wheels
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wheels



I believe that if you convert the metric measurements of the LH car wheels, this will be the same bolt pattern as earlier regular Chrysler cars with the 5 bolt pattern, but with metric lug nuts and appropriate tapers in the lug nut holes.  The other main difference in using many late model wheels is that most late model vehicles are designed with bolt-on hub assemblies instead of them being cast into the brake rotor.  This changes the backspacing of the wheel to compensate for that and makes wheels "fwd" or "rwd" in designation.  The bolt-on hub wheels will have the center mounting surface closer to the outside of the wheel rim than the earlier styles. 
 
Measuring what you have (from the mounting surface to the edge, but not the lip, of the inside of the wheel rim) before you go can be a big help.  Also, taking a business card and marking the dimension from the center of one wheel stud to the center of the adjacent wheel stud and marking that on the card (which can also be used to note the backspacing dimension) is a good to do also.  Be sure to also measure the center hole in the existing wheel.  It can be larger, but not smaller. 
 
The wheel you have might be a 5.5" wide rim, usually stamped on the inside of the rim (visible when the tire is unmounted) as "15 x 5.5 JK" or similar (for a 15" rim diameter wheel), so going to a 6.0" wide rim should be no big deal and not affect your existing tires.  Most tires are designed to accomodate a range of rim widths, like from 5.5" - 7.0" with no problems (check some of the tire spec sheets at www.tirerack.com, for more specific information).  Ideally, a tire's rim width would be within one inch of the tire's tread width (as mentioned in a magazine article years ago).  Using a wider rim width will make the sidewall a little more vertical instead of in an arc, making steering response a little quicker but ride a little firmer as some of the "spring" of the sidewall to absorb road shocks will be diminished a little, for a given tire pressure. 
 
Seems like there were some Lincolns and maybe Buicks that used the same bolt pattern as the earlier Imperials.  Hopefully, a salvage yard with a Hollander Interchange Manual could also supply that information with respect to vehicles and particular year models.  Of course, examine anything you purchase for damage and hopefully they will have some way to spin them to see if they wobble before you purchase them.  Once you make a purchase, the yard usually will only swap bad items for other items in their inventory (or that they can get from other yards) rather than refund money.
 
Just some thoughts,
W Bell
 
 


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