62 Falcon Wheel clearance

I have a 62 falcon, and a set of 15X7 american D spokes, will they clear the rear wheelwells? If anyone has done this swap, what size tire? it already has a 57 ranchero 9 inch...Thanks for the help!

 

falcons are always ****ty when you put bigger wheels in. rub city.(excuse my bluntness, ive been out all night)

 

No Chance

 

Get out the tape measure and straightedge and measure your wheels, then measure your wheelwell clearances with the wheels removed.

Here's a helpful page from a HAMBers wheel website that shows you how to go about it:http://earlywheel.com/products.html

Measuring your own car and wheels is really the only way to know.

 

I`ll

 

thanks! helpful stuff

 

Nowayno .I radiased the fenders on my Ranchero .I run 50's on 10 inch Cragers ,but i am freakin butcher...

 

I'm running 15x7 on my 62 with a 195 50 15 tire and they on rub in hard corner turns.

 

hey artie, do they rub inside,outside, or both?

 

Why would anyone want to keep the tires in the wheel wells, remember the Falcon was a economy car with thin wheels and tires, so buy the wheels and tires you desire and start cutting the wheel wells to fit the MEATS. G***ers forever!

Remember anyone can restore, it takes a real man to cut 'um up!

 

because my daughter would be hitting the car next to her in the high school parking lot with those tires hanging out of the wheelwells!!!

 

Yes, and we dont all want to butcher our cars just to put wheels on.

 

Mine is g***er and there is no turning back once you straight axle one ,so cutting and flaring the rear fenders is part of it.If i were building a street cruiser i would proly cut them anyways cuz i think they look better radiused on that particular car (just my opinion)...

 

Have you run the baseball bat around the inside of the wheek well lip to get it down you know what I mean? I know the Falcons have a seam that sticks into the wheel well opening and that needs to be smoothed or reformed which will give you a half inch or so. Another thing you might try is raising the rear end a little via blocks or air shocks.

 

Mini-tub the inner fenderwells, and get a wheel with more offset if you don't want to chop the outer sheetmetal.

 

wouldn't that be a wheel with less off set?

 

Your right.
It's been a long day for me!

 

This tool from Eastwood works well for rolling the inner fender lip

http://www.eastwoodco.com/jump.jsp?itemID=6159&itemType=PRODUCT

 

It depends.

A wheel that looks deep from the front side has a lot of positive offset.

A wheel that looks shallower on the front side has more negative offset.

To tuck the wheel further to the inside you want more negative offset.

 

They only rub slightly on the outside, didn't really notice it until I got my whitewalls

 

I have done a few Falcons, and the biggest I have been able to fit was a 215-65-15 on a 15 x 7 wheel, but I had to stretch the wheelwell opening 3" towards the front to make them fit. The early Falcons came with a very small in diameter 13" wheel and tire, and when you try to get anything like a 15" in there the opening is too small.

 

Using a baseball bat carefully position the bat between the fender and the tire have a "Trusted" friend very slowly move the car while you guide the bat it acts like a rolling lever that rolls the inner lip flatterand slightly stretches the wheel wells you will have to use the smaller part of the bat at first. If it starts to stretch too much then back up the car and bat will roll back out you can control the angle of bat and the roll by tugging on the bat keeping it perpindicular to the lip. Repeat as needed until the lip is rolled flat keep an eye on the quarter panel to make sure you don't wrinkle it.

 

Hey Drive Em.......figures, I just fixed the rust in front of the wheels...damn would have been the perfect time, a 65 series tire is pretty tall think a 60 would squeeze in there?

 

I would be hesitant to to do anything to my car to get an ill-fitting wheel/tire combo in there. If you have some nice rear quarters/wheel well openings that are looking good then don't touch them.

No rolling or cutting the lips for me.

Narrow the rear end or put in a wider one to get the wheel/tire to fit just right, I've done this with great results and with careful measuring you get a perfect fit.

Do a mini-tub job if you're willing to go that far, but leave the outer fenders and lips alone. A little hammering on the inner fender for clearance is fine.

If the wheel/tire is just plain too big, find something smaller.

I always buy wheels and tires that fit the car, I don't make the car body fit the wheels and tires.

Just my humble opinion, any of my cars that have a nice-looking factory wheel well opening will stay that way.

If you're building a car that needs a radiused wheelwell opening for the style of build you're doing, then hack away.

Good luck.

 

Yeah, your right, I went to great pains to save the inner lips, and now the car is painted, was going to run steelies on 14`s, but after setting an american up against it, I liked the look, so I was wondering what it would take...maybe I`ll quit being cheap and buy some 14x6 americans, I see that most of these replys came from Texas, falcons must be popular there!

 

Good idea.

Buy what will fit. You'll be glad you did.

I've seen more guys **** up their nice cars trying to fit some wheels and tires they got for a 'great deal' that just weren't right.

 

The problem with all this talk about different offset, and tubbing ect., is that the leaf springs are in the way. You really can't tuck em in any further without moving the springs inboard. That is a ton of work. The only real reasonable choices for a street car are a little t******* on the inner lip to get a slightly bigger tire in there, radius the wheel wells or air shocks to lift the fender out of the way.
Bulging the wheel wells looks ok on the pre 64 cars because they are real round designs, but it looks silly on the 64 and later cars because they are so boxy and straight.
Thats how I see it anyway.
Rob

 

I'm running 14x6 rims with an 8" rear from I don't know what. My car is lowered 3" and even after I rolled the fenders gaining a 1/2", they still tag deep inside the well on hard turns. Change the offset on your rim and that should make a big difference. I didn't do that as I'm running stock Granada rims.

Go to fordsix.com and mention 15s. There are a lot of people running them.

I wanted to mention that a 14" looks proportionately correct on this car. It really fills out the well and looks much better than a 13 and not crammed in.

 

I like 14"x5" fairlane rims with a 185/75r14 or a 5.60x14 They don't clear discs though.
In the back a 7.50x14 will clear on a 5" wide rim, but not with a 6". I have a Falcon /Comet fetish that won't go away even though I've been driving larger 50's cars lately.

 

no way. the biggest you could fit in there would be a 6 inch in a mag, and that would be pushing it. with a steel rim and getting the perfect offset you could get away with a 7, but you have to hammer the wheel lip a little. the first time around i ran 15X7 americans on my car, had to radius the wheelwells.