala deer on the fender. always loved impalas so i kinda wanted to keep them. we woulda done the door handles too, but it was a two month thrash and time wasn't there. got a spare set i picked up on a parts car that i've been eying up... i do dig the shit out of the rear pan idea. kinda beyond my talents at the moment, but several times when my best buddy and i built it i said how much i wanted to suck up the front under-bumper-pan into a true roll pan and do the same for rear of the car. i do appreciate the input though. when we built it, i knew i would run steel wheels so i decided to adapt von franco's model T's scheme (pagan gold paint, black steel wheels, wide whites) for my car with the exception of thin whites because it's a 65. with the addition of the astros, it's potentially moving in another direction! thanks for all the compliments and ideas, fellas. gonna spend the rest of this beautiful ohio winter getting the car all ship-shape for the HAMB drags if they'll let a 65 in the gates!
Just had a thought, lose the laker stubs and run chrome or stainless bell tipped scavengers hanging down 2 to 3 inches under the rear pan (bumper?)(two pipes on each side about 10" apart), that's what we would have run when the car was fairly new and they would look terrific now.
interesting... got a pic? ran the headers uncapped almost every time i drove it this summer, loved it, so i'm kinda attached the dump tubes. but i'd like to see the alternative, sounds like a cool look.
Astro's look good, I put them on my daily driver 60 El Camino with skinny whotes and they were a huge improvement over the chrome smoothies and blackwalls I had.
Sorry, no pics. Just picture two pipes centered up under the three taillights on each side about 10" apart from one another. 65 chevy wire wheel hubcaps have a beautiful 3 bladed spinner with an ingraved bowtie if you could figure out a way to mount them (maybe on the large center bullet of a spider), provided you can even find a set. One piece door glass adapted from a 68 or 69, might just fit the opening and would be a nice touch to really clean up the profile, giving the illusion of the top being lower without ruining the proportions. The OEM round mirriors with the little bowties are perfect for the car, but could be moved closer to the door jamb with the one piece door glass, once again cleaning up the look. If you gotta have the Impala emblems, leaving em would look a lot less like an afterthough if they were centered up between the door seam and the wheel opening, and dropped down in the lower area of the fender below the lower fender crease in a manor not unlike the little gold coloured Pentastar Chrysler used to put on the right front fender of every car they made up until around the 70's. Loose any and all seams on non opening panels. Careful though, this mild custom thing really gets addictive.
damn.... im in the same boat as you were. i was originally looking for something a bit different to replace my chrome dish & bullet setup but these wheels really changed the look of this imp & it really looks killer. i guess you cant go wrong with what was popular in the 60s & also makes nearly everything look 100% better. i think i just caved, im gonna look into some 5 spoke style wheels for the chrysler barge (see profile pic)
i THINK a 15x8 oughta fit on the back of a 63, but if i remember right, they are a bit more limited in the rear wheel house. gotta look at the shape of the outer part of the rear wheel well. on my 65, it is near vertical for about 6 or 7 inches, so my stuff fits. want me to compare for ya? i've got a clapped out 64 SS right beside one of my 65 hardtop parts cars... yea, astros are my favorite wheel of the 60s. first car i saw them on was the mint julep 60 pontiac in rod and custom. it was actually recently posted on a custom 60 pontiac post on here. blew me away how good thin whites and astros look.
The astro's look great on there. Could you tell me what brand and style of tires you are running? Thanks.
i bought goodyear regatta 2's, front and back. fella at the tire shop said they were the widest in tread compared to overall width that he knew about and still have the thin white. 215/70/15s up front, 235/75/15 in the back. the 235s are a bit tall, but fill the wheelwell pretty well and look ok on an 8 inch rim. the 215s fit the 15x7s pretty nicely. any wider up front and i'd probably have clearance issues. kustm52... you goin to mokan??????
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