I am the owner of a 1984 El Camino. It has 2" drop spindles on the front an 1.5" shorter springs in back. I'd like to know what size wheels and tirescan be accomodated with this setup. I'd like to have 17X7s on the front and 18X9s on the rear with zero offset. Preferred tires are 225/ 45X 17s on the front and 275/ 40X :huh: 18s on the rear. Does anyone know if this will work?

9" with Zero Offset may work but your backspacing is still going to need to be 4" You really can't get past that and frankly I don't think your going to be able to get all the tire inside the fender well. You can chop the frame and make it all fit.

You have to watch what you put on. You need at least 1/2" of space between the tire and the frame for tire deflection and actually 3/4" is probably better, depending on the tires.

Up front you have to be leery of something that is going to rub the frame and steering linkage when you hard corner and have any speed or drive up while turning into a driveway/street/parking lot with a hump/dip/bumps. 17" rims will work fine. But I'm thinking 8" width is about all your going to be able to do and keep the tire inside the wheel wells.

Old school, putting on 10" rims and big fat tires (slicks) they stuck out and you had to have air shocks or something like that to keep the tire from being eaten up by the wheel well so the back end was jacked up.

I am doubtful that what you have described will fit without rubbing. I have an 82 El Camino with 1-1/2" lowering springs all around. I have 16 x7 Torq Thrust wheels with a 4.0 backspacing. I have 215 x 60 Goodyear Eagles on the front and 235 x55 Eagles on the rear. I tried 225's on the front and they rubbed when making a tight corner and a bump at the same time. The rear tires come real close to the frame rail and the fender lip, so I could not get a much wider tire in there. The front tires have a tread width of 6.8 inches and a section width of 8.7 inches. The rears have a tread of 8.6 and a section of 9.6 inches. After some trial and error, this is about the maximum width that I could get in the stock openings with the 1.5 inch lowering springs that I have. I used the 7" wide wheel because the tires that I picked for the height and width needed a tire in the 6 to 8 in width range.

I'm running 15X8" with 4" backspacing and BFG P235-50 15s on the 76. Of course I'm not lowered but it's plenty space too. Granted that is a Generation 4 El Camino. On the 80 I made it very close but still I went with a 16 X 8" with 4" of backspacing and a P255-50ZR16 all the way around. There is no rubbing and I have some space for sidewall flex on the rear. The front I will say is cutting it close. More flex on the front tires when accelerating around corners and things like that. Its a very tight fit. I have to say I have zero Road time on the 80. So I may be surprised when I finally do get it out.

I made all my measurements prior to tearing apart everything and once I got my wheels and tires I fit them on and went through the stops as far as steering to re-check. The front was my only major concern. There was not much room to start with and that is a lot of rubber. With 9" rims you would have to still use 4" of back spacing with no negative offset 3.75" would be better and then maybe rolling the fender wells would garner you enough room for the tire. But actually a 60 series is not all that big of a tread width. The problems come to play when you lower the truck.

The major portion of the wheel wells will accept the width however lowering it a lot (2" may be that "lot") you get in to the section of the fender wells that narrows. GM never figured someone would have a tire that "tall". Turns out tall is not the issue but up that far is.

Short story, you may be right Jack. Mine is not lowered and if I do it's not going to be over 1", just to give it less drag resistance. The 76, now I could lower the crap out of that sucker! I got a good 2" before it would even have the top of those 15s next to the fender wells, maybe even more. It sits way up high. But then I sort of like it's stance.

Side note here, the 76 and the 80 don't have that big of a difference in the highth, width and dimensions. The 76 chassis is wider than the 80s. But inside the wheel wells its not a big difference.