Customs '56 Chevy 3100 project - hard time choosing paint color... See RENDERING:

I have a set of 255 60 R15 for the front and 275 60 R15 for the rear on mine. I'm not even sure if the 275's will fit in the rear fender wells. I like the look of the wider tires, that's why I was asking what size yours were. They looked pretty damn close to the same as mine.
Where does a guy find these shims? I live in the boonies so I have to order everything online

 

What width is your rear axle from the face of the passenger drum to the face of the drivers drum? Mine is 62". With 8" wheels that have 4.25" backspace wearing 9.6" wide tires I have 1.25" of clearance before the tire touches the fender lip.

275's WILL fit inside the wheel wells, but your axle will HAVE to be 58" to 60" wide and you will need a minimum of 4.5" to 5" offset on 8" wheels (which I assume you are using with 275's).

Keep in ind that you have 74" from inside fender lip to inside fender lip.

To find width of a tire you take the first metric number, 275, and divide it by 25.4. In this case you get 10.8". This means that on an 8" wheel your tire will bulge outside the wheel 1.4" on each side. So, on an 8" wheel with 4" backspace (neutral offset) you will need to have an axle with maximum width of 60" which will give you about 1" clearance between the tire and the fender lip on each side. On an 8" wheel with 3" backspace you will need and axle with a maximum width of 58". On a wheel with 5" backspace you can have an axle with a maximum width of 62".

If you do have a deep backspace (more wheel to the inside than the outside) you will need to be sure that there aren't any leaf spring pack-clamps that stick out too far to the outside of the leaf springs.

Hope this helps.

 

that actually helps a great deal. I'll measure the off set on these Corvette Ralleys I have for the truck. All I know is they are 8" wide for the back and 7" for the front and are 15". My rear axle is from a 65 Chevelle and measure's 59" so I should be ok there.

 

Dang, just reread that you had 255's on the front. You need to be careful here...you may end up hitting your tie-rod end with the tire. With 245's on the front on a 7" wheel that has 4.25" backspace I am only 1/4" away from the tie-rod end. You may need wheel spacers on the front. I would put the wheels on the front and measure the distance to the tie-rod end, then I would do the math on the tire which comes out to just under 10.1" wide. This means that your tire will buldge out 1.5" on each side of the tire. Since the tire ramps up slowly from the bead/lip you will easily need 1" to 1 1/4" of clearance MINIMUM (to be safe) from the wheel lip (if the tires are not already mounted). Again, front spacers mean longer wheels studs.

 

This weekend was fairly productive. I swapped the intake manifold that I need to use for now onto the engine and have the one I want to use ready for a little machine work and polishing.

I also got the brake lines all attached and bled the brakes...as far as the brakes are concerned everything seems to be good to go.

I pressure washed the bed and scrubbed it down with a purple scotch-brite pad then wiped it all down with wax-n-grease remover and shot some rattle can right over the old paint just to get everything the same color for the winter. I'm going to have to wait for spring to get started on body work and prep for the final paint job. I then loaded it up on the cherry picker and lowered it into place. This can be a one man job when it needs to be...I did it by myself and it was fairly easy.

Here are a few pics from this weekend:

 

Oh yeah, I also discovered that my tie rod ends do touch the tire, just slightly, but enough that the tires would heat up and shred fairly quickly. Looks like I'm going to have to take both steering arms off and have them bent inward...something I really wanted to avoid.

 

I took a few pictures with my SLR camera, so here are some better pics of the firewall and new tire/wheel combo.

 

did you downsize on your tire width?

 

I may still do that. Right now I'm trying to find an adequate way to heat and bend them. I'll need a good way to hold them secure during the process...I may have to make a jig and bolt them to it the same way they would be bolted to the spindle and then use a hydraulic press to bend them the right amount without them twisting or skewing. If this becomes too difficult I may have to buy new narrower front tires.

 

A few years back, every Street rodder, or maybe Rod and Custom, magazine I bought had one of those ad cards that always fall out, for some truck mag.
On the card was 55-57? truck like yours painted pale mint green, sounds odd, but I always thought it looked good, maybe a bit too street roddie for you, but you asked.

 

I'd be buying new tires, just to avoid the hassle at this point. I'll be buying new ones for the front because if your 245's hit the tie rod then my 255's are definitely out of the picture

 

They are so damned close to being OK...I may just create a wedge that tapers up from the front bolt to the rear bolt so that the steering arm is about 1/8" away from the spindle at the front and 3/8" away from the spindle in the rear. That, and a set of 1/4" to 3/8" wheel spacers would get me nearly 3/4" clearance, which would be enough. After the money I spent on painting these wheels I don't want to risk them getting scratched being dismounted and remounted. And $274 in tires is a lot more than $30 in wheel spacers and anoth $10 in materials to make some steering arm spacers.

Of course, next time around I'll be going 225/60R15's...

 

Today I sat the front fender on just so see where it sits. In my opinion the front end really needs to come down at least another inch, maybe two. I know that once the front group is bolted back together that counts for about 200 lbs, the front radiator when full is about another 60 lbs and the front bumper is good for about 40 lbs. I'm not sure that 300 lbs on the front is going to bring it down at all...I guess I'll find out. If not I'll either be ordering a set of drop springs or installing drop spindles.

Tell me what you think:

 

what are you using for springs right now? The truck is sitting nice and level but you're right, tat front needs to come down to give it the rake you're after

 

Trucks looking good man! You should give rainbow sales a call in woodland and see what they can do for you with colors, they have done some pretty good colors for people I know. (530) 666-1234 No need for a complicated jig on those steering arms I did a set on my press once just by drilling holes in a plate and clamped them into a press and put a spacer under the arm and heated and bent them to the plate so they were the same, before they cooled I tacked the end to the plate and dropped them in buckets of sand and buried them. Then we cut the same amount out of the center of the tierod and sleeved and welded it, I wish we would have looked harder at the time though for a way to just cut one side and re thread it, im sure it can be done.

 

If you end up coming to woodland ever ( for paint maybe ) I can help you with those arms if you would like.

 

For right now, because winter has arrived and it rarely gets above 50 degrees up here until spring hits, I'm settling for a spray bomb paint job. The army green you see on the bed will be on the whole truck until the weather gets better. The color it will ultimately be is the dark green that my steel wheel is on one of the previous pages in this thread. Also, on page 1 I showed a flame scheme which at this point I'm still planning on doing. I may change my mind when I get there, but for now I'm still really liking the idea of lighter scalloped flames.

Yeah, I'm figuring the spacers should be straight forward. I wasn't thinking I would need to cut the tie-rod, so thanks for the heads up, but damn...that's just another bridge I have to cross.

The springs are stock minus one leaf (maybe two, I can't remember exactly, but I think just one). I really do need to get the front end down...I'm going to have to think about my options on this one.

 

love idea...mossy green..mm..you can go to flattenin agent in clear coat...or buy flat clear ..just dont polish it...lol...you can get differnt stages of gloss...
id recomend PPG...
it aint easy being green...but hey..moneys green!!!...

 

Trucks lookin killer man. What brake master setup are you running ? I see you have the stock clutch linkage and im assuming your brakes are on the framerail as well. Do you have a power setup ? I need to get mine squared away on my truck

Sent from my DROID device using the TJJ mobile app

 

Just thought about this after reading... what about adding another 200+ lbs for you and possibly another passenger in it before messing with the ride height anymore? Being drivable and looks without anyone in it can make a huge difference.

And honestly I think it looks good where it is.

 

Well, logic probably should play into this a bit...I guess, lol. You are 100% correct. It's funny how we become so myopic in our builds that we forget to take everything into account. With me at 325 lbs and the front end at 300 lbs and another passenger adding another 150 or so, maybe it will bring the front end down. Bummer is, I'll have to be sitting in it to have the rake i want...which means I won't actually get to see it with that rake...LOL...that's too damn funny. I love irony like that...

 

How much further down would you like to go in the front? I like the way it sits right now, it has a nice level stance. But I know where you're coming from with wanting to "see" the rake. Every time you take a picture of it, it just won't look right but if someone else snaps one of you in it, it looks the way you want it. Stance and the right wheel and tire combo is what makes the look of a truck.
Would it be to harsh on the springs if you removed another leaf from the front?
What shocks are you running on your truck?

 

Or you can have a buddy come over to sit in with someone else then you are okay and I agree about the irony haha. Fly me out there and ill come help

I wouldn't remove any leafs from the springs, not a good idea for several reasons, there are other ways. I think you were dead on in how you have it now.... don't dick with it

 

I'm a tinkerer by nature... and I'm also a visual person, so I have had this idea of how it was going to look 2 years ago before I even started. I may leave well enough alone for now, but I see Posies 3" drop leafs in the future, which will net me about 1.5 inches from where it sits. In fact, can anyone with Posies 3" drop leafs on the front of a stock frame give me a measurement from the ground to the bottom of the frontmost part of the framerail?

As far as shocks go, I used RS5000 on the rear...haven't bought the front shocks yet, but likely will be KYB, Bilstein or something meant for better performance.

 

Sorry, All I got on mine is monoleafs so that probably wont help you.

 

Actually that could help. If you know what the difference in height was advertised with those Monoleafs then give me the height, I could determine what stock height should be and subtract the 3" from that, and then subtract the 3.5 inches for my drop axle from that and compare to where I sit right now.

 

Actually, does anyone know what true stock ride height is? Maybe someone who has a true stock truck with fairly new leafs could take that measurement. from the ground to the bottom of the frontmost framerail?

 

mine is all stock as far as the suspension goes, but I do not have new leafs... do you still want a measurement?

 

Good looking truck buzznut!

 

The monos were advertised 3" lower. I can get a measurement. For you but my truck doesn't have the body on the chassis right now it does however have a 350 and 700r4 sitting in place full of fluid. Let me know if you still want a measurement. I also have two trucks truck with original suspension