Will these wheels and tires fit on my 62 TBird?

[kbuhagiar]

Hello folks,

I wasn't planning on changing the rolling stock on my 62 Tbird so soon, but a friend with a 64 Galaxie Wagon is upgrading and giving me first dibs on his wheels and tires. The wheels are a five-spoke design similar to American Torq-Thrusts Ds. The fronts are 205R65-15, 7" rim with 4" of backspacing, and the rears are 255R60-1, 8" rim width with 4.5" of backspacing. He is 200 miles away, otherwise I'd have test fitted them already.

I have aftermarket disc brakes on the front of indeterminate origin, but the calipers are the GM Metric style used in many disc brake upgrade kits. The rear is stock.

Whaddya think? Should I just forget about it, or can I entertain the notion that they might fit?

Thanks in advance.

Ken in SSF CA
62 Thunderbird Convertible

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[Bond007]

I think you should go visit your friend.

 

[jack-in-sac]

Hello folks,

I wasn't planning on changing the rolling stock on my 62 Tbird so soon, but a friend with a 64 Galaxie Wagon is upgrading and giving me first dibs on his wheels and tires. The wheels are a five-spoke design similar to American Torq-Thrusts Ds. The fronts are 205R65-15, 7" rim with 4" of backspacing, and the rears are 255R60-1, 8" rim width with 4.5" of backspacing. He is 200 miles away, otherwise I'd have test fitted them already.

I have aftermarket disc brakes on the front of indeterminate origin, but the calipers are the GM Metric style used in many disc brake upgrade kits. The rear is stock.

Whaddya think? Should I just forget about it, or can I entertain the notion that they might fit?

Thanks in advance.

Ken in SSF CA
62 Thunderbird Convertible

I say road trip. Take the bird out and drive to your friends house. Try them front and back. If they fit great. if not you had a good reason to visit.

 

[kbuhagiar]

I'm always up for a good road trip! 😎 The Bird is currently out of service while I am rewiring under the dash, but Mike says I can come and get the wheels any time next week, and just give 'em back if they don't fit, so that's what I'll do.

The car is at my other place, so I can't go and take any measurements, but I'm curious if anyone else here has fitted 8" x 15" wheels on the rear of a 61-63 TBird?

 

[Mrjagrock]

DO not do it! The front tires are way under rated for your 4,000 pound car. Go online and check the load rating- it is too weak for your car. The rears will do nicely. I am former BFS Southwest Tech Service Manager.

 

[MYTFAST]

The following 3 links provide info on 58 - 66 T-Bird wheels/tires. I have a 1964 T-Bird conv and although I have 15 inch wheels, the sites say prior to 64-66 T-birds, 14in. wheels were standard. There's a lot of good info in these 3 sites that may give you some help. I liked the info in link #3 since it also mentioned the possibility of having to deflate the rear tires to some extent to get them out of the wheel well. This brought to mind the problem with the rear of my conv. where, due to the weight of the hydraulics & bracing in the rear trunk area (especially when the top was down) it took a little innovation to deal with the rear tire removal. Since I had an extra helper leaf spring and air shocks to provide additional stability (again, especially when there were rear seat passengers) I not only used the original rear bumper jack, but also had a scissors jack that I could place under the rear axel to manipulate the clearance to get the rear tire out. all tires are P215-75R-15

Hope some of this helps you out & good luck!!!

1) http://wheel-guide.com/makers/ford/thunderbird/1962-Ford-Thunderbird/