wighty's car

[RICH MUISE]

I just noticed wighty had posted a few pics of his completed chasis in the under construction board, in the gallery section. Wighty...that's so pretty I'd strongly consider putting in a steering wheel and an old bar stool bucket seat and just drive it that way...way to nice to cover up with a body (lol).  Outstanding work. What's your drivetrain?
Check it out guys. Rich

[wighty]

351 Clevland with Edelbrock Heads and Roller Cam built to be able to drive comfortably
Top Loader 4 Speed with Gear Vendor Overdrive
Rack and Pinion Steering
Air Ride Suspension
Narrowed Rear End with 3:70 and Positraction
Wilwood Disk Brakes all around
Frame and all suspension parts powder coated or polished aluminum.
My painter is telling me I can bring the chassis to his shop on Saturday and drop the body on.  I will believe it when it really happens.  All of the body parts have been in the paint shop for more than a year.  He actually has done a beautiful job.  It was painted silver and a dark grey about two weeks ago.  The color sanding and polishing is going on now.
Make it a great day!

[RICH MUISE]

Are those wheels Torque Thrusters, and what size and backspace are you running? Did they tub, or have to tub the back wheels wells to make room for them?
I love hearing about cars, that apparently were in nice shape to begin with, being in body shops for months and months. It sure makes an old man feel better about spending 5 years in his converted car port getting the body 'right'!
Anxious to see pics of the car in paint..especially since I'm doing mine in a dark silver.   Rich

[wighty]

Rich,
The wheels are American Racing polished Torq Thrust. 15 X 7" with a -6 Offset in the front and 15 X 8.5 with a-24 Offset in the rear.  The tires are P205/60 in the front and P275/60 in the rear.  I narrowed the rear end by 2" on each side and the tires actually fit in the stock wheel wells with maybe 1/2" to spare on each side of the wheel well.  I decided I wanted a little more room so I split the wheel well down the middle and spread the two sides away from each other about 1 1/2" and welded in a strip to fill the gap.  This worked really well to get the space I wanted without doing the tub.

[RICH MUISE]

I'm a little confused by your offset "dimensions" as I've always seen offsets designated as inches ie 2", 2 1/2" etc.
Widening the wheel wells as you did is probabably the one thing I would add  to my build if I was starting from scratch again. I'd strongly suggest to anyone starting a non-stock build they consider doing just that...it just gives you more options as the stock '57 wheel wells are really small. How did you handle the trunk hinge mounting bracket that is welded to the wheel well? It sounds like the way you widened would have move the hinge mount position. Any pics?  thanks for the info.  Rich

[wighty]

Rich,
The spread of the wheel well was with the outside half of the well so there was no modification to the seat back structure.  I did not plan on doing this modification, but the shop I had modify the trunk floor for a new crossmeber to mount the Airride shocks to figured they could give me a little more tire space with this change.  I did a lot of measuring to determine how much to narrow the the rear axel so that the wheels would center nicely in the stock wheel wells.  What worked was 2" on each side.  Before I pulled the body off the frame, the original tires were closer to the fender lip on one side than the other by about 1/2".  When I was doing the fitting, I had the body off and on the frame many times and learned I could easily center the body to the wheels with the body mounts.
The wheel off-set I gave you is what American Racing says that they are.  I didn't buy them for a particular off-set. I chose them for the look I wanted because I knew I would be narrowing the rear end.
Make it a great day!