Thread: Little Problem

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Today i ran into a little problem with the new wheels & tires on my 64 bel-air 4 door ..... As i was backing out of my drive-way i noticed that the right front wheel was rubbing on the bottom of the front fender....But ive only noticed so far that it only rubs the right front and only does it when im backing up... Would it hurt to kinda jack the car up and see where its rubbing on each side and kinda cut the fender a little on the inside to make it quit rubbing or would another method be preffered like going to a smaller tire or rim size???

Thanks, Robert

Roll the fender in "IF" it needs it & can be done. Some folks use a wood baseball bat between the tire & fender to do it.
BUT I'm wondering if you have spring problems or a REALLY wide tire/rim on it or the back spacing on the rim may be wrong.
I ran stock GM Rally 8" rims w/235/70/15" on my 63 & 65 Chevy and never rubbed anything.....joe

I would say you have a suspension problem,if its only rubbing on the right side,and only when you are reversing..You need to get a jack under there and see what the problem is..

Yeah thats what i had planned on doing today, taking a jack and taking a look at it......and the tires are prolly a little wide for the front theyre AR Torq Thrust D's theyre 15x8.5 all they way round amd have 235/60/15 BFG Radial T/A's on em

I think your little problem is probably a pretty big problem!!!

Rubbing on bottom of fender??? do you mean the wheel opening at the top of the tire???like the tire/wheel sticks out???

I think the tire rim may be a bit big for the front, but i just took a look at it and it wont rub while sitting in the drive , but it will rub on the bottom of my fender where it curves inward on the front but it will drive fine with no rub but when i go to back out and cut the wheel to the left it rubs down on the bottom corner of the fender whwre it rolls inwards but thats it

Your tire size grows across the diagonal, inside edge to outside edge, when you turn the wheels. Wider rim and tire make this worse along with the rim back spacing. How deep is your spacing?

I beleive its 3.5 its 15x8.5's all the way round with 235/60/15 on em.....

Robert,
You say the RF tire rubs on the front of your wheelwell, where the fender curves in and meets up with the front bumber, but it only rubs if you're backing up and cut the wheels hard left? Are you saying that if you're on a flat surface like a parking lot, when you turn hard left you have no rub with the car stationary or moving forward in a hard left turn, but if you stop and reverse direction your RF tire starts rubbing? If that's the case you have something loose or severely worn in your front end, likely the ball joints? Have you checked out your front end components? Had the car aligned?

Pretty much if you take a look at the right front on my car youll notice at the bottom where that fender rolls in, thats where its rubbing when i back up....

Originally Posted by RobertStroud

Pretty much if you take a look at the right front on my car youll notice at the bottom where that fender rolls in, thats where its rubbing when i back up....

Robert,
If you hold your steering wheel hard left and the tire rubs backing up but doesn't moving forward then it is quite likely you have something dangerously worn in the front end. Now if it only clears by a hair moving forward it could be tire flex, but I'd check the front end components on a car that's pushing 50 years old... Just my $0.02.

Yeah im gonna try to check all that later but imma try to get a picture up of it rubbing and not rubbing to better show yall whats happening lol

My knee jerk here is that you have a bigger problem than tire size. I would check the ball joints and tierod ends like Roger suggested to make sure everything is holding the spindle where it needs to be. You shouldn't be seeing ANY rub in either direction so check your suspension parts for wear...

Here's a better look...you'll be able to notice the scuff marks above the white lettering

Looks like the car is either sagging too much, or the tire and wheel combo is too tall/wide for the front. It just seems weird it only does it on one side. I think that's why most of us are thinking a suspension problem, unless the front end is way out of whack.