68-70 owners: Do you get rear tire rub with wide tires?

[Kern Dog]

I love these old cars but sometimes I want to give the engineers a kick in the pants.
My Charger was carefully measured to get the widest wheel and tire that could fit in the front and rear. I have 10" wide rears which measure 11" outside to outside. Backspacing is 4 3/4" but that is a moot point. I'll explain why in a moment.
When I bought my wheels, I was UNAWARE of the crazy, weird design of the outer wheel tub. For some strange reason, it doesn't follow the outer body straight up. From the wheel opening, it goes up a few inches, then turns IN for a few inches, then returns up and curves in again to the seam.  The bulge is worse toward the rear. They could have used a tub similar to a 67-76 Dart with smooth sides, but they added this strange bulge.
  W H Y ?    W H Y ?   W H Y

Maybe back in the day, guys just jacked the ass ends up and mounted big tires without giving a crap. Nowadays that look isn't the way. I like to turn corners and that means a stock or slightly lowered stance. That wheel tub design gets in the way of tire clearance. In 2003 when I bought the wheels and tires, I had an axle from a 66 Coronet. The Charger came with an 8 1/4" axle and the Coronet axle was found at a wrecking yard. I knew the spring pads were the same width, but I wasn't aware that the 66 b body housing was actually narrower than a stock 68-70 unit. I just measured the open space and ordered the wheels. Later on I replaced the leaf springs and it sat too high. I found some super stock spring hangers and drilled holes higher on the brackets to recess the front spring eyes. This resulted in a ride height lower than with the stock springs AND it moved the axle 7/8" rearward due to the hole location. Afterwards it was great....unless I had someone in the back seat OR if I had a load in the trunk. The combination of a lower height and the rearward movement put me closer to that stupid bulge in the wheel tub.
Today I decided to swap the stock spring hanger brackets back in. I didn't get to set it down on the tires yet though. I have to tend to a leak at the RR axle seal. I liked the look of the lowered stance, but the tire rub was a pisser. I'm curious if others here have dealt with this, as I don't recall reading about it much. I'm tempted to cut the tubs and patch in some UNbulged curved metal. I'm just a little nervous welding so close to the paint!

[Cooter]

What about simply taking a hammer and "Removing" the bulge for clearance? Welding that close could result in worse than burnt paint...

Just suppose there's a rats next or something right above where your welding?

[chargerboy69]

Ah yes. . very familiar with this crappy design.  When we put quarters on my 69 Bee, I cut these out.

Now on my Charger I have also thought about cutting them out, but like you, the car is painted. I also thought about taking a hammer to them, but was afraid of bending the quarter. I would be more likely to cut out the part and epoxy in a new piece of metal.  People use that 3M epoxy to put on quarters all the time.  Why would it not work on a small piece in the wheel well nobody would see.

In the mean time I went with a smaller tire, a 285 40 18, and have no issues at all.

[b5blue]

I agree use panel bond adhesive instead of welding, a 1 1/2" overlap would hold quite well. 

[Fred]

Another alternative would be to use a bottle jack or porter power and gently push it out. Just be very careful.

[BrianShaughnessy]

"Most" of the time,   the rear diff is offset by 3/8" for some dumb reason making the one tire 3/4" closer to the outside  then the other.

It was supposed to be fixed by 70 or so but ya never know what some car's rearends might have been swapped, etc.

[A6USMC]

If my toils help you out, here they are, I bought and installed 295 50R 15 Goodrich T/A's on a 10" 5 1/2 inch offset Mag 500's, I got rubbing on the inner wheel well and on the clip of one leaf spring. My leafs were shot so we replaced with new Hemi ones, added a swaybar  and installed Mr Gasket 7/32" wheel spacers, and I am now good to go! No rubbing If I do the math rt. My offset on a 8 3/4 rear is now 5 9/32 that whats working for me now, and I have had 3 people in the car, but not 4 yet. The first three photos do not have the spacers in yet but once again they only more the tires outward 7/32's  ,,,Brian