Kevin, a few comments here from a fan of the ’65 and ’66 300’s. First, it’s your car and you can do what you want with it, especially if you are merely changing a set of wheels. Keeping those original parts you may remove for a future owner is always a solid
choice and usually appreciated at the time the car changes hands.
On the issue of your hubcaps falling off, certainly it can be due to the cap no longer fitting well, and it seems you’ve worked through that possibility. I have a theory that ties into the whole radial tires breaking rims myth. As these older wheels aged
and were put under different stresses over many years of use with mileage, road conditions, driving habits, vehicle maintenance, and levels of corrosion depending on climate, they have likely fatigued. Often you will find an original unused spare tire wheel
put into service will hold the hubcap. I have 4 of the deeper 1966/67 wheels to support the optional knockoff style hubcaps available in those years and have had no issues with either the 1965 or 1966 hubcaps coming off as I did with my 136k mile wheels I
ran on my other ’65 300. I think the fatigue causes more deflection in the wheel and ultimately leads to hubcaps popping off more easily. My theory, I’m sure this could (and probably will) be debated……
As for the magnum 500’s, many C bodies run these wheels in all of their different forms and they always look great. It’s a solid choice as are the later 1970’s 15” rally style wheel found on C bodies of that era. I think the 14” magnums look a little small
on the big cars but the aftermarket 15” all chrome (no trim rings) examples fill the wheel wells nicely. My car is lowered and I was able to install the 15 x 6 magnums with 235/60/15’s on them with no trouble.
Good luck making your decision.
Ryan Hill
Vancouver, B.C.
On Oct 17, 2024, at 8:36 PM, Kevin deGraauw <kdegraauw@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I wanted to ask the group here thoughts on running a different wheel (gasp!) on my 65 300L. I have the stone stock 14" steelies with the highly "yeet-able" hub caps that love to fly off and land in very tall cactuses here in NM. go around a corner and the cap
usually beats me to it. I've bent tabs, cleaned the wheels, done everything to keep the front two on and they will not stay on. And these are the original wheels for sure that came with the car. Plus my caps and wheels are driver quality or worse.
I also was thinking about a disc brake setup on this car. The car is stone stock and in really nice shape (dark green metallic GG1 with the gold interior buckets and console all in very nice shape). I absolutely hate grossly larger wheels on a stock car but
i am falling in love with a set of 15" magnums. Sort of what someone might do to their car a couple of weeks or years into owning it back in the day. Strictly a Mopar restoration quality set with the correct caps and such, with 15" diameter tires. I have
seen one online with this and it was amazing. Silver paint with red streaks and Magnums...quite the looker!
Even Torq-thrusts are too radical for me on this car.
Call me crazy, but these 300L's seem more "sportier" than "formal" like the Imperial brethren can be so this seems like a cool upgrade. With a redline tire or white letters maybe even better?
SO... Speaking to a purist crowd here, would this be an absolute poop in the punch bowl moment decision? Or is this a thing on these cars? Its not a $150K C car owned by a movie star (wow what a beauty!) but it is a pretty colro and shape nonetheless. 15's
would give me plenty of room to upgrade brakes and it technically is a Mopar designed wheel.
I have also never found a cherry set of caps either, so until an amazing set comes along, I was playing with that thought over the winter break. And before I get slammed on this blasphemy, I am only toying with it. I would NEVER desecrate this beauty with
anything other than a Mopar design on it. I would also store all of the stock wheels and caps for when someone gets to take this after I am gone. All opinions are welcome.
Thanks folks! enjoying the discussions here immensely!
Kevin deGraauw
8.00x14 is the standard size for the non-ram K. 8.50x14 is the standard for ram K and optional on the others. The metric equivalent for 8.00x14 is 215/75R-14, but in my opinion they look too small on these cars.
There are reproduction bias tires available. You can put a much larger tire on these cars but big 14s are hard to get unless you go with some white letter tires
Tire Rack has a decent chart that should help.
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