Well I have put off spending the money for wheels long enough. Things are far enough along to confirm the final measurements and decide on which wheels I really want to put on the wagon.

Rechecking Wheel Clearances

Sometime ago I had bought a Percy’s Wheelrite measuring tool and I had done some initial measurements to get me in the ball park of what size wheels I could get to fit my wheel wells and brake discs/caliphers. In particular the 13″ front discs and dual piston caliphers pretty much force me into using at least a 17″ wheel. The 11 1/4″ rear discs and caliphers need a minimum of 16″ rims to clear everything so I had pretty much settled upon either 17″ wheels all the way around or 17″ wheels in the front and either 17″ or 18″ wheels in the back. The rear wheel clearance with a 7″ rim and 4″ offset (either 17″ or 18″ wheels) would give me a good 3/4″-1″ clearance to the wheel well lip and almost 2″ clearance to the frame. A 8″ wide rim would be very tight on the passenger side wheel well lip.

I had originally thought that I might like to have a set of American Racing Torque Thrust 5 spokes on the wagon, but then I started looking at some of my car show photos and I then realized that darn near every ’55 to ’57 era car was sporting some manner of 5 spoke wheel, which got me thinking about other options. A good friend of mine had suggested a polished Halibrand style wheel might look good and after playing around with it in Photoshop I decided that he was right. While looking at the American Racing catalog, I noticed the Salt Flat Special style wheel that seemed to be just the right look for the old girl.

After spending more time with the American Racing catelog an a Summit Racing sales rep, I found that although the Salt Flat Special is a custom wheel, it is not offered in an 18″ x 7″ size, so the choice was made! I ordered a set of four 17″ x 7″ x 4″ back space Salt Flat Special wheels from Summit Racing and they should be here in early January 2013.