55.2-59 1958 Saab story

[gottattooz]

Originally Posted by dsraven

you're flying man! it looks mean with those teeth.
are you able to turn the front tires without rubbing on the rear of the fender opening?

Not at the current ride height. I ordered a bolt pattern jig to change the bolt pattern from 6x127mm to 6x120mm. That way I can pick from a variety of other wheel options. The Chevy traverse has a set of wheels I like that are 18x7.5 with a perfect offset. So I'll swap the bolt pattern and run lower profile tires in the front and adjust the ride height just enough to turn without rubbing

-Josh

[dsraven]

Are the traverse wheels a smaller rim diameter? The existing sidewall cant get much shorter can it?
Keep working and posting, you are making great progress.

[dsraven]

you could always "adjust" the fender opening to be toward the rear a bit. chop it out, weld it back where it needs to go, fill in the gaps. up, down, forward, rearward. of course it would help to have a spare set of donor fenders but not essential. doesn't seem like that would stop you, haha.
I like the wheels you picked out. my envoy wheels are 17" with 235/60r17 rubber. I like a little more sidewall, smoother ride.

[dsraven]

wait a sec, what about those grey fenders? possible donors? they look in pretty good shape to be cutting up though.....
I have done the new wheel bolt pattern thing before. I used an old rotor center from a donor at the wrecker, in my case an explorer 8.8 axle. got a buddy with a lathe cut off the outside and just leave the bolt flange part, then to mark the new pattern holes and drill each to 1/8". then the pattern can be bolted up with the original wheel nuts so it is centered and tight on the axle flange and a 1/8 drill used to mark the axle flange. after that it is easy to drill the right place and not ruin the pattern part so it can be used over and over. always use new wheel studs though, not used-stretched ones.
I thought about redrilling my envoy axles to accept a chevy 1/2 tone wheel. lots of those around, not many with the correct offset though.

[gottattooz]

Originally Posted by dsraven

Are the traverse wheels a smaller rim diameter? The existing sidewall cant get much shorter can it?
Keep working and posting, you are making great progress.

The current rims are 22x9s with a +45mm offset. Traverse rims are 18x7.5 with +53mm offset. That'll pull the tire in about an inch and I'll probably run a 45 series sidewall. I have to check tire specs to see what size I need when I get that far down the rabbit hole.

-Josh

[gottattooz]

For reference, here's where the 22s fit in the fender vs a 17 inch spare. The 18s should give me the clearance I'm looking for.

And I have no desire to cut up the fenders to center the wheels. I'm very much a "good enough" kind of fabricator. The rear wheels had to be centered, because it's a smaller opening. As long as I can turn the front wheels without rubbing, that's good enough for me.

-Josh

[6DoF]

the front actually looks really close to factory placement. they never looked "centered" to me vs the wheel arch, but kind of is vs the bottom of the opening

[gottattooz]

I scored a set of 2019 Chevy traverse wheels for $400.

-Josh

[dsraven]

nice score! they look in good shape too. you can sell the tires off and cover some more of the cost.
here is a wheel/tire/offset site that is pretty helpful. you can see the offset and diameter changes to scrub radius etc. maybe somebody else following along could use it.
https://www.wheel-size.com/calc/

[dsraven]

I checked the wheel size site for you and found the saab 97-x center bore is 78.1mm and the traverse is 66.9mm. you may have some work to do to fit the wheel over the raised wheel centering bump in the middle of the axle flange. ideas? wheel bolts on the saab are 12mm and 14mm on the traverse which means you may wanna use the traverse studs so the lug nuts fit properly in the wheels. not trying to engineer your truck for you, just giving you a heads up, but you probably knew already.
those 18's with the et50 offset may be the ticket for clearance issue

https://www.wheel-size.com/size/saab/9-7x/2007/

https://www.wheel-size.com/size/chev...traverse/2019/

[dsraven]

I like the traverse wheels, should look good with the blue truck

[gottattooz]

Originally Posted by dsraven

nice score! they look in good shape too. you can sell the tires off and cover some more of the cost.
here is a wheel/tire/offset site that is pretty helpful. you can see the offset and diameter changes to scrub radius etc. maybe somebody else following along could use it.
https://www.wheel-size.com/calc/

I have a wheel offset webpage from www.Customwheeloffset.com bookmarked in my phone. But thank you for the link.

-Josh

[gottattooz]

Originally Posted by dsraven

I checked the wheel size site for you and found the saab 97-x center bore is 78.1mm and the traverse is 66.9mm. you may have some work to do to fit the wheel over the raised wheel centering bump in the middle of the axle flange. ideas? wheel bolts on the saab are 12mm and 14mm on the traverse which means you may wanna use the traverse studs so the lug nuts fit properly in the wheels. not trying to engineer your truck for you, just giving you a heads up, but you probably knew already.
those 18's with the et50 offset may be the ticket for clearance issue

https://www.wheel-size.com/size/saab/9-7x/2007/

https://www.wheel-size.com/size/chev...traverse/2019/

I have to redrill the bolt pattern, just like I did on my Jeep trailblazer project. The trailblazer/Saab pattern is 6x127mm/6x5. The traverse is 6x120mm/6x4.75. I'll be pressing in 1/2 inch studs. I'll tackle the hub issue if it becomes one by grinding the Center bore to fit the rims. I also need to buy rotors first before I drill the new bolt pattern, as I plan to run slotted and drilled rotors. All in good time, my friend. I do appreciate all of your input. Everything helps, and it never hurts to pass along information .

-Josh

[dsraven]

thats funny, "all in due time". you built this thing in, like, a week. haha.

[gottattooz]

Originally Posted by 6DoF

the front actually looks really close to factory placement. they never looked "centered" to me vs the wheel arch, but kind of is vs the bottom of the opening

I keep forgetting we have a 1959 Chevy pickup in the driveway that I can use as a reference. Here's dad's front wheel in the stock location, running 245/60r15s on 15x8s. I'm happy where mine is on the panel truck.

-Josh

[gottattooz]

I got busy building a core support out of bed frame railing. The plan was to make tabs off the support cross bar to mount the end tabs on the radiator. But it just worked out perfectly that the original rubber mount lined up exactly where I need it.

-Josh

[gottattooz]

With the core support in place, I strung a wire where the fender edge will be so I can relocate the battery and fuse panel. If I can repurpose the 58 battery tray behind the turn signals, it should mount nicely in front of the wheel.

-Josh

[dsraven]

Gotta love it when your ideas work out nicely without too much fuss. I relocated the lower mounts and repurposed the upper mounts on mine too. I fabbed up a new rad support since I lopped my envoy off at the firewall. Will your hood close through all this? Looks like it should.
I recommend having a fender hung when locating stuff in close proximity, just to be sure everything will still have room. Headlight buckets, hood latch, etc

[dsraven]

Have you seen "fast Chevy" build here?

[dsraven]

since the box floor is raised over the frame there is a big void under the front of the box. thats where my battery lives. wired to the fuse box under the hood like usual and with remote booster lugs under the hood. just use large enough cable for the amp draw of the starter with that length of cable run.
I thought about moving the fuse box into the cab behind the seat but it fits under the hood and it's waaaay less wiring to leave it there. people looking under the hood don't expect to see a big open area like the stock truck would have had. my truck is not going to be a show piece, it's gonna be my daily driver if I ever get it done, so ease of access is higher on the list than looking real open.
got any new progress pics are are you done and driving already, lol.

[dsraven]

my mess.
inline 6, 4.2l.

[gottattooz]

Yes I finished it and sold it yesterday. Just kidding.

I looked at fast Chevy's build and realized that both of you are building 55-57 trucks with single headlights. That means your fenders are narrower with wider hoods. The more aggressive angle of the top of the fender is what's pushing my fuse panel. The picture posted is the approximate path of the fender lip to the core support. On a 55-57, it wouldn't even be an issue. So that's what I'm working on figuring out today.

[dsraven]

I assume that since there will need to be a ledge to mount the fender along that string line, and that ledge would likely be welded to the stock saab bodywork that is outboard from there, that you wouldn't really wanna mount stuff in that void outboard of the fender mount. It would make things hard to work on. Is it possible to turn the fuse box a little to line up with the fender mount line? Mount the battery somewhere else or possibly in that void behind the headlights but accessed from the wheel opening?

[dsraven]

I really recommend hanging both fenders and laying the hood in place so you can be sure things will line up with each other plus the rest of the truck. Hood to fender to door fitment can be a pain on a stock truck so something like these mods could be nightmarish. I'm sure you know from doing the yellow truck.

[dsraven]

will you be connecting the original saab bodywork, outboard of the fuse box, to the rad support area? originally it was connected with the square tubing across the top, just thinking it may be an idea to keep things strong up there if you plan to attach the fenders to that somehow. I know, it was just the inner fender that was bolted to the inner edge of the fender there but on my 57 the inner fender also bolted to the rad support and the lower area of the firewall and helped stiffen and firm things up there between all the parts.
here is a youtube of how one guy aligns the front end, doors to cab, fenders to doors, hood to cab and fenders. it shows some detail and some good viewpoints, things to watch for/consider. maybe you have seen it, maybe you will skip it, maybe it will help somebody lurking on here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgUwd9PdWiA