Hot Rods WIDE Rear, SKINNY Front

Ive looked through quite a few threads and found a lot of cool combinations but a lot of them were old and didnt include much if any info so im looking for some pics and specs of hot rods with 12-15in wide rear wheels and 4-5in wide front wheels. I need some inspiration for my 32 since it needs new wheels and im not a huge fan of the current look. Thanks

 

Check out @-Brent-. With his Model A build... You'll love it!

 

Thanks!

Mine has 4" front Ford steelies and 9" rear Halibrand wheels (with 15x10" tires).

 

Have any pics? May be a little smaller than im looking at but sounds cool. lol

 

It has to be tires that were available back in 65, can't do anything pro street looking size here, I've been scolded for it myself

 

Might have to just delete the post and do my own thing. lol

 

I run 15 x10 old American 's on rear and 15 x4 front, not vintage just what I could afford to have the look.

 

The one in your profile pic? I actually ran across it in another thread. It looks great!

 

What are the rear tires you have now, 15x8? Going with a wider slick, like a Radir, will get you a taller tire, too. That may help.

Here's mine:

 

These are 15X4.5 and 15X10 from American Rebel Wheels (now owned by Wheel Smith). I believe they make them up to 14” wide.

 

Thought this was a post about a chic

 

Ohh brother

 

No, my wife

 

When I was a kid I had a slot car that looked just like that but yellow. Loved that thing....

 

Lord no lol, just saying if you're talking BIG tires!

 

If you live near me I have an ***ortment of vintage mags, if bolt pattern worked you could come over and try different combos to get a feel for what you like.
This particular set are 3.5's and 11's

 

10 on back and 4.5 on front

 

Do these tires make my **** look big........I sure hope so!

 

When you change the tires adding front brakes would be a good idea.

 

That is one fine coupe!!!!

 

Here's my big/little. 14x31x15 Firestone double diamonds on the rear and 165-80-15 Texans on front

 

stupid autocorrect changed Nexen to texan

 

I love autocorrect

 

Yes.

 

The thing to remember is that the sidewall height is critical. if you have skinny rubber on the front and fat at the rear, and the sidewall height of the rears is much taller than the front you get an optical illusion which makes the front wheels look bigger than the rears. look at some of the pics of this combo and you will see what I mean. it can work, or not depending on the rest of the stance of the car.

You can compensate for this by running smaller diameter front wheels, but this optical effect can make or break the look of a car from the side.

 

Recently finished another chopped deuce highboy sedan. On the front I'm running polished American Rebel sprints 15X4.5 with 145X15 Michelin XZX radials and on the rear polished American Rebel Sprints 15X10 with 285/70 X15 BFG radials. I got the tires from Speedway because they were close and they offered free freight. Bought the wheels direct. I've ran this combination on several deuces and still go back to it. Last time I looked pewsplace.com had pictures of the sedan.

 

Big and littles are pretty common on old hotrods. But how little you use in front really depends on the weight over the front axle. I run 15" all around, and have pie crust slicks on the rear of both of my cars. But my '39 Chev coupe is a heavy car, so I am running 5" Torq Thrust on the front. My little Austin g***er is over 1000 lbs. lighter, and it has 3.5" Ansen slots up front. Both drive great, and look proportional to the size of the two cars.

 

Looking at your pictures, its hard to tell if its the camera angle or not. The rearend seems to be a little too wide or the bed a little too narrow and creates what appears to be a big space there. Also, (camera angle?) the rear may be slightly too far aft as well. Need some more pictures to actually determine what would help the most. If you can make it to the Street Rod Nationals in Louisville KY the first of August, you can see a lot of wheel vendors there and compare their wares. Last year Summit had a booth where they offered 10% off of almost anything they sell. They also had catalogs with a "number" on them offering a discount for after show buys. You can save quite a bit on large purchases and free shipping. I bought 6 wheels and 4 rear tires so I can work things out when building. If you can make that show there will be thousands of cars to compare and photograph, so you can see what you like first hand. I like to take pics and save them for later reference.

You might look into some of the Pie Crust tires as they usually look good, but if you want wiiddeee street tires, you can see what looks best to you and compare bed widths as well as rearend widths. Bring a tape measure with you.......








You can see that even with a wide tire, the space between the back of the tire and the body affects how the set up looks. So my reccomendation is to think about all the components if you decide to change.