Hello folks, I’m back again. Just picked up some second gen snowflake wheels for my 82. Got some NOS never been mounted ones for $25 a piece. I’m going to run 14s in the front and 15s in the rear. Got the tire sizes all figured out, 205 70/14s in front and 225 60/15s in rear. What I’m still not sure of is whether I need some kind of hub spacers. My car came factory with steel 14x6. I imagine I need different lugnuts, and some center caps that will clear. Anybody running something similar? Hoping to look like this 82 prototype from a newspaper clipping . Peep the 81 style mirrors

 

Wow,October 1980!... R&P steering didn't make it,the rest of that is pretty much what we got at the very end of 1981...I don't think spacers will be needed -I did not need any when I temporarily used wheels from my '69 camaro on my '82

 

good deal thanks for the info. I noticed that too, sure woulda been neat if they’d kept the steering. Wonder if that prototype car got crushed or if it got “rescued” and is sitting in a woods somewhere...

 

Very cool article and pictures. Yeah, those side mirrors are puny, and they look like they're mounted so far back that a driver would have to lean his head back to be able to see out of them.

Nothing different about hub fitment for "early" 3rgens vs any other year 3rdgen. What fits an early year, will fit the same way on any other year.

From what I've found, 2ndgen 15x7 wheels have a 12mm offset. 2ndgen 14x7 wheels also have a 12mm offset. The backside of 3rdgen wheels have size and offset cast into the wheels. Not sure if 2ndgen wheels do, but take a look and use that info to compare fitment onto a 3rdgen.

2ndgen 7" wheels with a 12mm offset will probably fit the rear decently without a spacer. The front too, however, the fronts will be tucked in a lot, so you might want to consider pushing the fronts out with a spacer in the 10mm to 18mm range, for a fitment that looks similar to the rear.

Here's a fun place to play with fitments. And since the tightest factory fitment was 245/50-16 tires on 16x8 wheels with 0 offset front/16mm offset rear(although 0 offset front and rear is considered the norm for aftermarket fitment), I always use those specs as a base for comparing other wheel fitments. If new wheel fitment specs fit similarly to the 16" wheels, then there won't be any issues and fitment will look good.
Custom wheels, rim tire packages (rimsntires.com)