I read the sticky on wheel fitment, but I am still at a loss. I am looking to purchase some new wheels and tires. I want the back to be wider than the front (I may even go put of the rear quarters just a touch). My car has disks up front and drums (for now) on the back.

I think the lug pattern is 4.75 on these cars, but what about the offset? Do I really need to be concerned with that? As I said earlier, I may be swapping rear ends for one with disks some time in the near future and want my new wheels to work with that setup as well.

Please help in plain english...LOL. All of these numbers are just running through my head and I don't understand them.

Thank you for taking the time for such a noob question!!!

 

offset is almost as important as the bolt pattern, so yes, it matters a lot.

if you swap in another 3rd gen rear, with discs, the width of the rear will not change, and the wheels will not have to be different. If you use anything else, you need to know what it is before you order wheels since they may require a different offset.

bolt pattern in 4.75

offset and backspacing are 2 ways of locating the mounting surface of the wheel. offset is how far the mount is from the center of the wheel, negative (closer to the back of the wheel) or positive (closer to the outside of the wheel).

Backspacing is the measurement from the back of the wheel to the mounting surface.

***Very important when sizing wheels, the advertised size, is just that, an advertised nominal size. the wheel is actually larger and wider in reality because of how the wheels are measured. A typical 16x8" wheel measures at its true extremities, almost 17x9. the height is not important, but the added width is. If you forget to take that into account, you backspacing and offset measurements will be wrong and may cause serious fitment issues.***

what size wheels are you looking to use? height and width. you need to find something you like first, and see whats available then we can see if its a direct fit or whats needed to make it fit.

the popular factory wheels for 3rd gens are 16x8 with zero offset (4.5" of backspacing) for the front and -16mm offset (5.125" of backspacing) on the rear. Commonly 4 front wheels are used, all with 4.5" of bs for a more even fit.

You can use this as a reference for fitment. If you want a wider wheel, you can add the extra width to the inside of the wheel, increasing the offset/backspacing. You can only go so wide. 9.5" is the most common widest front, 8 is very typical. for the rear you can fit a 10 without much drama, 6" of backspacing is ideal (about +12mm offset), but its not a common fitment. anything less will stick out of the wheel wells more than most people consider acceptable, and anything more will require some more serious metal work inside the wheels wells to make them fit. Depends on what you are willing to do, and again, whats available that you like.