55.2-59 1958 Saab story

[dsraven]

the 4 eyed trucks look like they have a slightly wider fender lip, or in other words, the dimension from the outside of the fender across to the outside of the other fender looks like it may be a bit wider on the 58-59. I wonder if that is actually true. that would mean your truck may have a bit more tire room under there.
it's probably a visual thing and they are the same. it would be cool to know though.

[dsraven]

here is a pic through the headlight bucket holes of my 57 GMC on the 04 envoy XUV frame, with suspension pinned at original envoy ride height (pinned before the envoy body was taken off), stock 17 x 7 wheel and 235/55r17 tire installed. I now have the 235/60r17's on which are about an inch taller overall. not a noticeable difference between them really.

[gottattooz]

I typed it wrong. I went with a 225/45r18 not a 255. It's a 26 inch tall tire.

-Josh

[gottattooz]

I am REALLY tired of drilling holes. One more wheel to go. As you can see, the lip of the rim is inset about an inch which is perfect. The 22s were scrubbing on the outer edge of the inner fender well. With the suspension all the way deflated, the truck wouldn't roll.

Oh, and dad wanted the bowtie center caps for his Chevy Colorado. We put 2015 gmc canyon snowflakes on his 2005. He saw the center caps and wanted to trade.

-Josh

[dsraven]

dad,s. they are always "entitled". haha (I have three kids. I'm entitled too).
wheels look great.
what does your drilling jig look like?

[gottattooz]

I finished all 4 wheels. I had to put blocks of wood between the differential and the frame to roll it out of the shop for the pictures, but I love the stance.

-Josh

[gottattooz]

Originally Posted by dsraven

dad,s. they are always "entitled". haha (I have three kids. I'm entitled too).
wheels look great.
what does your drilling jig look like?

It's a pretty simple setup. Bolt it to your existing bolt pattern, drill the pilot hole, rotate clockwise, drill another pilot hole and the stud hole. 48 holes later, you pop out the old studs and put the new studs in.

I bought the jig from hell's gate hot rods. They can make any jig you want, but can't change the number of studs because of the way the jig is set up.

-Josh

[dsraven]

thanks for the pics, I was wondering what the extended dowels were for and figured they must be for small drill and large drill bits.

[dsraven]

just noticing the gap at the bottom of the front fender is larger than at the top. is it bolted down? do you anticipate the need to do some adjustments at the rad support end to get the gap right so the hood closes properly?
here are a few pics of my 57. sorry, I can't seem to figure out why they can't be rotated and I am not on the desktop computer right now so not downloaded. maybe Rickysnickers can spin them? if so, thanks Ricky. not done yet by a long shot but obviously laid out differently than yours if you check the wheel centering in the fender opening. also, my tires seem to be closer to the inside of the fender lip. stock wheel, 235/60r17 tire (28" tall). since my truck is AWD I need to keep all 4 tires the same outside diameter.

[gottattooz]

I got my front tires in today. It's exactly what I was hoping for. No bulge on the sidewalls and plenty of clearance without having to mess with the suspension height.

-, Josh

[gottattooz]

And the clearance on the front of the tire when turning is great too. Here the 30 inch tire in front of the 26 inch tire.

-Josh

[6DoF]

oh yeah, you should be golden. at least more than good enough to keep building and find out how they are on the street daily for a while.

seeing this makes me wonder why i was so hell-bent to use a 30" tire :facepalm:

[gottattooz]

Originally Posted by 6DoF

seeing this makes me wonder why i was so hell-bent to use a 30" tire :facepalm:

Sometimes we have preconceived ideas of what "has to be" and we build around it instead of adjusting our point of view.

My dad is hell bent on running wide tires in the back of his 1959 Chevy pickup. He's running 15x10s with 295/50r15s. The issue is in order to clear, he has to adjust the air suspension higher than he likes. Says it looks redneck, but he won't concede to using a narrower tire that fits in the fender well. And he won't tub the inner bed sides to add clearance. I'm tired of explaining how it doesn't fit and he needs to budge on either the width of the tire or adding clearance to make what he wants fit without rubbing off the sidewalls.

His face was less than enthused seeing the lower profile tires on the panel truck. It's not his style. But for now, I can move forward with the build and make whatever necessary adjustments I need later if I decide to change the wheel and tire dimensions.

-Josh

[6DoF]

oh yeah, i have no issues cutting more metal to make them fit though

[dsraven]

I will likely end up doing something like this guy did, shave the wheel arch and add some width. see post 106ish. looks do-able.
https://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/...=766016&page=5

[youngrodder]

Those late model rims look great. I like the look.

Marc

[gottattooz]

No updates. I just rolled it outside to take a picture of the stance with the new front tires.

-Josh

[dsraven]

Look great, prolly feals pretty good too, eh? (From Canada, lol)

[gottattooz]

Originally Posted by dsraven

just noticing the gap at the bottom of the front fender is larger than at the top. is it bolted down? do you anticipate the need to do some adjustments at the rad support end to get the gap right so the hood closes properly?

Sorry I missed this. I built the radiator core support before I secured the back off the body with the 1 inch square tube. I lifted the back about 2 inches, and since it pivots at the base of the windshield, it opened the gap at the bottom of the fender. So I'll have to cut the mounting ears off the core support and lower them to pinch the gap shut. As of right now, there's a bolt at the front of the fender at the core support and at the top of the fender just holding them in place as a reference. I haven't messed with the hood mounting yet, but it's near the top of the list


-Josh

[dsraven]

Figured you would get to it after you got the wheels done so you had a good reference on the wheel opening. Just thought I would mention it due to importance of getting it right before going forward with other stuff and then finding out the hood wont fit proper. It would be good to figure out a way to fab the front mount so you could shim it as required if you need to later.

[dsraven]

just curious, will the old truck's general fore to aft level be the same as the saab floor pan? like a level placed on the roof drip rail would read about the same as one placed on the driver's door opening floor? like you said, gotta get the body where you want it before finalizing the rad support height.

[dsraven]

great idea to park it outside where you can stand back and get a good full side pic. sometimes that saves your bacon because you don't usually get a good full sided perspective when in the shop. your shop, though, seems like you could land a plane in there.

[dsraven]

I have found that locating and marking the body line with tape, at the front and rear of each panel, can really help you line up the body parts. then I use magnets attached one at the front by the headlight and one at the rear with a string between them at the body line. this really helps me get the panels lined up. mark the tape with a pencil at the body line so it is easy to see if the string is on the mark or not. sometimes the body line can be hard to pick out otherwise because it is not really a sharp line. I usually space the string off the body by a little so it doesn't sag due to friction on the body parts. I just usually tape an office eraser to the body under the string at each end because thats what I have handy.
you have gotten a lot of progress in a short time, keep plugging away and posting. you got me off the couch and finding time to start looking at my old project again.

[dsraven]

stance looks great. the rake angle suits the body I think. what is it, about 2-3 degrees fore to aft?

[gottattooz]

So, I put the battery in it and fired it up to see if the rear air suspension works inflate. Well, I forgot that I removed the radiator and broke the trans cooler lines. Well it made quite a mess.

Then I cut the wiper cowl off, used the cut off piece to mark on cardboard to make a template. Then I stuck the template on the truck too mark the height of the firewall to the cowl.

-Josh