fenders need to be wider?

[la hi]

I have a 57 swb and I put a 95 camaro rear end with disc brakes, posi-traction. My bed will not fit as the new set up is to wide and the tires will not fit under the fenders.
I have removed the fenders and I need 1&1/2 to 2 inches more room on each fender to have a good fit.
The welding shop recommends that i cut the fender in half and weld a strip into the middle when I determine the correct size of expansion needed.
My other options are wheel offset, or narrower tires and I am not sure that will work. (trying out rim's till I find one that fits) I have 15" rally 5 bolt rims all around.
Any ideas??

[Speedbumpauto]

IMO, if you need to stretch the fenders that much for that small of tire, it will look funky from the rear. I've widened and narrowed smaller fenders and other parts using the process you describe. It is labor intensive and costs a lot unless you can do it yourself with a finished outcome up to your standards. There are lots of rear ends that will work better. I would go that direction before hacking the fenders.

[mongocanfly]

Much easier option would be to narrow the rearend..get the axles resplined..done several this way..unless you've got a high hp/torque monster engine they will hold up fine

[bowt1ed]

Agree - narrow the rear end and even buy new axles if needed for extra hp/torque. I picked up some Moser 30-splines ordered to length for @$250.

Cheers, Jim

[robertsjm711]

Get narrower tires?

[bowt1ed]

I guess first question to ask is are these the wheels and size tires you ultimately want or just rollers? If they are the look you are going for, it still would be cheaper to narrow the rear than the money you would spend on new(er) tires/wheels. It all depends on what you ultimately want in the end.

[mr48chev]

How wide and deep an offset are those rims?

From what I can find on the 4th gen Camaro boards and that isn't much, that rear is 65 inches from wheel mount to wheel mount surface and far too wide for any AD or TF truck.

3rd gen Camaro disk brake rear is right at 62.5 and that is what most guys would run in one of those.

You are probably looking at an honest 1000 bucks to narrow that rear after having it completely taken apart to the bare housing, having the housing narrowed, buying new custom axles, having the gears put back in (most likely with new bearings) and reassembling it. It's about 600 to have my nine inch Ford rear and axles narrowed for my 48 just taking the bare clean housing and two axles out to the machine shop.

I'd go out and find an axle that fit that had the gears I wanted and swap and sell the Camaro Axle and be done with it. You might take it in the shorts a bit on that axle but in the long run you end up with what you want for the least expense and work.

[_Ogre]

you have very deep dish wheels on the truck now, a new set of wheels would probably work fine
you can't run wide tires without a mini tub into the bed, mini tubs go to the springs maybe 3'' total

for my tubs i cut out the side of the bed with a jigsaw and reused the cutout
the 3'' filler strip is just 10 ga steel

[b-mac]

These guys above are probably right, but I like the metal work. I would like the challenge of adding a couple inches and making it look right. Sure, I will look different than stock, but only the trained eye will notice, and I think that's the fun of it.
I'm not as familiar with the lines in these fenders, but other than the time and patience, the cost would be minimal.

[mr48chev]

poking around on the 4th gen Camaro boards it looks like that 95 rear end isn't regarded as being very strong if you plan to put some power to it. There may be different rig gears in them depending on what one you picked up but that is also something to think about.

By the way those sites will send you screaming out the door due to the miss information, people answering without actually reading the question or proving that they don't know anything but want to answer anyhow.

[mongocanfly]

Mr48..I don't know who you got doing your rearend work for those big dollars but I've never spent over a couple hunderd on any rear I've narrowed with resplines...granted I'm doing my own work.. but wow....I'd never give that much..

[mr48chev]

True the cost would be lower if one were set up to narrow a rear housing himself or had a buddy deal. I'm not set up to narrow a rear axle correctly nor is my buddy who normally can build anything made of metal no matter how big or small. I haven't checked with the shop out about 15 miles west of me that does a lot of the local 4x4 axles. Add to that shipping and add in all of the peripheral parts that would have to be changed plus the labor to set up that center section correctly . Here shop labor runs 60 bucks an hour and up.

I just flat cannot see the wisdom of narrowing that rear axle when there are rear axles the right width readily available that aren't too spendy. On the other hand if he can't do his own work on widening the fenders and getting the to the ready to prep for paint stage that is going to get expensive in a hurry too. A guy is probably looking at 20 hours of shop time in the fenders minimum before they are ready to paint.

[paulspickupparts]

Originally Posted by la hi

I have a 57 swb and I put a 95 camaro rear end with disc brakes, posi-traction. My bed will not fit as the new set up is to wide and the tires will not fit under the fenders.
I have removed the fenders and I need 1&1/2 to 2 inches more room on each fender to have a good fit.
The welding shop recommends that i cut the fender in half and weld a strip into the middle when I determine the correct size of expansion needed.
My other options are wheel offset, or narrower tires and I am not sure that will work. (trying out rim's till I find one that fits) I have 15" rally 5 bolt rims all around.
Any ideas??

Wheel offset will be the easiest and least expensive . Check the clearance between the tire to the box side . You have that much room to go inward . Also check the outside of the spring width . That also may be a determining factor. If you are set on the rim shown you can get almost any offset and width you want . Even a dual bolt pattern .

Remember if you widen the fenders it willl really look goofy if you do not flare or widen the steps. When you look from the front of the truck to the rear it will look (not politically correct) like it has a fat a$$ . The original fenders line up nicely with the stock rears. Horkey and others sell a fiberglass overwidth rear fender with a flared step to compensate for the overwidth rear render.

If you do a custom rim you will lose some of the dish appearance as you will lose some of the back offset to compensate for you wider rear end. Still much easier than the fender deal. You should still be able to do a 8 inch rim without rubbing. In your own way you created you own issues by intsalling a wide rear end and now trying to fudge in other areas.

[la hi]

Thanks for the replies so far. I have a 454 bored out .40, special stainless valves, a comp cam 1102, reworked 700R4.
I am not sure how the torque is going to work on the rearend.
I think I will run it without fenders for a while and find out how the rear end holds up. That's illegal in TX, and I will see how long I can get away with than.
Then I will get help with measuring the fenders by mocking them up and determine the exact width I will need.
Thanks for the step information, I forgot about that.
Keep your ideas coming please.
larry

[Speedbumpauto]

As long as you have those tires on a light PU rear, it will hold up. Tires will spin at will. Sounds like you want to make some power. If so that rear will fold quicker than a pair of fours in a seven card stud game. I tried resplining axles on a mild drag race car years ago because I had a fixture to narrow 9" housings and not much money. Sheared three right at the end of the spline, the last almost causing a wreck before I concluded the respline deal just doesn't work. We could have a whole thread on why. Get a 9" housing. Lots of folks can narrow them and parts are plentiful. Get it cut so you can keep some nice deep dish wheels/tires on that ride. After spending what you did on the rest of the drive train, don't cheap out on this. You WILL hate yourself later.

[b-mac]

Had to look these guys up:

http://www.horkeyswoodandparts.com/page16.php

3" wider w/ flared step.

$737/pr + freight.

[robertsjm711]

I've got 225/60/16 tires, 5" backspace rims from Summit, 12 bolt stock width axle with a lower stance and it all fits nicely under the fenders. Rims are not the fanciest, but were less than ~$330, tires ~$350.

[_Ogre]

Originally Posted by mr48chev

poking around on the 4th gen Camaro boards it looks like that 95 rear end isn't regarded as being very strong if you plan to put some power to it.

same thing was said when i installed a 3rd gen rearend in truk
i can verify that a 3rd gen rearend will smoke tires endlessly

[mr48chev]

The only problem I have had with my Nova rear axle was having to replace and axle that had been worn down by a bad bearing.

As far as LaHi pulling that rear out and putting one in that lets the wheels fit better, still has the same gear ratio and disk brakes goes I am the king of buying parts that I decided not to use for one reason or another. If it doesn't fit right you change it for something that does and hope someone wants to buy the one you took out. Three choices" Spend hours and bucks widening the fenders which may or may not look right when done, spend SSS modifying the rear he has or spend SS and a few hours and swap rears put the tires in where they need to be and bolt the fenders on and go on to the next issue. Or get long shackles and air shocks for the rear, jack it up stink bug high in the back and tell the world that you did a "70's build" just like the guys did back then. The look us older guys try to forget.

[dsraven]

have you looked into a ford 8.8 from a mustang (centered pumpkin) or explorer (offset pumpkin). look at the ranger station site for some info on that. pretty strong diff, posi, rear disc, easy park brake hook up, at picknpull for cheap.

[dsraven]

if "tubbing" the box, you can also use a steel trailer fender and cut the edge off as deep as you want the tub, then use the part of the box that is cut out to fill in the center part of the fender. sorta like ogre did but with a rounded edge instead of a square edge. personal preference, but the trailer fender would possibly be as cheap as a piece of steel if you don't have some laying around. one fender ill do both sides.

[paulspickupparts]

Rear end widths.

http://www.roadkillcustoms.com/hot-r...#axzz4nRYYO1DV

[tmoble]

probably want something about 58". Like was said, measure what you have now, see how much room you have to the inside.

la hi, do you have leaf springs under the back? are they closer to the tires than the bedsides? If you do a 58" you can use wheels with more offset to get the tires away from the bed. Happily, this also allows to run a deeper dis h, which always looks better IMO.

[bobinbc]

About 60" is the perfect width if you want to run wider tires. Look for a rearend from a 68-74 Nova or the other GM variants 2dr or 4dr doesn't matter . It's a 8.5" ring gear very strong, same as 2nd Gen Camaro but a bit narrower. Posi's are the same as 73-81 Camaro/Firebird very common and cheap. I like a bit of dish with my wheels so mini-tubbed the bed to fit a fat tire.

[ptc]

Shorten it, TUB it and find the fattest tires you can to put on it.....