Need All of your Opinions on Something

I just put new tires and wheels on my Mustang. I was going for an old school type look, so no big hoops or anything.
Problem is, something just doesn't look right to me, and I can't pinpoint it. I used the pic below for inspiration. I know it won't look just like it, as the other is a shelby with flared rear fenders:

And this is my car now. Please ignore the exhaust, it's been fixed since the pic was taken. I don't know if the stance is wrong, does the rear need raise a little, front need lowered a little, the difference in the tire sizes too much, etc... ??? I also wonder about the tires. I would have liked to have put some old bias ply tires on it, but couldn't find any in the right size and for the right price. What do you guys think?

Front is high. Still looks pretty damn good.

Back tires are too big, enough so that they're screwing with proportion. That, and maybe a dead coil on the rear springs

The problem with lowering the front can be seen in the side view. My headers are already too close to the ground. I was thinking that if going for an old school look, maybe raising the back end a little would be better. But I guess that's why I'm asking for opinions.
In any case, the gap between the tire and fender in the front is greater than in the rear. I did jack the rearend up about 1" and to me it looked a lot better, but I'm still unsure.

That's frigging beautiful. So jealous – I'm drooling. Does look like it would rub with a fat man in the car though.

The tire gap on the blue car isn't like yours because your front is too high. Now, you can raise the back to even it out, but then the front and rear gap will both look different than the picture. The headers are clearly an issue, but visually, I contend, the front is too high.

lowered with bigger fronts to match the rear = negated header drop problems

Tires don't rub under any circumstances I've encountered. If the fat guy is that big, I'll kick him out!!!
However, the tires that are on it are the largest you can really fit on these cars without major mods, so increasing the size of the front tires isn't possible.

For reference, here's how the car looked before. The tires on it are the same as what's on the front now.

First off, beautiful car.

Secondly, I think we are "expecting" to see the front be lower, because it has the smaller tires, so the belt line being level is throwing off my eye...

Also - those look like larger diameter wheels than you'd typically see in that style, so that + the "beefy" tire makes it look 'odd'?

It looks frickin perfect to me! And 1000 extra points for having an early fastback that ISN"T a Shelby clone, or bright red! I love the color, because it's nicely understated. Quit nit-picking and be proud to have that thing

I like the new wheels much better than the old. In my opinion, the tires are too tall. If you could run a slightly lower profile (don't know what you have on it now), I think it would help to improve the aesthetics of it.

I think it is a good looking car though! Ditto on the Shelby-clone statement.

davidjs wrote: First off, beautiful car. Secondly, I think we are "expecting" to see the front be lower, because it has the smaller tires, so the belt line being level is throwing off my eye... Also - those look like larger diameter wheels than you'd typically see in that style, so that + the "beefy" tire makes it look 'odd'?

The wheels are 15", which is bigger than the 14" it came with, but not unusual for the era. But I think you're on to something! It's got larger tires in the rear than the front, but the car sits pretty level. It should have some rake to it, no? I think that may be what is bugging me, and why it looked better when I jacked the rear end up a little. I think ideally I'd like to lower the front, but I'm worried about header and tire clearance issues. Maybe I'll jack up the rear in a similar view and post it to see what you guys think. If you still think the front should be lowered, then maybe I'll just have to do it and deal with the fall out.

Aeromoto wrote: It looks frickin perfect to me! And 1000 extra points for having an early fastback that ISN"T a Shelby clone, or bright red! I love the color, because it's nicely understated. Quit nit-picking and be proud to have that thing

Thanks! It's the original paint.
Funny short story - I drove it once to a paint shop to get paint for another project. There was an old timer behind the counter. First thing he says to me is "Wow, a Prairie Bronze '65 Mustang! I bought one just like it new in '65. You know, Ford made a ton of Mustangs in that color, but you never see them anymore because by 1968 they were all painted red!"

I like it. That said, I'd it would look even better if you managed to find rear wheels with a slightly different offset so you could tuck the tires in a little. But that would be just me nitpicking, I think it's a lovely vehicle as is and the wheels and tires look superb on it.

That looks great for original paint. My sister's husband has an all original 67 coupe 289/3spd, looks a little rougher than that, some rust behind the rear wheels, but it looks pretty good still, its dark blue. He is running 17" polished wheels that look similar to that style. just headers and exhaust. sounds glorious.

I think your ride height looks spot on. I think as others (or you) suggested, maybe the rear is sitting just a tad low. Some angles, the rear tires look too tall, in others, it looks spot on. depends on if you are going for the raked look, or want the tire profile to be a little more even front to rear. Either way it looks great and I love raised white letter tires on cars like this. Radial T/As seem to be the go to for the affordable classic look, decent all around tire too.

The rear tire is a size too big. It's not the vertical clearance that throws me off, it's the clearance to the rocker panels that is too close. Can you get one size shorter for the rear and still keep the same width?

Looks pretty spot on to me, though the front could be dropped a half inch and maybe look better.

The 3/4 rear view is a little deceiving. It really doesn't look like that, meaning that the tire doesn't look that big and the car doesn't really have any rake to it.
To answer some questions. The rear wheels actually have the most backspacing that I could find for any wheel that fits the car, so the tire is tucked in as far as it can be. The sole reason I didn't use Torq Thrusts was because these wheels have 1/2 more backspacing, allowing a wider tire.
Deadskunk, I see what you mean, especially when you look at the front tires in comparison. Maybe the difference in size is too much? The rear tires are 245/60-15 and the fronts are 215/60-15. These cars suffer from not having a lot of room for big tires, so I automatically chose the largest I could fit. In fact, many guys told me that the 245's would never work, and they wouldn't have if I had used Torq Thrusts. I can't shorten the height and keep the same width with the Radial T/A's. I don't know if I could with another brand of tire, but I don't really want to have to replace them all or mix and match if I don't have to.

tire diameters don't bother me, but the gap from top of wheel opening to top of tire should be the same front and rear. if you can't drop the front, then raise the rear. it's an old-school look you're after, so lowering the nose is not mandatory.

i'm struggling with the shiny center caps. do you like them?

First off, I love the Stang. That color is just sweet.

To answer your question I think a few people have already jit on it, the rear tire is a little too big and the nose needs to come down a bit. Honestly though, I don't think that will fix it.

I personally think the problem is the new wheels. Those are clearly Cragar S/S (or some copy thereof), which should be all chrome or all polished. The painted spokes make it look like you're going for a Torque Thrust look, and it just never works right on Cragars. The reason is the Cragar wheels have spokes that project outside towards the center (convex). Torque Thrusts have spokes that project inwards (concave).

Observe:

Torque Thrust D:

Cragar S/S:

IMO you can keep the stance and tires no problem. I would either chrome or polish your Cragars or get the right Torque Thrusts.

AngryCorvair wrote: i'm struggling with the shiny center caps. do you like them?

Not really. But the wheels look worse without them and I'm not sure what else to do with them.

In reply to Javelin:

Good points. I picked the Cragars because they fit better. If I had gone with TT's, I would have painted the centers black anyway, because I don't think the gray centers look good with the gold paint.
I'm going to have a set of track wheels and tires for this car, and they will 16x8 wheels with 225/50-16 tires. The wheels will not be TT"s, but probably Halibrand 5 spokes. I'm anticipating those looking better, but for the street I have to work with what I have. One of my ideas was to paint the centers flat black, thinking that might look better than the semi-gloss they have now. idunno.

Can you strip the paint off? Real Cragars are aluminum so you should be able to re-polish the spokes.

Sorry, but one thing I don't want to do is strip off the paint. These wheels are brand new and came this way, I didn't paint them. They are different than the original S/S wheels, which were aluminum centers with steel rims and the were chromed, not polished. Mine are one piece aluminum. Anyway, I don't like flashy wheels, so I'm keeping the black centers for sure. I'm open to other, less major changes though.