yenko chevelle wheels

[Rat_Pack]

Jeff, every set of 200S ARE wheeels I have owned and have now, have American Racing Equipment cast into the backs. What you have are an exact copy made by Western sometime in the late 70's. I have never gotten the complete story on them but they seem to have come from the exact same mold. Unless you look at the backs of them you would never know. I have owned a few sets of those and a freind of mine has one on his car with the other 3 being true Americans.

I looked at a set of slot mags this weekend and they did not have any casting mfg name on the back except M.P.C AH-1 and they had ARE center caps. The centers came through from the back of the wheel which I do not believe that American ever did their slot mags this way. What is strange is that these wheels required use of the American small diameter lug nut. I passed on these wheels as I could not use them for my car but they were mint.

What year and type of car are you going to put these wheels on? I have had all types of combinations on just about all years of Camaro's and Chevelle's..................RatPack.............

[Jeff H]

I was going to put these wheels on my 69 JL8 Z28. I'm pretty sure the backspacing is wrong so I'll just sell them. They have push in center caps, not caps that mount from the rear. I've heard the ARE had other companies making wheels for them which did not have ARE on the back.

[Rat_Pack]

Jeff, you are better off selling them. About the only ones that can use those are guys with the 70-73 Camaro's and 73-77 Chevelle's. Those slot's that I looked at buying were 15 x 10 and had 3-1/2" of backspacing and were on a 72 Camaro. They looked good on the back of it with 275/60 tires but they did rub a little, but not much.

The Blue Maxi (69 Car & Driver give-away car) had 15 x 8-1/2" 200S wheels on it with G60 tires but I do not know how they got them to clear on the front. The last time I saw the car it had 245/60 Goodyear Eagles all the way around. The rear wheelwell lips had been rolled under a little and a couple of the bolts holding the front wheelopening moldings on were removed. I could not tell if there was some "massaging" of the inner fenders for clearance. I sold a set of 4 8-1/2" rims to a friend and he put them on his 69 RS and he could not run the same size tire on the front as he did on the rear. He probably could have if he would have taken the time to do some measuring and test fitting. He is running a very short and narrow 75 series tire up front that really "balloons" the sidewall out, it does not look good at all. Try finding a pair of 15 x 7's to match the two 8-1/2's you already have and mix them up that way..................RatPack.................

[Jeff H]

That's my plan. But the 15x8-1/2's have 3.5" backspacing as well and I'm thinking that might push them out too far. I'll see if they fit and if they do I'll keep them. I never realized how difficult it is to match up these older wheels with the right combination of size, backspacing, getting the correct lugnuts, center caps, etc. I guess this is part of what makes the restoration fun.

[tom406]

That's why there were so many god-awful flare jobs and air shock/shackle kits back in the day. It's amazing that it took 30 years to get wheels with decent backspacing options. Short of narrowing the rearend (on a JL8 car, LOL) I'd recommend searching the new wheel/retro style options by companies like ET3, American, and Vintage Wheel Works. Not the same, I know, but with early Camaros and midyear Corvettes, the options are limited. (Now with Impalas and Galaxies and the full size like, you can run just about anything, but thats another story)

[hugger1]

I have a set of the Mickey Thompson wheels Rat pack refered to.
Rat Pack , you cant get lugs for these wheels anymore ?
Is having a set machined the only option other than making the lug hole larger ?

[Rat_Pack]

Hugger1, I had a set machined down in length and drilled out the holes in the wheels. I did not want to machine the diameter of the lug nuts down as I was afraid that it might weaken them...................RatPack............