Cragars on a 1965

[Steve1965]

Has anyone installed 15" x 6" wide Cragar s/s mags on a 1965 with the disc brakes? (Cragar # 61C561232) What is used if they hit the calipers??

[Alan H. Tast]

One possible work-around would involve using your grinder on the back side of the spokes. I recently saw a photo of some spoked mag wheels used on a '66 T-bird that was sold through Shelby-American (yes, THAT Carroll Shelby). Shelby ground a notch in the spokes of one of their cast wheels to clear the calipers and the 'bump' on the outer center of the caliper that formed the brake fluid passage between the caliper pistons. Wheel offset, though, would need to be considered and how deep any modification/notching would be needed.

[Steve1965]

Thank you for the comment. I ended up using a die grinder and only had to remove a very small amount of material on the inside of the calipers to make adaptor plates clear. I did my research and purchased 15 x 7" Cragar S/S direct fit mags. There seemed to be no way to use Cragars without the 1/2" spacer adaptors up front (They are brand new, I really don't want to modify them). The track is widened but there is plenty of room in the front wheel wells though I will roll the lips of the fenders just to make sure. The 7" mags have a 4" backspace where the 6" only have 3.3" but 0 offset on both, the 7 do stick out about 1/2" more than the 6" mags. Not a big deal unless you are running rear fender skirts (with no spacers there of course). I ended up rolling a small area of the fender skirts to provide adequate clearance there. I really like the look of these wheels on my Tbird.

[losendos]

Can you post a picture?