Thirdgen.org, I used to come here religiously when I was a teenager. I'll have to look up my old username, though not sure if I want to remember how stupid I was. Anyways my first car was an 86' 2.8l auto firebird. A week and a half ago I bought a junker 86' TA that I'm going to rebuild completely over the next several years, money and time being the limiting factor. I'm going with a junkyard LQ4, T56, turbo, air ride suspension and basically the entire BMR catalogue. I need to prioritize where to put my money first and avoid compatibility issues. I'm just now learning how difficult these rear ends can be, and also how difficult it is to get the correct backspacing on wheels. I have recently been eyeing the quick performance Ford 9" packages and am leaning towards getting a setup from them some day. My reasoning is that I'll need a rear end and I can't get wheels until I have potentially altered the rear end width so that my wheel backspacing is something a little more commonly available.

My goals with this car are simply cruising/canyon carving and car shows. I'll run it down the strip and maybe do a little autocross but that's not the purpose of the car. I'm all for saving some money but when a new custom rear can solve more than one issue (wheel backspacing, brakes and upgraded gears) I think it's worth the money to just buy something new and custom.

Basically what I'm wondering, rather than specific parts or numbers, is to ask if I'm on the correct path. If I get a custom width differential will this allow me to shop for more readily available wheels? I'm mechanically competent but I'm jumping into the deep end with this project, that's kind of why I got it to learn what I'm doing on a complete rebuild. I have two cars that I have worked on a good deal but nothing to this level.

I just need to learn by asking questions and doing research, even if they're dumb questions. Thank you in advance