Tie rod setup on my 59 Apache

[texascowboy593]

Howdy old friends!

I'm finally getting some stuff done of the "Tracy Lee" aka "Flight '59".

Here's my latest problem:
Apparently the inner sidewalls of both front tires have been touching the tie rod ends and there is a GROOVE in the sidewalls now!
Here's the setup as I understand it: CPP 3inch straight drop axle with original tie rod assembly. I told my friend (chief mechanic on Flight 59) that I was gonna change the wheel/tire combo and we could order a different wheel backspacing to bring the tires more out and away from the tie rod ends. He said that wouldn't work... I looked on CPP's site and coudn't distinguish if their tie rod pkg was any different (dimensionally speaking) form the original.

Any one else experience this problem? I'm gonna probably end up call them up and trying to sort it out but I figured I'd send the question to the real experts here!!!

Here are a couple of pics. The one with my finger is pointing out the groove worn into the inside sidewall. The pics are from my camera phone...