I am eventually planning on adding disc brakes, but I am looking at adding new wheels now. Is the offset/backspacing changed when adding disc brakes. I don't want to spend a fortune on wheels to find adding brakes later will affect the fit. It seems I read that most of the kits keep everything "inline"

 

YES!! go with the new wheels first because you can get 17" wheels. When you get the 17" wheels you can run the SSBC Force 10 Xstreme Disc Brakes. They are 4 piston calipers on 13" slotted rotors.

If that is too extreme then get 15" wheels and run the SSBC Force 10 Super duty with 11" rotors that also have 4 piston aluminum calipers.

That takes care of the fronts should be no mounting issues.

NPD catalog has a rear disc brake kit that requires 15" or larger rear wheels its a direct replacement (bolts right in no fab required)

Hope that helps

Gun

 

Maybe start with the sort of tires that you want to run (and can expect to continue to find in the future). Take my word for it, buying a set of wheels only to find out next time 'round that your original tire choice is no longer made is not a pleasant chain of events. For example, most everything with a strong performance slant either doesn't come in 15" or smaller at all or not in sizes big enough for a 3000# car, and even 16's are starting to get a little iffy. Not that I'm an advocate of the ever-increasing wheel size fad - I'm pretty much against it actually. But sometimes choices aren't entirely up to you. [/mild rant]

Tire size will determine wheel diameter and width, which in turn will set the maximum brake size. Best to contact the brake mfr to find out if the face of the rotor hat is in the same place as the drum outer face or if it's enough different that you might want a slightly different offset.

Norm