Uploaded September 2026 | Updated September 2026, 3 hours ago
Fitting wider tires on a classic car sounds simple — until you meet a 1964 Falcon's teardrop wheel well. In this episode we plus-size the wheels and tires on the Falcon Futura and find out the hard way what actually clears once the suspension drops into full droop.
We went with a 225/50/16 — the 225/45 only comes in a high-performance tire, and it was fighting the lip — so we stepped up to a taller diameter that's still shorter than the tallest tire Ford hung on a '64 Falcon back in the day, just a lot wider. With a factory-style 4¼ offset, the question was never the backspacing. It was getting the meat past that low teardrop lip. Spoiler: it fit, and nobody had to roll a fender.
Along the way we get into the stuff that actually bites classic Ford owners: why full-droop clearance is the measurement that matters (and why you have to lift off the body and the axle to check it), how a leaf-spring axle moves fore-and-aft instead of rolling out at the top — so a lip you can almost clear will usually live — why axle centering can throw your gaps off side-to-side, the lug nuts we'd rather run and why, and the reason the teardrop lip on early Falcons, Fairlanes and Galaxies won't take a store-bought fender roller. That one's a baseball-bat job.
If you're plus-sizing wheels on a classic and sweating the clearance, this is the one to watch before you order tires.
Next episode: we take it out on the road and I finally explain why the three-speed has to go.
#ClassicFord #FordFalcon #TireFitment
It's Not Madness, It's FORD!
Follow the full build of The Lizard and the rest of the shop projects right here on Manic Mechanic.
It's Not Madness, It's FORD!
SUPPORT THE SHOW
- Grab a crew shirt, hat, or mug from the store
autorestomod-shop.fourthwall.com
- Join us on Patreon at the $10/month level — monthly Zoom hangouts, tech Q&A, and t-shirt giveaways. It helps pay Joseph and our editor, and keeps the shop running.
patreon.com/c/gasolinemedia
It's Not Madness, It's FORD!
Sponsors:
autokrafters.com
moderndriveline.com
Contact: Jford@autorestomod.com Insta: @autorestomod patreon.com/gasolinemedia
Episode 346 Manic Mechanic
Fitting wider tires on a classic car sounds simple — until you meet a 1964 Falcon's teardrop wheel well. In this episode we plus-size the wheels and tires on the Falcon Futura and find out the hard way what actually clears once the suspension drops into full droop.
We went with a 225/50/16 — the 225/45 only comes in a high-performance tire, and it was fighting the lip — so we stepped up to a taller diameter that's still shorter than the tallest tire Ford hung on a '64 Falcon back in the day, just a lot wider. With a factory-style 4¼ offset, the question was never the backspacing. It was getting the meat past that low teardrop lip. Spoiler: it fit, and nobody had to roll a fender.
Along the way we get into the stuff that actually bites classic Ford owners: why full-droop clearance is the measurement that matters (and why you have to lift off the body and the axle to check it), how a leaf-spring axle moves fore-and-aft instead of rolling out at the top — so a lip you can almost clear will usually live — why axle centering can throw your gaps off side-to-side, the lug nuts we'd rather run and why, and the reason the teardrop lip on early Falcons, Fairlanes and Galaxies won't take a store-bought fender roller. That one's a baseball-bat job.
If you're plus-sizing wheels on a classic and sweating the clearance, this is the one to watch before you order tires.
Next episode: we take it out on the road and I finally explain why the three-speed has to go.
#ClassicFord #FordFalcon #TireFitment
It's Not Madness, It's FORD!
Follow the full build of The Lizard and the rest of the shop projects right here on Manic Mechanic.
It's Not Madness, It's FORD!
SUPPORT THE SHOW
- Grab a crew shirt, hat, or mug from the store
autorestomod-shop.fourthwall.com
- Join us on Patreon at the $10/month level — monthly Zoom hangouts, tech Q&A, and t-shirt giveaways. It helps pay Joseph and our editor, and keeps the shop running.
patreon.com/c/gasolinemedia
It's Not Madness, It's FORD!
Sponsors:
autokrafters.com
moderndriveline.com
Contact: Jford@autorestomod.com Insta: @autorestomod patreon.com/gasolinemedia
Episode 346 Manic Mechanic
