I've had a hard time finding pictures on here of cars with front wheels on the back. There was a black IROC on here that said he switched his front and rear wheels around, but they werent very good pictures and I couldnt realy tell much.

Obviously, the rears have a different offset... so I was wondering what it looks like when you have front wheels on the back, does it just look awkward or does it not look that bad at all? Any pictures?

I ask because I've got 2 pairs of front wheels...

And they're 16s... I think the 15's have a different offset or something, dont they?

 

I can't say that I know much, but I do own an '89 Formula with 16 inch wheels, an '85 IROC Z28 with 16 inch wheels, and my son owns an '89 Camaro RS with 15inch wheels.

Basically the 15 inch wheels are the same all around, no offset differences on the 15" wheels.

The 16" wheels are all front/rear specific with different offsets. I think the Front have less backspacing than the rear, but I don't think it's much. From looking at the "dish" on the Formula wheels, I would say less than 1/2 inch differnece. The Camaro wheels have no "dish" at all, so it's hard to tell without measuring which I have not done.

How the offset/backspacing compares between the 15" and 16" I have no idea, but the 15" are a 7" wide rim and the 16" are an 8" wide rim.

Also, what the Front's look like on the rear, I don't know. If the Fronts have less backspacing, then it would seem that putting fronts on the rear would just make them stick out 1/2 inch more which could be ok.

Sorry I don't have any pics to show.

 

Doesn't it depend on which rear end you have as well? Some rears had 1/2" spacers with the 16" rims

 

I guess I have never heard or seen spacers on the rear end. I have 3 3rd gens in my fleet and didn't see any spacers (not like that means any thing). I also took the rear 16" wheels from my '85 IROC that are marked "rear" and put them on the rear of my sons '89 RS. They seemed to fit the same on both cars. The '89 RS has the 15" Rims stock.

Other than that, someone else will need to confirm this spacer thing. What I think you are saying is that if there is a spacer, you could possibly remove it and get the wheel back to normal.

I also read that maybe the drum brake rear ends are a bit wider than the disk brake versions? Then spacers would make sense. I only have drum brake versions.

Other than that, I have no clue....maybe I don't have a clue about that either....

 

Formula and GTA wheels are a 16mm offset. The fronts have a deeper dish. If you put the rear up front they will scrub wht inner fender and sway bar on deep turns. If you had 4 fronts, that would be OK..the rears would stick more in-line with the rear fender top lip

 

I vaguely recall something about the drum rears having no spacer, but the disc rears did. Or maybe that's backwards?

Anyway, if anyone has a picture I'd like to see how funky it would look, but hopefully it wouldnt look too bad!

I've got 2 polished wheels I plan to put on the front, and I plan to take the wheels that come off and polish those, put tires on 'em, and throw those on the rear, but only if it doesnt look goofy, and Im not sure yet if it doesn't...

 

i heard about the front wheels fitting well on the rear so i tried it. my car original had small less then 1/4" spacers on the stock rear discs. the front wheels stick out mybe a 1/2 to an 1" more depending on tire size nd i would love to havea set of fronts widened for the rear so i could run a stock wheel with a 295 or so tire.

 

Did anyone think GM had a reason for making the IROC wheels "FRONT" & "REAR" ?????

 

You can get an extra pair of fronts and put them on the rear, but you can't put the rears on the front, they hit the tie rod ends. Here's a pic of one of my old cars with 4 front wheels on it. I liked it, but it's a pain because you need 4 fronts and 4 rears are useless.

 

Wow, that looks great! I think I'm gonna be pleased using 4 fronts, then...

Coincidentally, that car looks exactly like mine, only I've got the 91-92 wheels... I'd rather have IROCs, but hell they look good enough for me, and I have them already.

 

from what i have read and like everyone else has said... only on the 16" and i have 16's on my trans am and they are stamped front and rear. now i go to the u pull it all the time and i never see any 15's stamped but every set of factory 16's i find are stamped and i don't think the reason could be anything other than looks. but i could be wrong... however since 4th gen rearends will fit our cars as a bolt in and thoughs are wider in length by like 4" total and noone has a problem with them... i think gm was messing with our minds well thats my opinion anyway.

 

GTA 16" crosslaced rims are made in Japan by SSR. Even GM back then knew where the nice rims are made.....*middle finger to cragar*

 

I think the 16" rims on the 85/86 TransAms were also made in Japan by ATS.

 

I have a 92 Formula with the deeper dish on the front wheels. I thought that was so weird when i bought it. I have never seen wheels that were deeper in the front then the rear. But my question is that since i have a 92 formula with the 16" wheels would the old 15" turbo cast wheels fit on my car? I am wanting to do a knight rider conversion but I am now thinking that the wheels will not fit.

If they will not fit, what do i have to do to the car to make it work?

 

I had the late '70s early '80s turbo dish wheels on my '82 and I have used them on my '88. BTW, they have 295s on the rears and there was no rubbing. And my '88 is lowered 2".

I really want to get another pair of fronts too. I may have to go to the junk yard soon.


When I was running the turbo wheels on my '88, I put the Formula wheels on my '73 Nova, and with the fronts in the front, and the rears in the rear, the front tires rubbed on the lip. So I swapped them front to rear and had no problems. They even looked better that way. I won't be doing that to my bird though.

 

I have an 85, and also had an 86 parts car, Both Iroc Z's with drum rears. Both had 16" iroc wheels with wheel spacers on the rear drums. I have a separate set of wheels from the parts car, and carry a spare front rim when I go on a road trip. I always figured I could pull the spacer and use a front rim on the rear if I had tire problems.

 

A

 

I know this is a old thread but yes, all thirdgen 16x8 wheels have a front rear specific offset.
Four fronts can be used

 

^^^^ What he said, just dont try to put the rears on the fronts!!