Just out of curiosity I measured the aftermarket wheels the PO of my '92 had put on and they came out to 17". I thought, "sweet, better than the stock 16" ones". And again out of curiosity, I went up to the attics where I have the original rims and measured them and they too came out to 17". How's this possible when I thought the largest ones offered were 16"?Am I wrong and they did indeed offer 17" rims? I thought it was pretty self explanatory when it comes to measuring rims, but is there a specific way to do it rather than just side to side to get the diameter? Please explain if there is. Thanks in advance guys.

 

huh? that is odd, i didn't think there were any rims larger then 16" either, except maybe firehawk rims which i dont know how big they are, but can you really call that factory since it was technically an slp car? at any rate its interesting, pics?

 

sounds like your measuring the outer lip of the wheels.
You need to measure the rim where the bead sits.

 

Yes, measure at the bead. But the easier way, is if there's a tire of any sort still on the rim, it will have the tire size, which also includes the rim dimension, molded into it.

 

This is true-or look at the tire size if the wheels have tires on them. Also when they say a wheel is 8" wide if you meassure lip to lip it will be more like 9: wide and so on. Also mesure bead seat to bead seat. Yes 16" was the largest wheel that came stock on the 3rd gens

 

Okay that's what I thought. What is the bead you speak of?

 

the bead is the part of these rims just inside the lip (the flat part before the actual rims curves in)



they're 15s but you get the idea

 

Right, it's where the tire and the wheel meet and seal up. It's that lip on the tire that is part of the side wall that you can't see when the tire is mounted to the wheel.