I got some 16" aluminum wheels from Les Schwab in Seattle. They looked nice when I put them on 10 years ago but the calcium chloride from winter roads got under the clear powdercoat and has begun to fester. They were about $100 each then.
I asked for rims with (if I recall correctly) 5-1/4 back spacing. They clear the tie rod ends! The issue is the edge of the rim on the 16" wheels not the tire.
Before that I used Ford rims and just went through a junkyard or two till I found ones with the correct backspacing.
The back spacing isn't so critical with 17" rims because they clear the tire rod ends and you might find some modern 17" tires with adequate load rating. At that time there weren't any that I could find.
