Chevyrestoguy's '55 build

[chevyrestoguy]

When I did the initial build way back in '93, I mocked it up using a 15X10 wheel with a 3.5" backspace and a 29X15.50-15 Mickey Thompson tire. It had leaf springs back then, and the inside edge of the tire was pretty close, but it all cleared. A 15X10 tire is too narrow for a 15.50" wide tire, and it causes the center of the tread to be ballooned, and the sidewalls are severely swelled. I didn't want to deal with that on the street for safety reasons. Flash forward a bunch of years....With the air-ride suspension, I no longer have leaf springs, so now I have a ton of clearance. So, I was going to switch to either: 1): a wider rim to fit the 15.50" tire better, or 2): a new wheel/tire combination and take advantage of the increased room on the inside. In the meantime, I was looking for radials, and the two options are either Mickey Thompson or Hoosier, and both are really expensive. So, I really knuckled down and started looking for the cheapest route. Lo and behold, Hoosier had a section on their website called "Closeouts", and they were carrying a discontinued 29X15.50-16 tire for the blowout price of $80(!!!) each. They were originally $315.00 a piece. I wound up buying 4 of them, so I could have a spare. But, this meant that I was committed to a 16" rim, so that presented a new set of issues. I wound up going with ET because I have always loved the big windowed Fueler wheel. I could custom-order any backspace, so I requested a 5" backspace (the original wheels are a 3.5" backspace). So in the end, I moved the rim position 1.5" more inboard, and .5" outboard (original wheel was 10" wide, new wheel is 12"). I saved for months to get them and also sold a bunch of stuff on Craigslist to get the funds to buy them. I'm not a big spender, don't like credit cards, and I rarely buy stuff for myself. I guess this was my Christmas present.