Cragar SS wheels


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By Fordy Guy - 16 Years Ago
Hi Fellow Y-Blockers.

Just wondering if anyone out there has put a set of 15" cragar ss original mags under a 55 Bird with stock drum brakes. I think the wheels I have on my Bird are the originals and they are mounted with 205x75R15's. I have about 1/2inch of clearance from the inside of the tire to the ball joint. I measured the wheel using what I found on the internet on how to measure back spacing etc etc. Anyway,the wheels are 15x6 and backspacing is 3 1/4" offset is 1/2" or 13mm positive. I looked at Cragar wheels and found a set #61615 but the offset is neg 4mm.

Just wondering if anyone is running a set WITH their skirts.

Thanks in advance for any info.                  Bud

By simplyconnected - 16 Years Ago
Fordy Guy (4/14/2009)
...Just wondering if anyone is running a set WITH their skirts.  Bud

Welcome aboard, Bud.
The biggest problem is wrestling the tires over your rear drums.  Once that happens, you should be ok.  Some '55 & '56 Fairlanes came stock with 16" tires.  Mainline and Customline came with 15" x 5" rims.  T-bird frames and axles are the same, but I don't know what rims they came with.

Dave

By Duck - 16 Years Ago
A '55 or '56 Tbird would have 15" x 5"'s new from the factory- '57 Tbirds came with, 14" x 5" 's
By GREENBIRD56 - 16 Years Ago
My '56 had the 15 x5's on it - with skirts - and the wheels check out to be offset inboard 1/2 inch at the centerline.

I wanted 16's on my outfit - so I've put 225/50/16 tires on some 16x7 rims on there. By using some 1-1/2 inch inboard offset wheels and a 1-1/2 inch spacer on the hub, I've got the new wheels centered where the old ones were 1/2 inboard (this is at the rear axle).

The skirts won't clear the tire sidewalls. There is sufficent room to move the wheel another 1/2 inch toward the leaf spring (closest contact point inboard) and have sufficient space to avoid ever touching. I don't know if that 1/2 inch is enough to let the skirts fit.