Aftermarket wheels for early Toronados

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sworth66toro
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Re: Aftermarket wheels for early Toronados

Postby sworth66toro » Thu Dec 05, 2013 10:01 am

Here is an interesting toro with aftermarket wheels. Car is listed for trade, didn't contact the saler/trader for wheel details. Says they are Boyd Coddington.

http://danville.craigslist.org/cto/4132153120.html
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bluecab
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Re: Aftermarket wheels for early Toronados

Postby bluecab » Thu Dec 05, 2013 12:44 pm

Since you found the ad, how about e-mailing the guy to find out what the specs on the wheels are?
I would but then so could everybody who is following this thread, possibly annoying the crap out of a guy who is looking to sell a car, not become a technical advisor to the forum…
Let us know what you find!

And Thanks!

sworth66toro
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Re: Aftermarket wheels for early Toronados

Postby sworth66toro » Thu Dec 05, 2013 8:30 pm

I was simply trying to be helpful by posting the link, so someone more versed in wheel specs could follow up and ask the appropriate question(s). I won't be following up with the seller.

bluecab
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Re: Aftermarket wheels for early Toronados

Postby bluecab » Mon Dec 16, 2013 6:09 pm

Well, I tried to contact the seller of the toro with the Boyds wheels, no response.

Captspillane: have you bolted those Jeep wheels up? how about a photo?

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69W34
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Re: Aftermarket wheels for early Toronados

Postby 69W34 » Mon Dec 16, 2013 8:37 pm

Though I don't know much about Boyd wheels here is another example of larger spoke wheels (for all i know they may very well be Boyd. The car is refereed to a 'Wild Thing' its paint job is quite unique and changes color with the light angle.


http://www.cardomain.com/ride/627884/#

Ps it is stated that it is a W34 (Sorry, But it is not)

Below you will find a 66 with spoke style wheels, the photo vantage point however is a bit lacking, they don't appear however to deep or at the very least not as deep as the 66 style.
Of course if one r e a l l y wants something special do as Jay Leno did, have them made!
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bluecab
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Re: Aftermarket wheels for early Toronados

Postby bluecab » Sat Jan 04, 2014 11:26 am

Captspillane,
Did you ever get those Jeep wheels mounted up?

captspillane
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Re: Aftermarket wheels for early Toronados

Postby captspillane » Mon Oct 18, 2021 8:27 am

It looks like all my old posts were deleted. The only posts I remember making were the ones in this thread. At the time I had mounted 16" aluminum wheels from a mid-90's Jeep Grand Cherokee on the front of the Toronado sucessfully by enlarging the center bore of the rims. I didn't have viable 16" tires and the rear leaf needed attention to mount the Jeep tires without rubbing so I stopped there and kept the stock wheels for a long time.

Part of the discussion was proof that you "could" mount 1966 steel wheels on later disk brakes. My 1966 Toronado was owned by a high school friend before me and I helped him upgrade to disk brakes in the front back before I bought it from him. We didn't know the 1966 steel wheels would rub after the upgrade and his solution was to belt sand the caliper and caliper bracket to clear. Very little material actually needed removing and it did work. It was driven about a thousand miles on those wheels and heat was never a problem.

I since purchased 17 inch wheels from a 2008 Jeep Rubicon and fit those on as well. They still have the enormous stock Rubicon tires and it looks awesome and plausible to have an offroad Toronado with those. Cutting the innner fender and a little from the outer fender and adjusting the torsion rods "should" make that a fairly easy thing to do. Its not something I actually will do to mine. I had them on while it was parked for awhile but turning the steering wheel wasn't an option while it sat.

I'm still using the Grand Cherokee 16" wheels. Way back in 2014 is when I set this up in the front. The back wheels, however, were the biggest problem. Even if I smacked out the wheel studs and enlarged the hole and upgraded to 3" studs and a spacer I still wouldn't clear the cooling fins on the brake drum. The Rubicon wheels "might" but the Grand Cherokee wouldn't. I set the project aside at that point.

Now I'm back at it. I can't pass inspection with the old tires and I got newer ones and optimistically put the new tires on the 16" wheels.

captspillane
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Re: Aftermarket wheels for early Toronados

Postby captspillane » Mon Oct 18, 2021 10:22 am

The new breakthrough I had was to research for compatible brake drums. I found a different drum that works perfectly. No modifications at all. I got the brake drums from a 1992 Buick Roadmaster. One of the two brake drums had a chunk of cooling ribs break off as I hammered on it to remove it at the junkyard, which sucks in that I'll need to find another and its awesome in that I can now clearly see the fitment through the hole where it broke. The online sources said Toronados are 3.09" center bore and the Buick is a 3.06" centerbore but it ended up perfect when I tested it. I did not need to file or clearance anything.

The Buick brake drums do not hump up and mate together with the wierd humps in the stock Toronado steel wheels. Now that the drum is normal and flat I can go ahead and install the wheels that I got for it seven years ago.

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Otto Skorzeny
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Re: Aftermarket wheels for early Toronados

Postby Otto Skorzeny » Mon Oct 18, 2021 1:36 pm

That's very interesting.

What's the story on the backspacing and offset of the new rims compared to the originals? That's usually the big sticking point with wheel swaps on the Toro since the wheel bearing will end up in the wrong position relative to the weight of the car.

Post some photos of your car with the current wheels on it. If you have some pics with the previous wheels, post them too.

captspillane
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Re: Aftermarket wheels for early Toronados

Postby captspillane » Mon Oct 18, 2021 3:02 pm

I've heard from internet "experts" that changing backspacing will cause catastrophic failure and I ignore those concerns. I'll readily add 3 inch spacers to any car I drive without anxiety over increased torque on the hub. I've ruined several rims and broken several axles in the past and none of failures were influenced by the spacers. It doesn't matter if the spindle extreme strength is reduced if other parts remain weaker links. The perceived lack of strength of spacers is common but in reality they are more than adequate.

I have a pet peeve where I dont consider any vehicle complete until the outside of the tire is flush with the outside of the fender +/- 1/2". I cringe at cars with the tire recessed like the stock Toronado. I dislike outboarding even worse. I even have 2 inch aluminum spacers on my 5th wheel RV bouncing along with 11K lbs on 6 lug Chevy truck rims with negligible difference in strength to our "tiny" 5K lb Toronados. If I can't break my overloaded 5th wheel I can't worry about a car.

My Jeep Cherokee was built to AMC wisdom that says a vehicle handling improves if the front tire track width is 3 inches wider than the rear. All stock AMC cars and Jeeps irk me with a deeply recessed back tire. There is a 3/4" difference in backspacing from the XJ spoked rims and the XJ ten hole rims, my two favorite styles, so I add 2" spacers to the back axle with the ten holes or 3" to the back and 1" to the front with the spoked rims. All my cars and trucks are flush to the fenders and I'm happy with the handling and the strength. Ive jumped and abused my XJs and broken axles and even had the center of a rim fail on two occasions. The spacers held up just fine.

The Rubicon rims line up the best by my opinion and the Grand Cherokee rims are about a half inch less deep, which is kinda okay by my eye. I may still add a spacer later in the back if I get around to swapping the studs. The factory wheel studs are 1.7" total length and 3" would be a worthwhile upgrade.


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