I guess I have a whole different take on the rear tire changing situation, Michu. I am a very visual person and the proportions of my cars must be spot-on to make me happy. I am willing to make concessions in practicality to make this happen. In my humble esthetic opinion, rear wheels in the stock location in our era Fords look inset too far. Again in my opinion, bringin' 'em out an inch or so makes 'em look a whole lot better...skirts or no skirts. It's this tiny inch that makes the difference between easy tire changes and not so easy tire changes. Insetting the wheels was Ford's concession to practicality. I'm sure the stylists knew that this change would disenhance the car's sleek appearance, but did it because the engineers told them they had to make a change so that the customer could change his tires easily by the side of the road. The engineers won. As a visual person, I tend to side with the stylists. I'm willing to put up with the additional difficulty of changing the tires to get my cars to look right. Not everybody is willing to do that. The only reason I bring this up is to acknowledge that there are two schools of thought on this matter. Neither is right, neither is wrong. Each simply places larger importance on one aspect, and lesser importance on another. So... Now that you are thoroughly confused...
Thanks old lady's mad, here in munich the american military base has closed some years ago but there are some others in bavaria too. To missysdad1: I'm a visual person too, but i never realized that the rear wheels will look better when they're an inch more outward, have to look at my car to get an idea about this, very interesting. I have some different sets of skirts for my Ford but i think i will drive it without skirts, to me the club coupe looks better this way. Of course the stance has to be perfect, hope to do this in spring. I also agree with you that practicality is not the important thing at first, a custom car is everything but practical i would say, problems because of the lowness and so on, but that doesn't matter to me, it just has to look good. I'll use the Ford as my daily driver when it's on the road, so i will not spend much money on paint and chrome, i will paint it myself when all other work is done, have to rebuild the engine, lower it, finish the installing of the '54 Chevy grill, mount some spotlights, by the way, i have a set of lorraines for it (112 shape), do you have an idea where i have to drill the holes, in the beltline trim maybe? I'm not exactly sure how to do it, and where will the arms come out in the inside, in the dash/above the dash? If you have an idea how to do it, i'd be very glad if you let me know it. My car is not going to be perfect, i try to make it look like a survivor, but of course i will pay attention to detail, for example i have installed a '53 Merc' accessory steering wheel with original patina. Other things to come are frenched headlights ('54/'55 Lincoln maybe), and i have '55 Lincoln rear quarters wich will come on the Ford some day, but at first it has to run and drive. Thanks again! Later, Michu
Hey Michu, hi from Stuttgarft:-D I thought we already have a deal runnin with those fender skirts, btw. I´ll need them soon, so let´s get connected and check out what´s the next time we can meet up weather in stuttgart or in munich, there must be some goin on soon, right? I´m finally startin my 53 project in march after sittin and rottin at my shop the last 4 years. btw. I got that issue of cart craft mentioned above if that helps! Do you still have that 55 Ford grill? Might be interested, too... Cheers Damir
Hey Damir, sorry for the late answer, but i was in california about the skirts, yes, but you will get the stock skirts i have that will fit your 4door, the skirts in the pictures will only fit 2door models, but you can try them, i still have them, the '55 grill too. Later! Michu
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