1967 GTO vintage wheel options
 

I can’t seem to fit any decent size rear wheels on my ‘67 GTO without the tires rubbing on the wheel openings.

I have a nice set of 15x7” Torq Thrust wheels with redline tires that used to look great on my old 67 Malibu, but won’t fit in the wheelhouse of my 67 GTO. “big gear head” posted in another thread that the ‘67 Chevelle rear is 1” narrower than the ‘67 GTO rear because Pontiac had that wide trac thing going on. I recall reading that somewhere.

That being the case, if I don’t want to raise my GTO from factory height, I can’t fit more than a 14x6” wheel on the rears without rubbing. Best I could find in a vintage wheel was a set of 14x6 Cragar G/T that has a 4 3/4” backspace which are very similar to the backspace on the factory steelies.

Anyone else able to run a nice vintage wheel on their 1967 GTO?

http://i.imgur.com/6PesfsF.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/v6YH8i7.jpgd

I should add that I do like the look of the factory steelies with hubcaps and bias ply redlines, but I’d like to have a set of radials that I can throw on when I want to go on a road trip from time to time.

Here’s the factory look. I really lucked out with a neat evening sky about a week ago...

http://i.imgur.com/99OtmxZ.jpg

----Helmut,,,I can't imagine you haven't checked the clearance on the back side, but if you haven't you should. There are good looking wheels out there that you can have made to your dimensions. Good looking GTO by the way. Love it with the hubcaps! I know you can get steel wheels with less back space, therefore wider..….Bill S

Great looking 67! I dig the hubcap look too. The chrome reverse wheels I run are 15x7 but the key is backspace. Most early mags only had 3-3/4" backspace. I think these I have are a little over 4" backspace.

Great pic Helmut,..that’s a great looking car , but I am somewhat biased!

I know this not a direct answer to you question.
But the key to good tire fitment is mock up.
The car can have more clearance on one side than the other because the frame is slightly shifted to on side or the other. This can occur for multiple of reasons and may have come straight from the factory this way.
We would move the rim inward by increasing the back spacing . You do not have to shorten the diff just increase back spacing.
I would start with moving the rim inward as far as you can go with out having tire rubbing issues.
Mock-up is key to good tire fitment. We would use inexpensive steel rims during mock up.
I would go with a 15" tire & rim, they fill the wheel well better and adds to the joy of driving by providing superior performance.
All tires have slightly different profiles / bulge so it good to know the tire you want to run.

I’ve only run 15x6 Cragar GTs on mine with a 215/70 tire. No issues but you already knew that....

Tony, I figured you would have gone through this same scenario. Funny that we both settled on the same wheel. I’ll look for a set of 15x6 Cragar G/Ts. Thanks.

Thanks for all the input and ideas everyone. My goal was to find a vintage set of Torq Thrusts with enough backspace, but no luck so far.

I’ll try another couple options for you and let you know what fits.

'66/'67 GTO's are tricky to fit a rear tire. Those voluptuous quarter panels make you think there's a lot of space, but as was stated earlier, they won't even take what fits on a Chevelle. When we built this '66, we found that the inner fender outers are shaped a lot more conservatively, and come in even a bit more than the fender lip as I recall. Early '66 GTOs were fitted with the '65 width rearend, before changing to the "wide track" one inch wider unit for the rest of '66/'67 production. On this car we used stock wheel wells but had a custom 9" rearend made. With that rearend I was able to use a 255/60/15 on an off-the-shelf 15x8" Specialty Wheel (via Coker) chromed Rally I.