I was under my truck for the first time since I installed the bed - torquing the u-bolts and finishing up the taillights, and while I was under there I noticed that I only have just shy of an inch between my tires and my inner bed wall. When I installed the tires I was so focused on fender lip clearance that I didn't even consider inner clearance. Turns out my tires are perfectly centered, but not by any planning ahead that I did. Could have been a mess, especially while I was lowering the bed oblivious to how close I truly was. Anyone else get lucky despite their own oversights or stupidity?
As far as car repairs or mods go, I've been living under a lucky star. So much so, that THAT'S when I get worried.
I would rather be lucky than good any day! My problem is that if it wasn't for bad luck I wouldn't have any luck at all. I am sure that at some point or another we have all gotten lucky on something like that and we may not even know it. I am glad that yours worked out perfect.
Nothing's wrong, I got lucky. The tires I installed are 255/75R15's... as it turns out, those are about the biggest I could have installed without any issues. They're 10.03 inches wide and 30.04 inches in diameter.
My wife tells me "its not whether ya win in a field of 2 cars or 20...all thats important is the win" point being appreciate the good fortune but when it comes down to it...."yup, planned that way" and just grin while saying it....
When I got my car going last July, everything worked great. About 8 weeks later after driving the wheels off it all over the place, that gas gauge started to act up, swinging wildly from empty to full and everything in between. I thought I had a wiring problem, checked it all out, made a couple changes but it still did it. All the time I was chasing the wiring I was still driving. Had the garage door open one day, was at the end of the driveway when I noticed something not right at the back of my car. The gas tank was damn near dragging on the ground!! Turns out I put hanger bolts in the wrong holes, one had come right out and the other was hanging by a thread! Some times you do get lucky.
10.03 is the calculated width ... 255/25.4 ... actual width could be 1/2" wider. But calculated width is the best you can do if you don't have the tires in hand ... maybe add 1/2" for wide tires... When selecting tires is best to at least consider nominal width and wheel offset.
Yeah, calculated width isn't exact. They're on 8 inch wheels, so section width should be close to 10" but may be a bit wider...as well, they may also be a bit shorter due to the side bulge that an 8 inch wheel may cause. The very fact that I chose the correct offset for this combo to work not only on the outer lip, but also the inner bed sidewall is what I'm pretty amazed by. Couldn't have worked out better...
I am always making a mess of things. When things actually go right, I'm even thinking I have done something wrong, and that usually turns out to be the case.
If everything seems to be going right, something is wrong. Sometimes I get lucky and my mistakes cancel one another, sometimes but not often!
"Anyone else get lucky despite their own oversights or stupidity?"...um, yes...pretty much what life is about sometimes!
Yeah, it happens a lot in the shop and every time it happens we say " Yeah... I meant to do that" when everyone knows it was a accident.
I seem to get pretty lucky when building my cars. While trying to stuff the BBC into my current '63 Falcon project I was agonizing over having to cut the firewall to get engine setback to clear the radiator. I finally gave in and chopped a hole, then set the engine back a few inches. A few weeks later I was fabbing up the crossmember for the ST10 four speed, and luckily the setback put the trans mount right on the stock crossmember, so I just fabbed a new one to fit. Then I started measuring the driveline to adapt the 4 speed to the Ford 8.8" rearend, and by moving the engine back it ended up being 50" joint to joint. That's exactly the same as 1st gen Camaros, so a stock driveline with TH400 yoke up front, and adapter joint to the Ford flange made it a drop in fit! I'd rather be lucky than good any day!
I tend to move pretty deliberately instead of diving in without having thought it out first, so when I make a mistake it's really well deserved. It's not mistakes that tend to slow me down, it's my misplaced optimism that a part I have can adequately restored, or a mistaken ***umption that I have everything I need to make a modification, that tend to slow me down or create more work than I originally planned.
Glad to hear it worked out BN. Wile E. Coyote has better luck than me...lol. One of the only things that've worked out for me in spite of myself, is when I accidentally found the best woman in the world...28 years ago. I still can't figure out how it happened.
If that was me, the tires would have rubbed through at some point and left me stranded 100 miles from home in a freezing rain with a dead cell phone. Bob
Well, I haven't been on the road yet. The main issue here is that I have got to be religious about inspecting my tires because any rear I let get too low WILL be a destroyed tire...period.
The Jalopy Journal
