Selecting aftermarket wheels for Stude. For many many years I have used Chrysler (and Ford) stock steel wheels on my Studes, even before I switched to disk brakes. The Chrysler wheels (from 70's and mst 80's before FWD) just as they are, with modern radials fix a lot of Stude quirks. With Stude hubcaps they look perfectly stock. Nearly all are 6 in wide with perfect offset and width for all my cars. My point is that if you order aftermarket or specialty rims for Chrysler, say a 1976 Cordoba, or say, a 1983 Diplomat, or 1984 5th Ave or ??? you probably won't go wrong on fit. While we are on the subject: FOR ALL STUDES--- ALL Studes should use Ford or Chrysler wheels with radial tires. Never put radials on Stude rims. They are too thin and flexible for radials. I am amazed sometimes to see people still insisting on bias tires. (several months back in TW) Stude wheels are much too narrow for safe handling. Instant lane changes with every bump, and hard steering will be a distant memory if you update your wheels and tires. Modern radials on thin-metal Stude rims will cause the hubcaps to walk off the rims as you drive. Believe it or not I've even seen Stude wheels about to fail from cracking, on cars that never had radials. Anyone who loses hubcaps needs to get better rims! They are flexing. Never put radials on Stude rims! They flex too much. I use 205 78's on $10 Chrysler steel wheels with Stude hubcaps, they look like they belong there, and the cars drive just like modern cars. I would NOT still be driving my Studes as daily drivers if they still had the atrocious handling they used to. David Levesque ----------- David: The TW article you referrred to I believe is the one that mentioned the backing out of a caliper bolt on the front of an Avanti that led to disasterous consequences. Apparently the bolt backed out because of vibration from radial tires. After the original letter, others wrote in stating they had the same problem. This scared me and I don't want to run radials on my R-2 given the limited amount of driving I do with the car. Mike N ------------- i'm sorry, and I hope I don't start dissention in the ranks, but 'm one of those who believe in those tests (and my driving impressions) that say radials run smoother and quieter than the old log-truck bias tires. I for one would no longer be driving my Studes if I had to put up with that kind of rough ride and poor handling. If there was vibration, maybe balancing or less flexible rims than thin Stude are called for. I don't know for certain why the Bendix brakes loosen up their bolts. I DO know that the Stude-Bendix mouting is a flat surface "clamped" to a flat spot on the spindle by the mounting bolts and it appears to me that the ONLY thing keeping the little Bendix bracket from moving around is the clamping force of tight bolts and the strength in "shear" of those bolts. I would expect them to loosen eventually no matter what tires are on the car. Both my brakes and the Turner brakes use a much better mounting system of using the recesses in the spindle so that the bracket cannot move even if the bolts are less than super tight. I believe that if Stude used a mounting similar to Turners (or mine) instead of bolting a flat piece to a flat piece, the bracket wouldn't work back and forth and loosen the bolts periodically. It's not vibration, it's inadequate mounting. Tell them to use LocTite and check regularly, or get Turner brakes (or mine) Respectfully, David Levesque ---------- David, I could stand corrected on this, but I never saw any substantiated data that the bolts backed out due to the radial tires. I thought it was presented as a theory. Regardless, radial tires IMHO do make an improvement to handling as David mentioned. You could make a set of french locks for the caliper bolts and not worry about them. Avanti, Jim Frakes ---------- Chrysler 5th Ave. wheels are made by Kelsey-Hayes and are available in various widths, although, I have been running Goodyear Arrivas on my 63 Avanti with the stock wheels since 1979, with no failures! and no loss of wheel covers. I do check them when rotating tires and on general inspections, radial tires will work on stock wheels, and until recently, It was my daily driver, Jim Turner -------------