Rims
The rims I chose are made by Billet Specialties and are called Stingray's. I went with 17x8's on all four corners with five inches of backspacing. Cost was about $290.00 per rim but that was part of a wheel and tire package deal . I had to buy them from Price Truck Stop in New Mexico as they had an exclusive right to this design in a 17" size. I like them for their simple design and they keep with the theme of the caprice design, rounded and curved, no straight lines.
Two things I do not like about the rims are that they have a set screw to keep the center cap on and the cap on the center cap came in black. I think the set screw was done to lower manufacturing costs as the higher priced Billet Specialties wheels have a threaded cap that screws onto threads that are machined into the wheel. I ordered a GT series center cap from Price Truck Stop thinking it was an aluminum piece when really it was only a cap with a silver background instead of a black one. I think that they offer an aluminum one now, but i will probly end up making some custom ones myself.
I recently saw that they have a new version of this rim out that has the same basic design it just looks more exajerated and radical.
Tires
I origionally got 245/45ZR/17 tires from Price Truck Stop as part of my wheel and tire package. I picked this size because I though the stock Impala tires would not fit in the rear as they looked so big on the Impalas. A couple of months later I found a deal on the tires that come stock on the new Impalas, 255/55/17. I had seen these tires on customized Caprice station wagons in my area but never knew the backspacing of the rims or if the owners did any special modifications to get them to fit. So I bought a set of the 255/55/17 tires and figered if they did not fit I could always sell them to an Impala owner. I found that the 255/55/17 size filled up the fender better and was a little but smoother ride. The tire tread is not as aggressive looking as the ZR series but I could live with that.
Fit
One question I get alot is "what is the biggest tire and rim combination I can put on my caprice that has rear fender skirts?"
First a lesson on Backspacing (there will be no quiz)
As I understand backspacing you start at the back of the rim where the rim meets the hub, the rims mounting surface, (where the bolt go through) this is then your point of reference (as it will never change) then you measure the rim from that point to the furthest point on the rim either way. If you measure back to the inner bead of the rim then you have backspacing if you measure forward to the outer bead of the rim then you have front spacing. both are helpful in determining if a rim will fit but most shops only use the backspacing measure because usually if that is ok then the front will be fine to. if you have an 8 inch wide rim with 5 inches of backspacing then you would have 3 inches of frontspacing. back plus front always equals width of rim (give or take a 1/8 of an inch here or there). Keep in mind that I am talking about the overall total width of the rim. Eventhough it may be a 10 inch rim it is probly 10 3/8" wide overall.
You can make this measurement easier by putting a straight spiece of something across the back of the rim so that the furthest outer diameter depth level is transfered over the center of the rim so you can measure easier with a standard tape measure from the mounting surface up to the bottom edge of the cross piece.
As mentioned before the backspacing of my rims is 5 inches. I heard from a guy who has 17 x 9.5 rims on the rear of his Caprice and says under a heavy load or taking a driveway at an angle he gets rubbing on the frame. I belive he said he had rims with 5.5" backspacing. The space between his outer tire wall and his fender lip was minimal but there were no signs or rubbing. On my car the space between the outer tire wall and the fender skirt lip is as follows:
Toward the front of the car (looking at drivers side tire - 9 o'clock) = 1 1/4"
Toward the rear of the car (looking at drivers side tire - 3 o'clock) = 1/2"
The more important measure to look at is how much space there is between the outer tire wall and the fender at the 12 o'clock position, or inside of the fender. If you look at the body line of the Caprice you will see that above the fender skirt lip, where it crosses the tire, the body panel actually goes in toward the center of the car. I do not know exactly how far it goes in but estimating the space on my car it is no more that 1/2 of an inch. So I think anything wider than the 255/55/17 tires you will be rubbing when you go into driveways at an angle or take a corner very hard.
If you have any further information to add to this topic please write. Especially if you own a lowered roadmaster, caprice wagon, or olds custom cruiser with 17 inch rims and tires. I would be curious to know what the diffrences are, if any, between all of these models. Price Truck Stop 5500 N. Main Roswell, NM 88201 505-623-1450 800-842-7109 FAX 505-624-1425