Help me solve a wheel dilemma

[MrFreeze]

I finally had time to put the '64 up on the lift.  It all looks pretty good underneath, except nearly all the rubber bushings are dried and cracked.  But my first problem to solve is the wheels.

 

I removed the front wheels to see just how badly my drums had been butchered.  I could tell from underneath that the cooling fins had been "modified" by someone with an angle grinder, in order to get the new wheels to fit.  Pic below with the wheel off.  It also seems that the same grinder was used to grind the head off of some rivets that I guess were keeping the new rim from fitting flat against the drum.

 

I thought these were replacement cast iron drums, but in fact they are aluminum.  So what do you guys think?  Are they ruined?  Would you run them?  If they are toast I will likely change to disks.

 

The weirdness continued on the back of the car.  It turns out the new wheels will not come off the vehicle - they are captive between the drum and the fender lip.  This is because the person fitting the rear wheels opted to install 1-1/2" thick spacers (visible in one pic as the blue disk bolted to the drum).  I "assume" the wheels were installed with the tires deflated, and then aired up once they were on the car.  This explains why there is a can of fix-a-flat in the trunk along with the jack.

 

These are not especially wide tires: 205/75R15.  But the spare is a 225/70R15 (brand new, on a Cragar rim, clearly never seen the road).  It wouldn't fit into that fender well no matter what.  The result of all this is that the rear track width is about 2" wider than the front.  Not sure how big a deal that is.  I have about 300 miles on the car now and it actually drives quite nicely.

 

My ultimate goal is to get 17" wheels that are as close as I can come to what I believe are known as "Buick Rally wheels."  But these seem to be unobtanium in a 5 x 5 bolt pattern.  So the other helpful advice I need is:

 

Can these wheels be found in 17" with 5 x 5 pattern?  If so, where?

If so, what rim width and backspacing would I need?  I believe stock backspacing is something like 3-3/8".

And what tire size is a good fit?  Considering something like 225/60R17.

If they can't be found, I have options:

 

1. Change existing 5 x 5 pattern to something like 5 x 4-3/4 using spacers (1" thick?)

2. Convert front to disk brakes with 5 x 4-3/4 pattern rotors and have rear axles redrilled to match

3. Follow sage advice from anyone here who has already been down this road, so I don't have to reinvent the wheel (pun intended, sorry about that)

 

Looking forward to taking advantage of the accumulated wisdom on this forum.  Thanks for ready this long post, and thanks in advance for any help you can offer.

 

Best regards,

MrFreeze

[avgwarhawk]

Front drums are fine IMO.  Less cooling surface with the fins ground down.  Jack the rear of the car using the chassis. Not tyr the axle.  It will allow the axle to fall away permitting the rear tire to be removed.

[XframeFX]

1) An upgrade for brakes would be a master cylinder swap to dual circuit. Rivieras have huge 12X2" lining area under those front aluminum drums. Disk brakes for a full custom. What are your plans?

2) 1964 was the last year for 3" hubs. Often previous Owners install spacers for custom wheels to bypass the large hub resulting in the wheel being centered on the lugs only. 1965 went to a smaller 2.75" hub.

3) Most stay with 15" wheels. There's a Tech Article on the ROA website (www.rivowners.org) doing major surgery to Buick Formula V wheels making them 17"

4) My understanding on those rivets is to make the hub and drum one piece to balance as an assembly (the hub as a mandrel on the balancer). Once the wheel is installed, those rivets serve no purpose.

 

Consider this: The Riviera already had good stuff. A same year Skylark coupe had the same outside dimensions but had 10" brake drums with 14" wheels!

Also, GMC pickups used 5on5 wheels as well.

One of several websites to do virtual experimentation for wheel options:

http://wheelsize.com/

 

 

 

 

Edited September 21, 2022 by XframeFX (see edit history)