Wheel Bolt Pattern | How to Measure Your Car's Bolt Pattern

Four lug wheels are common on compact cars, dating back to the 1960's. Ford used four-lug hubs and wheels on many cars in the 1960's, including the Ford Falcon and even the Ford Mustang through the late '60s on select trim levels.

The most common four lug pattern is 4x4.5 inches, but we also offer wheels with a smaller 4x4.25-inch bolt pattern. Foreign cars, such as Volkswagen feature a 4x130mm bolt pattern. To determine which bolt pattern you have, measure from the center of one wheel stud to the center of the one across from it.

Five lug wheels are by far the most common in the collector car world. Ford is the most recognizable manufacturer who began using a five-lug bolt pattern in the late 1920's. Other manufacturers followed suit, and eventually settled into their own respective bolt patterns, designating the larger bolt patterns for trucks and the smaller bolt patterns for passenger cars. 

We offer five lug wheels to fit 5x4, 5x4.5, 5x4.75, 5x5, 5x5.5 and 5x205mm bolt patterns in a variety of authentic styles.

To determine the bolt pattern on a 5 lug wheel, measure from the center of a wheel stud to the outer edge of the stud furthest away from it. Take a look at our diagram for an illustration of how it is measured. 

Early Ford passenger cars use a 5x5.5-inch bolt pattern, which can also be listed as 5x5-1/2 inches. Later, the 5x5.5-inch bolt pattern was only used on Ford trucks. We commonly refer to this as a "large Ford" bolt pattern, and it was in use for decades.

Ford Motor Company began using a smaller 5x4.5 inch bolt pattern in the 1950's. It was used on the Ford Fairlane, Ford Mustang and many other cars through the years. The 5x4.5-inch bolt pattern is typically known as a "small Ford" pattern and can also be listed as 5x4-1/2 inches. 

General Motors used a large bolt pattern for a variety of applications from the 1940's through the 1990's. This was the bolt pattern used for Cadillac and other luxurious vehicles from the 1950's. This includes classic Buick, Oldsmobile and Pontiac. So if you're using a big Olds rear end, you likely have a 5x5 bolt pattern. Chevrolet and GMC starting using this bolt pattern in 1971 for its light two-wheel drive trucks after phasing out the six lug bolt pattern. 

The small GM pattern, 5x4.75 inches, has a wide range of usage from 1949 through the modern era. It was first used on Chevy Fleetline and Styleline models, then continued usage through the Tri-Five era, muscle car era and was also used on Corvettes. It was also used Buick, Pontiac and Oldsmobile muscle cars. When General Motors went to metric hardware, it shifted its bolt pattern to 5x120mm. With a variance of only .65mm, the new metric pattern wheels will fit on a classic Chevy.

Some of our original style reproduction wheels, such as the OE Steel wheel, Chevy Rallye, Magnum 500 and many others are direct-fit wheels with a single bolt pattern. This is designed for authenticity on restored cars, especially those with exposed lug nuts. This is also ideal on custom cars with Spider Caps or no caps at all.

The 6 lug portion of this article is straight forward. Thankfully, most manufacturers of light trucks used the same 6 lug bolt pattern, 6 on 5.5 inches. It's still important to measure, just to be sure, but just about any 1930's through 1980's 6 lug truck has the same pattern. To determine the bolt circle, simply measure from the center of one stud to the center of the stud across from it.

Chevrolet used 6 lug wheels on all of its trucks (and some cars) for many years. All Chevrolet 3100 and C10 (half ton) trucks built before 1971 had six lug wheels. Even after 1971, the four-wheel drive Chevy and GMC trucks featured a 6 lug pattern.

We offer 6 lug wheels in many styles, including Chevy Rallye, Pickup Rallye, Smoothie and OE Steel. We also offer Chevy Artillery wheels in 6 lug patterns to fit classic Chevys.

Many manufacturers built their heavy duty trucks with larger hubs to increase the load capacity. This resulted in an 8 lug wheel design that is still popualr today on 3/4-ton and 1-ton trucks. This is another industry standard pattern, with very little variance from one make to another. Pretty much any 8 lug bolt pattern has a bolt circle of 6.5 inches. To determine the bolt pattern, simply measure from the center of one stud to the center of the stud across from it. 

Coker Tire offers 8 lug wheels for classic heavy duty trucks. The wheels are available in 16 inch diameter, and come in semi gloss black powder coat or chrome.