1970 914 Chalon wheels

[AMP555]

I've just traded for a original 1970 914 Chalon with 28k miles, the fuchs on there aren't staggered, I've heard the width in the back should be 9 inch and 6 in the front,my question is what tire size would fill the flares? I'm looking to put 17x6/17x9 rims on it.thanks

[Cairo94507]

Congratulations. Post some pictures of the car so we can all see how it looks.

[Dave at Pelican Parts]

The body kit parts can differ, as can the installation of the kits on a particular car. The best thing to do is to measure how much space you have. The rear fenders are traditionally more of a problem than the front, especially with staggered wheel fitment.

You need to start with which wheels and tires you currently have. And you'll need to know which wheels you are considering using, because some of them sit further out in the fender and some sit further out.

In general, you figure out the smallest amount of room you have on each side of a rear tire--from the sidewall to the inner fender, and from the other sidewall to the outer fender. Find where the new wheels put the extra width (often but not always outward), and determine how much space you have there.

Finally, there's the tire. The "section width" (e.g., 205 in 205/50-15) is very approximately the width of the tire in mm. So if the smallest amount of space you have available is 30mm, you can go with a tire that is 30mm wider on each side of the wheel--so 60mm wider. Except you should leave 5-10mm on each side for tire deflection and error margin. And when you put a tire on a wider wheel, it actually gets even wider by about 5mm per inch wider wheel. (This is one reason you need a fudge factor! And because not all tires have the same overall width for the same nominal section width.)

With all that, you may still need to try a couple of tire sizes to be certain what does and does not fit. Start smaller, and go up from there. You can still drive on tires that are a little small.

--DD

[Racerbvd]

Mine had 7&9X15s.. This is the only picture I have of it.