Dart mini-tub did you stretch the wheelwells

[warthog]

Hey Guys, I am in the process of massaging the quarters on the 67 Dart.  I am cutting back the wheel well opening flange and welding in some quarter inch rod to give it some support.  I was wondering if most of you guys with mini tubbed cars with big tires under them had to stretch the fronts of your rear wheel wells.   I have 29.5 slicks on it for mock up purposes and its not extremely close but I am afraid under hard accelleration that they might rub the front dog leg of the wheel well.  If you did cut it how much?  I was thinking I probably was going to cut about .75 of inch out of there and reattach the lip flange.   I don't want to make it obvious of what I did there and would like to not cut it so I have a chance of using the wheel lip moldings over again.  Just need some opinions from those of you who have been there.  Thanks Dan

[BBLM23]

http://www.bigblockdart.com/techpages/wopen.shtml

[ab7fh]

That's one way of doing it. Another is to relocate the axle farther back. This centers the larger tire in the wheel well and besides making for more clearance, it "just looks right".

I ordered my Caltrac springs with a 1" offset to the rear.

[BBLM23]

Moving the axle back is "wrong" when I thought about weight transfer. Plus I didn't want to have to get another new driveshaft.

[ab7fh]

I didn't have a driveshaft to start with. One inch isn't going to make a whole lot of difference for weight transfer, just look at how much they moved the axle forward to create an "altered". That's a heck of a lot more than an inch;)

[BBLM23]

but they moved it forward...

[CudaDon65]

That's true..

[ab7fh]

but they moved it forward...

Yeah, but how many feet?

[That One Guy]

well, the only time we had to cut the wheel well was when we moved my dad's rear 7" forward, and now he's tripping the 60' marker with the slicks. if you do it right it'll look good. Don't just cut it, move any body lines with it, no matter how small they are, it makes a big difference in how it looks.

[smitty72]

I moved the rear back aprox 1.5 inches when I did the inboard springs and mini-tubs. I didnt want to run into any issues cutting hte rocker later if I wanted to goto taller tires. I already had to buy a new drive shaft anyway so that was not a factor. I just thought that it would look better withe the rear tire centered in the rear well opening. I just got my rear wheels in the mail and will mount them this weekend
15x10 with 28x12x15 (basically 325x60x15) mickeys on them If I can pry the digital camera away from the wife I will post some pics b when I do.

[thebankerstoy]

In my humble opinion, it looks TOTALLY KILLER when larger tires are "stuffed" into the STOCK wheel lip openings by reworking the inner wheel tubs and narrowing the rear axle and then buying the correct back spacing on your wheels to make them fit without rubbing on sheet metal or frame work. I know the picture that I posted below is of a 66 Coronet B-Body, but that car also has a VERY small rear wheel lip opening like most of the A-Body cars have, so it shows how good you can make it look.

Richard