So my good friend finally bought a subaru.  We drove up in my jeep and picked up his 90 Loyal wagon on sunday.  It needs some work but is pretty rust free and has a straight body.  Not too bad of a pick up for 500 bucks. 

 

He will be needing tires pretty soon so it got me thinking about the 6 bolt conversion for my 87 sedan.  I plan on selling him my tires and rims for cheap, so I'm in the market for new tires and rims. I have no questions about the actual conversion, but more what people prefer in rim size when they do change over.  Obviously there are many more options when going to a 15 inch rim.  But after looking around a bit it seems that there are plenty of available tires for a 14 inch rim.  As of right now my sedan is stock height, but I do have a 2 inch lift made for it, but I'm not sure I want to lift it yet.  So I'll probably go with something just a bit bigger than stock... like a 195/ 70 r14 for the time being until I want to drop coin on new tires.  But even when its lifted I don't see myself ever going over 27.  I've never really dealt with tires and rims this small.  So what are the pros and cons as far as 14's vs 15's?

 

And a couple pics my buddy billy and his new ride while dragging it home.

 

 

for me it comes down to tire quality.  a little clearance is never bad, but getting a good high ply count tire is important.  either will have better options than 13's.  Id look at the overall diameter you want and then see what has the most options for good ply count.

 

check the actual tire diameter on the manufacturers site, don't go over 25 inches without a lift.

Here's a good calculator for you:

 

http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/tirecalc.php?tires=165-82r13-185-80r13

With a 1" lift using 1" spacers at the front and a spring swap using suzuki vitara springs at the back (which is aprox 1.5 inches longer than the original springs. I used 14" offset rims with 185/70/14 tyres. 

 

Got the wheels aligned, been running around to test ever since and it seems ok. checked the alignment after a couple of long runs and it was still in check.

 

This was the outcome

 

 

 

You will probably find that there is a lot more wheel options in 15" than 14" if that matters.