79 Olds Cutlass Wagon school project...

[cencalc6]

Great story man,your doing a great job

[SRD Art]

Thanks!

[SRD Art]

First off, you'll have to excuse the quality of the cell phone photos...

When I was looking for a wheel and tire combo I really spent some time researching how big a tire you can fit on a G-body. I so wanted to run a 315-30-17 out back but just couldn't find an 11" wheel price (including spacers if needed) that fit my budget of $1200 for wheels and tires. I finally settled on MB "Old School" wheels, a great price and nice looking. Tony had another g-body Malibu wagon that he put 'em on, with a 285-40-17 on 17x9.5 out back and 245-45-17 on 17x8 up front. I liked his car, but the fronts looked too skinny, maybe it was just the illusion created by stock height suspension.



I also read a lot of g-body debates about how wide a tire can fit up front. The consensus seemed to be an 8" wheel with a 245 width was about maxed out. Well, I like taking things to the extreme so I decided I would make something wider work, whatever it took. I decided on 275-40-17 on 17x9.5s out back and 255-40-17 on 17x9.5s up front. The kid with the Hudson in my class works at Discount Tire so his manager swung me a smokin' deal on the wheels and Nitto 555 tires, $1164, mounted and balanced not including sales tax.

Pictured here is the 255 on 9.5 compared to a 225-50-16 on my 16x8 GTA wheels.





Remember the front of my car has been lowered and has sagged to about 4.5" in the front and the rear is about a 3" drop. When I first bolted on the wheels things were waaaaay tight and the fenders were resting on the tires. It reminded me of a lowered import with deep offset rims and I didn't like it at all. The manager told me if they didn't fit up front he'd swap me for the 17x8s and I was seriously considering that.



I have had on my to-do list to raise the front suspension anyway so I built some small 6" tall stands from 2x4s and set them under the frame just behind the front tires o raise the car to where I wanted it. Right there it gave me some better clearance and the tires could turn without touching.

Here is a picture of stock height, 27" at the top of the wheel opening, and a 3" drop- 24" at the same spot.





Since these fenders won't be used on the car we decided to use a large slide hammer and moved the fender eyebrow out 1/4 inch and that was even better for clearance. I really think this will work, especially after a little more massaging of the fender lip.

[SRD Art]

So to answer the question, yes you can run a 9.5" wheel and 255's up front on a g-body. BUT there are some issues that need to be addressed. This 9.5" wheel has 5.5" back spacing, that's pretty deep, and obviously that makes 4" width from the rotor outward. As you see them I have a 3/4" spacer behind them. This is a definite necessity, notice how close the rim is to the tie rod. It doesn't contact the wheel but it would probably knock off clip on weights.



Another problem area is that the tires would hit the rear side of the plastic inner fender wells in the area where the arrow is and would not allow them to turn all the way. Simply removing and/or modifying them will give the necessary clearance.



Here's the passenger side with the inner fender well removed and the wheels at full lock.

[SRD Art]

Here are a few more reference photos. Notice also with the 3/4" spacer and the wide wheels the front track is now wider than the rear, even with the 275-40s back there. Tony used 1" spacers on his car to kick the rear wheels outward.



Since I'm narrowing the 9" rear anyway, I'll simply make it 1" wider than the factory wagon rear on each side. This should give the whole car a bit more of a wide stance. Overall I think the wheels look great and will work out fine even with the car being lowered 3". I plan on painting the centers that are now grey to black to better match the car.