Has anyone managed to get 275s under the rear? If so, what size wheels and tires are you running? Did to make any adjustments to the body or chassis? Trying to find a wide whitewall drag radial that will fit. The smallest width I can find is 275.
With a 255/ 60/ 15 M/T Street radial R mounted on 8.5 Centerline auto drags with 4 7/8 b/s I have 3/4" to the leaf spring and slightly over an inch
to the fender lip. I did trim the lip slightly, took off maybe 3/8". M/T specs say 10.3 section width mounted on a 8" wheel and a 275 has a 11.1 section width.
You would have roughly 3/8 per side with a 275, maybe a bit more if you mounted them on a 7 inch wheel. Not sure what kind of contact patch you would have
on a 7 inch wheel though. If you folded the lip and have the correct b/s wheel you may get 1/2" per side.
Hello, new to the forum, first post....
I have 275/60/15 tires under the rear of my 57 Custom. The wheels are 6.5 wide, I can't remember the back spacing. However, I do have to take the shocks loose to get the tires off. I didn't modify anything to get them to fit. I'm not sure if the fender lip has been trimmed before. I have only recently bought this car, had it for almost a month now.
Welcome to the forum. Any indication that the p o had the case narrowed? What wheels? The backspace would be the main consideration here. A lot of aftermarket wheels decrease the backspace as whe wheel gets wider. Seems backwards to me, but I was trying to get 8" wheels for the back, but none were available with the backspace I needed in the wheel styles I liked. Disc brakes?
When you're ready for new rear shocks, if you change to '56 rear shocks, they will allow the rear end to drop far enough to change most tires without having to unbolt anything. Plenty of threads here on that mod if you run a search. In the search, watch for posts by Jim (crap, my memory just ran a blank on his last name), he's the one that came up with the change.
This is the first 57 I've owned or worked on. So, from what I see, I don't think the rear housing has been narrowed. When I bought the car it had polished torq thrust wheels with 215 and 235 tires front and rear. The steel wheels that are on the car now, came with it when I bought it. I measured the back spacing before putting them on, but I can't remember what it is. The car still has drum brakes on the rear. The 275's are tight, but there is still clearance. I haven't had a tire rub in the rear yet...... yet.
I have looked at some posts on the '56 shocks. I'm going to check into those. Thanks.
How much room do you have towards the front, at the dogleg ? As far as shocks go I used 79-8? Mustang. Just use an adapter to go from stud to eye on the bottom of the shock. Nice thing about the Mustang shock is there everywhere and the compression / rebound specs are more than enough for 57 fords. I use Strange single adjustable's that seem to work pretty well.
Do they also give the extra drop that helps with the tire changes?
I have 255-55-17 front and rear on 9" wheel width. These tires are as big as I can have on the rear without rubbing. The inside of the tire is less than 3/4" from the leaf springs and 1/2"+ on the much trimmed outer lip.
This is a side shot of my car. I'll try to get a picture from underneath tomorrow showing the tire in the wheel well. I think the narrower wheel may help pull the side walls in some.
Nice looking car you got there. What engine, trans do you have in it?
Never mind I see you have in the members rides section.
Ok, as I said earlier, I hadn't had any tire rubs yet. Well, that ended Saturday. I do have a small rub when I make a right hand turn. I'm thinking maybe a rear sway bar would help that some. But, it is VERY tight around the outer lip. I can get a finger between the tire and quarter on the drivers side, but not the passenger side. So, I have a little work to do to keep the 275's on there. Here's a couple pics of the passenger side rear tire...
This not unusual, many people have noticed that the bodies don't sit exactly on center and are shifted to one side a little more, or possibly the way the axle housing was made?
ain't rubbin'...ain't big enough
Quote from: gasman826 on 2019-10-01 11:31
ain't rubbin'...ain't big enough
Well that comment inspired me!!! Thanks Gary. I took delivery of my 275/60 x 15 Cooper tires yesterday. my 8 x 15, 5.25" BS wheels are out for powder coating (black). BTW Wheel Vintiques quoted 6-8 weeks to ship but I got the wheels inside of 2 weeks. I will keep all posted... 8)
Please do, and remind us of what, if any, mods to the back end to help accommodate the tires.....shortened differential, disc brakes, narrowed lip, etc etc
The 8" rim will help the clearance by reducing the section width. Unfortunately, it will also reduce the down pressure on the outside edges of the tire. The tire may wear prematurely in the center and may also impact the performance of the tire by not having a flat, full tread contact patch. None of this matters much if they fit. Another issue is that maybe size does NOT matter. The section width and thread width should be considered more than just the size. Thread width, section width, and rim recommendations vary between manufacturers and models within the same manufacturer for the same size tire. For example, my Pirelli performance tires have a wider thread and section width that Perelli's same size SUV tire.
Well I finally did get my 15 x 8 wheels with 275/60 tires on the back of my Custom. Here are the facts on my car. With 5.25" Back Space wheels here are the clearances.
Right Side (passenger) Tire to spring..... 3/8" Tire to slightly rolled fender lip..... 1/2"
Left Side (driver) Tire to spring..... 1/2" Tire to cut fender lip.... 3/4"
I did not have to disconnect anything to actually put the wheel/tire on the car. I DID reverse the shackles with a pry bar and sorta rolled the tires from the rear over the drum. Actually easier than I expected. Bear in mind my shocks have a longer fully extended length than stock. I REALLY like the improved look.
BTW my car has had the lower rear left quarter replaced and I felt OK with cutting the lip. The right side is stock and the lip had already been rolled (both prior to my ownership). I can gain quite a lot of outside clearance on the right side by cutting the lip if I need to solve any rubbing issues. I won't know for a while if I have any rubbing issues.
Quote from: gasman826 on 2019-10-16 11:20
The 8" rim will help the clearance by reducing the section width. Unfortunately, it will also reduce the down pressure on the outside edges of the tire. The tire may wear prematurely in the center and may also impact the performance of the tire by not having a flat, full tread contact patch. None of this matters much if they fit. Another issue is that maybe size does NOT matter. The section width and thread width should be considered more than just the size. Thread width, section width, and rim recommendations vary between manufacturers and models within the same manufacturer for the same size tire. For example, my Pirelli performance tires have a wider thread and section width that Perelli's same size SUV tire.
Gary, I totally agree with all you said. I believe the 8" rim is well within spec for the tires I have, (Cooper Cobra GT). I have 275/35 x 18s on my other car on 10 1/2" rims. There is a MUCH larger contact patch on that tire. I was really going for the "look" with an improvement in performance a secondary concern.
I will post a few more pictures when the weather improves.
Thats good information. I have an old set of Centerline auto drags that are 8.5 wide with a 4.87 b/s that should work although it would push the wheel out towards the fender lip a bit more.
I also have set of regular 15x7 steel wheels which for sure would fit but lose a bit of contact patch. Mickey Thompson's website says 7.5 to 9.5 for their 275 60 15 drag radials.
Did you happen to measure the section width with them mounted?
No I didn't measure them mounted. I did measure them unmounted though, they were around 260 mm. That is a good question, I will try to measure them on the car. I haven't driven the car yet but I think any rubbing issues will be small and correctable. The key to getting as much tire on these cars is back spacing.
I measured the mounted section width at 11.0". That is 279.4 mm. The best I could do was measure the width about 5" from the ground so it MAY be a little wider at that point.
Quote from: hiball3985 on 2019-10-01 06:23
This not unusual, many people have noticed that the bodies don't sit exactly on center and are shifted to one side a little more, or possibly the way the axle housing was made?
I just notice this exact thing today. My car is a 59 Tudor sedan, and today I finally installed my wheels and tires on the rear (new 275/60R15 BF Goodrich T/A Radials on 15x8 Wheel Vintique Series 61 stock type steel wheels. I`m guessing a 59 must have a different inner fender configuration than a 57, as they fit quite well with no modifications. The current rearend is the original one, and although they fit, there is a differance between the left & right sides. On the left side, I have 3/4'' between the leaf spring and the tires sidewall, and 1'' between the outside sidewall and the un-modified wheelwell lip. On the right side, there is 1'' between leaf spring, and 1 1/2''s between the outer sidewall and the wheelwell lip. In addition to unhooking the rear shocks, I also had to put a bottle jack between the frame and rearend housing and pull the rearend down a couple of inches to slip the tires width past the stock 11'' brakes. I assumed that since I am going to go with aftermarket 31 spline axles, I would need to slightly narrow the housing to make the tires fit. but maybe not.
Just curious, does your 59 have the large or small bearing housing?
I used a P235/75 R15 on one of my cars.... I love the look and the gain in lowering the RPM over a 14 inch wheel.As stated by Rich and others... using a 56 shock will allow the rear to drop more.I have done this during my rebuild... before I had to deflate the tire to get it off the hub and out from the body.
that thread is here.....
http://57fordsforever.com/smf/index.php?topic=6639.75
Since this car is going through a complete rebuild.I made the switch to the 56 shocks.
(https://i.imgur.com/qZMxSTl.jpg)
Looks REALLY COOL!!!! Since I started posting in this thread I also changed my front tires to 235/60-15. They dropped my front end about 1.25" I really like the look with a smaller diameter tire in the front, what size are you using?
Quote from: rmk57 on 2019-12-16 11:11
Just curious, does your 59 have the large or small bearing housing?
Randy, the 59s factory rearend is a small bearing, but I have a large bearing rear from a 58 Edsel we are going to narrow a bit, and and use a 31 spline Detroit Locker and aftermarket axles. I originally bought the rearend thinking it was the same a a 58 Ford, but I should have done some measuring, since it was from a Corsair or Citation, so it is a bit wider than a Ford rearend, and had the oddball 5 on 5" wheel bolt pattern. So it looks like all I will be using is the bare housing from the Edsel.
The Corsair and Citation were based on the Mercury platform while the Ranger and Pacer were Ford platform.
Edsel had 2 different wheel bolt patterns for those years?
The Pacer, Ranger and the station wagons use the 5x4.5 pattern. Corsair, citation use the larger 5x5 bolt pattern. The large series Edsels were built on the 124" wheelbase Mercury frame and the small series were bulit on the 118"-116" Fairlane and Custom frames.
Wasn't the center section/3rd member actually the same ford, mercury, and edsel? What ratio did the edsel have?
Quote from: terry_208 on 2019-12-17 10:48
Wasn't the center section/3rd member actually the same ford, mercury, and edsel? What ratio did the edsel have?
The gear ratio from my Edsel rearend was 2.91, which is also what is in my 59 Meteor, which is a Canadian Ford based model, when used with a 332 and speed Fordomatic. My 59 manual also listed 2.69, 3.10, 3.56, 3.70, 3.89, &4.11 ratios, depending on model and powertrain. Both my old 57 Sedan Deliveries came with 3.89s, came with 272 V8s with 3 speed manuals. (no Overdrive).
My 58 Pacer 2dr ht is a 2.91.
Quote from: lalessi1 on 2019-12-16 15:19
Looks REALLY COOL!!!! Since I started posting in this thread I also changed my front tires to 235/60-15. They dropped my front end about 1.25" I really like the look with a smaller diameter tire in the front, what size are you using?
Sorry Lynn,..I missed your reply,.... For now.I use a 14 in stocker wheel up front and the radial is a 205 75R - 14
It gives the car a natural rubber rake in combination with the rears.Happy New Years all.
I joined the 275 club. Mounted them on my old steel wheels as I like the look better than the Centerlines. Around 3/4" to the spring and slightly more to the fender lip although I did trim the fender lip awhile back. Sure fills the wheelwell thats for sure.
(https://i.imgur.com/0x7K5SG.jpg)