Hello, new to the site. Just bought my dream car 69 SS clone with a 327. Very clean car. 1st problem I notice upon driving it home is the rear right tire is rubbing against the outer edge of the wheel well next to the chrome edging if I hit any kind of road bumps. I have the rally wheels with the 15" on back with I think 8" width. Looking at the ride height I would imagine the leaf springs probably need to be changed out, not sure if they are original or just worn out. Anything I can do on the cheap until I can afford to fix the problem? I will eventually go with either new leaf springs or changing to an newer shock system? Of course that is way down the line, just need a quick inexpensive fix so I do not ruin a set of brand new BF Goodrich tires.
Do you know what the rear wheel backspacing is? What size tires are you running in the rear? Check the wheels for a two alpha-character code stamped near the valve stem. If they're "AZ" wheels from the era, you have 4" backspacing. To get the wheels to tuck inside the fender lip, you'll need to go with 4.5"-5" backspacing. Wheel Vintiques makes a reproduction rally wheel that will work.
Op, look under rear of car to see if there are metal blocks between axle housing and leaf spring. Hard to tell in pics but blocks "may" have been used to lower the car which is very common. A 1/2" shorter block would remedy the problem if that was the case. That is a $20 fix.
your tire size and wheel size, including back space would also be helpful to know.
15X8 ralley wheels should be ok, bet that the rear end not correct, I'm running 15X8 ralley wheel, 4 inch backspacing with 295/50R15 , lowered 2 inches and no rubbing,on a 67.
Why are all you guys peeing in the OP’s cornflakes? It makes no difference what year the quarter panels are regarding the wheel rub. Offer up some helpful solutions instead of critiquing his car....
I bet your rally wheels are from a Corvette. Vettes had 15 X 8" with 4" backspace- ideally you should have 4.5" to 4.75". That would put your tire 1/2" farther out than it should be.
You can check by measuring with the wheel off and inside facing up - measure from the center flange to the outer wheel edge with a straightedge and tape.
As others have said, you can buy the correct rally wheels. About $100 each.
They are AZ rims. By the way it is very difficult to post pics with any quality on this site. Just took a pic of the rear wheel well to show you all it is a 69. Made the pic as small as I could and the site still rejected it because it was too large. Very frustrating.
Pat, If you want to post pics without a paid membership you can use a 3rd party photo
hosting site. I use Flickr. There are quite a few sites to choose from. You post your pics
to that site and then copy and paste the BBC code in your post(s) here. One draw back
to that is if you move the pic(s) within the host site you'll loose the link to it anywhere
you may have posted it. Drag and drop might work with a paid membership. I really
don't know.
Pat...I think your car's stance looks perfect and I like the OEM rally wheel look (IMHO). I wouldn't worry about doing any suspension work unless you discover other issues; you just need to get those rear tires to tuck inside the fender lip. I have the same size tires on my 67 and had the same AZ wheels. I also has the same rub you describe. I Craiglisted the AZ wheels and replaced them with 15x8" Wheel Vintiques with a 4.5" backspace. They solved the rub issue and I can probably bump up to a 255 tire.
Bought the wheels from Wheel Vintiques with the 4.5" backspace. I think that will work out perfect, I thought about cutting the wheel well but did not want to start cutting on a car I just bought. Now its a waiting game for the delivery driver.
Welcome to the Funny Farm, nice looking ride. Someone hinted at it earlier, but you should also check to see if the rear axle is centered with the body. Rubbing on one side could be indicative of a misalignment. I had a friend back a dozen or so years ago that had bought a '69 Camaro and that was his problem. Spring perches were off at least 1/4". Somebody evidently cut off the mono perches and screwed up a little welding the multi's back on. The car also had air shocks and was jacked up so they could fit some oversize street slicks. When Jimmy changed out the shocks, he discovered it.
Speaking of air shocks... probably not a great idea to run them jacked all the time if you care about ride quality. You're basically taking the preload off the leafs and making the shock shaft support the car to a degree. But if you don't intend to drive it a lot, you can probably live with it.:wink2:
So heres an update. Feel pretty stupid for not checking the car out more thoroughly but I found out the back shocks are air shocks. I filled them with a couple pounds which lifted the rear end about 1 1/2" and bam no more rubbing. I called Wheel Vintique and cancelled the order. Moral of the story I guess is to really inspect what you buy before you start ordering parts.
Air shocks or lifting the rear is/was another solution, but not many folks here would recommend it these days. I had them on my first Camaro back in the day. It sure was convenient to adjust the ride height depending on the load (goodies in the trunk and passengers in the rear seat)!
If you're happy with the ride and stance don't fix what ain't broke.
If you want it lower in the rear then probably new wheels.
Should be able to run a 275 without rubbing and a 265 for sure with the right BS.
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