47-55.1 Need a little help on 54 rear fenders

[hogfarm]

As I mentioned in a prior post I am going to shorten the 9" ford rear end in my 54 chevy pickup. In the past I had fiberglass rear fenders wider than stock. I have not been able to locate any stock rear fenders, at a reasonable price, and I don't want to stop progress on the truck. My question is. can someone give me the dimensions of the rear fenders? bed is 50" if I'm correct. I have 10" rear wheels and need to fit them inside the fenders. And I am aware than I need to tub the bed.

[mongocanfly]

Are you asking for bed to inner edge of the fender?
Mine is 11" right where the inner brace is

[mr48chev]

74.53 outside to outside. minus the lip and minus wiggle room.

I've got one off and hanging on the shed wall if I can get to it tomorrow. if someone doesn't post the mesasurement before I get out there.

If you had someone coming over to the valley who could haul it back I'd just loan it to you to play with and get it in the spring.

[leegreen]

my box sides measure 50 3/4 outside face to outside face
fenders are 11 1/4 from inside lip to side of box each
lip is 1/2

that adds up to 74 1/4 overall width. I'm missing 1/4 from Mr48chev!

[mr48chev]

I'd bet that back in 1954 you could walk on a Chevy dealer's lot and measure a row of new 3100 trucks and not get an exact measurement twice.

I'd go with mongocanfly's 11 inches and allow clearance space. From my experience a 255 tire which usually is 10.04 inches in section width barely leaves enough room for wiggle space and your suspension had best be tight or the tires will rub the bed on hard turns. There isn't much left of the white letters that I had the tire dude turn to the inside on mine.

[hogfarm]

I think I have the info I need, and Thank you Mr48chevy I can wait to find what I need. There is an old time wrecking yard near me (Howard's in Underwood Wa) that is closing up and everything is for sale. My Daughter's Husband's Dad has been hired to inventory everything there, He did say there are some fenders that I need but the guy want $125.00 each, I thought that was a little hi, but could be wrong. There is one more guy a few miles away that builds crew cab trucks that also has a bunch of stuff, but with all the snow we have been getting it makes it hard to go see them

[mr48chev]

The price on those fenders depends on how nice they are and how much or little work has to be done to get them perfect.

[hogfarm]

In my quest for some rear fenders, today I was told that 54-55.5 fenders are an inch wider that 47-53. is this a fact?

[joedoh]

Originally Posted by hogfarm

In my quest for some rear fenders, today I was told that 54-55.5 fenders are an inch wider that 47-53. is this a fact?

nope. same fenders 47-55.1

[mongocanfly]

Russ done got this, but I have both, no difference

[mr48chev]

Here are the dimensions on 54 and 53 3100 trucks.

If you get nit picky the 54 shows to be .03 wider than the 53. = Decimal for 54 VS Fraction for 53.

[hogfarm]

Could someone get me the measurement of outside to outside of the rear fenders?

[dsraven]

check post 4 from lee green, I think he says it right in there.

[hogfarm]

Originally Posted by dsraven

check post 4 from lee green, I think he says it right in there.

Opps missed it, sometimes I get in panic mode, I installed my shortened rear end today and thought I made a mistake and now shortened it enough, My tires are 72" outside to outside, so looks like I'm good

[mr48chev]

74.53 outside to outside.

[dsraven]

depending on the tires and how much they ballon out on the sides I suppose, but it looks promising. I would check the suspension as well to ensure the side to side limits of travel, as the suspension goes through a complete full up to full down, keep the tires inside the envelope. what are you running for suspenion back there?

[hogfarm]

Originally Posted by dsraven

depending on the tires and how much they ballon out on the sides I suppose, but it looks promising. I would check the suspension as well to ensure the side to side limits of travel, as the suspension goes through a complete full up to full down, keep the tires inside the envelope. what are you running for suspenion back there?

dsraven I'm running leaf springs on the back. The 72" measurement , is from outside of the tires fully inflated

[dsraven]

ok. just wondering. as long as the bushings are in good shape there shouldn't be too much side to side movement. some suspensions seem to have lateral movement built in due to short panhard bars or whatever. as long as you are happy then thats what counts. a tire or wheel could be swapped out later if there is a problem, it just costs every time you do that.
it is good to get a dimension on the box from the outside to the outside of the actual box part, and then an actual inside to inside from side to side on the actual fenders when mounted. then draw that out and also draw an axle under there with the dimension from each axle flange to axle flange. then add the tire width and how it fits between the box sides and the fenders. when you are all done you will know the back space needed for the wheels and you can compare that to the wheels you have. if the truck is up on stands with the wheels off you can use a plumb bob from all the points needed and mark the floor below. then take dimensions from those marks.
I use this site for tire size comparison and actual widths. if you look down on the left side there are other calculators on the site too.
https://tiresize.com/comparison/
this one shows the drawing like I was trying to describe above. it also talks about scrub radius etc if the offset on the front axle is changed from the stock offset for that particular suspension set up.
https://www.wheel-size.com/calc/
what I do when for a ballpark dimension for checking the width is simply inflate the tire to max and put a straight edge on the sidewall vertically, both sides, then mark the floor on each side where the straight edge hits the floor. move the vehicle out of the way and measure between the marks. it may be off a little from the slight bulge in the tires, but if it is that tight of clearance then I don't wanna use that combo of tire/wheel anyway. i ruined enough tire sidewalls and fender lips due to ture rubbing around a corner or over a bump.

[mr48chev]

Thanks for sharing that Tire dot com link. I've used that before and couldn't find it when I was hunting for it the other day. I like it because it does show two tires side by side and you can not only compare tire sizes you can compare tire and wheel sizes side by side.

I was playing with it one night when someone was asking about 18 inch wheels under these trucks and put in my rear tires =255-60-15 and then played with 255 18 tires and figured out that outside dimensons on a 255-45 18 are the same as my 255-60-15.

[dsraven]

yep, no biggie. I also like the other link that shows you what to look for in fender clearance, offset, scrub radius differences etc.