Are the rear wheel clearances the same for the Fairlanes as the 300's

[512Fairlane]

There seems to be a lot of good tire and wheel information for the 300's and Ranchero's.  Are the wheel wells and quarters the same on Fairlane 500's?  I want to stuff as large of tire as possible under this thing.  I don't really want to mini tub it but I might consider moving the springs in if there is a benefit to that.

[RICH MUISE]

I have never heard any reference to the wheel wells and wheel opening being any different on the various models. You asked if the Fairlanes quarters were different, and yes they are, but I'm assuming you were asking with reference to tire clearance. If I were restarting mine all over I would definetly go the mini tub route. I think it was suede57 (Pat Fleischman) that had an "easy" way of doing this, that didn't require trunk hinge manipulation. Also I would have altered the opening at the front, the lower 3 inches or so where it curves back towards the rear of the car, so that it just went straight down. This can be done by pie cutting the outer quarter just forward of the opening (and probably the inner dogleg), a little hammer and dolly work, and rewelding. Not much gain in tire removel space, but not that much work either. downside to that is you can't use stock fender skirts.
Rich

[gasman826]

The limitation to rear tire size is not the tub size, spring location, or frame.  It is how much tire you can get on/off the car between the brake drum and the fender opening.  I mocked up my Custom with NASCAR tires.  I added 1-1/2" to the tub, straighted the frame, and narrowed the housing (also with four bar and air bags).  Even with the extra clearance of disc brakes, I still have to unhook the shocks and drop the rear end down to remove the tires...between the rotors and fender opening.  With the stock suppension, a mild sized tire that requires no modifications would require disconnecting the shocks and the shackles to lower the rear down enough to get a tire on/off without damage to the fender opening. If you decide to tub, you can go 1-1/2" without major frame modification and not get into relocating the trunk hinges.  You will have to straighted the little dog leg in the trailing edge of the frame without narrowing the frame and getting into body mount issues.
Rough picture of the trunk hinges after 1-1/2" were added to the tub(1-1/2" needs to come out of the rear seat also)

Frame modification to support NASCAR sized tires

Home made frame table with the frame welded down and making frame modifications.

[suede57ford]

I squezzed my frame rails in 2.5" on both sides to bring the leafs in.  Cut about 2" of both sides of the housing and moved fenderwells in 3" per side.  I have had 20x10's with 305/40/20's and currently 295/45/20's with room to spare.

The trick to getting the tires out in jack the car up one side at a time under the front leaf spring mount.  This tips the car and make the jacked up side tire drop down to the max.    Then slide the wheel under the brake and push the top into the fender well.

I always move the front of of the wheel opening lower corner up 1" by slicing a pie cut out of the cormer and rewelding.    This gives room for tall diameter tires, yet makes it easier to get the tire in the well.  It looks really proportional when done.

I also aways fold the outer fender lip.   I do thid with a bag of lead shot and a dolley on the inside to hammer the lip flat.  I do not trim it away, as that makes it weak, take you time and fold the lip flat, that give more room and prevent any sharp spots fro the tire to hit.   I have run275/60/15's on an 8" wide wheel by doing just this mod, on a 5.25. back spce wheel.    Narrowing the rear end 3/4" per side centers a 8" wheel with common 4.5" backspace, por else you have to special order 5.25 back space 8" wheels.

We do the move the front lower corner of the opening and fold the lip on every '57 we paint, as you never know what wheel combo you may do inthe future and body work time is when to take the effort to do it.