I just swapped and installed a Currie 9" rear under my 1957 Chevy Townsman Station Wagon. The new rear has Explorer Disc Brakes. The wheels I have are too tight against the calipers when bolted down. I have very little room from tire to fender (body is original and stock). The wheels are 15x5 and appear to have 3.62" backspacing and I am hoping to avoid increasing the backspacing. Can someone help me with a solution, an idea and/or a recommendation?
If the wheels are stock Chevy wheels, then replace them with something from a newer disc brake vehicle, possibly 70s-80s car with 15" skinny wheels. There are also aftermarket wheels available, too. You'll want to do some careful measuring first, to see what back spacing/offset will fit. See how much room there is between the tire and the inner fender on both the inside and outside. You might want to read some explanations on the internet about what offset and back spacing are, and how wheels are measured (it's tricky). summitracing.com has a good online catalog to look up different wheels by the dimensions.
you might end up with something like this, although there are different back spacing available? https://www.summitracing.com/parts/wvi-67-5534234/overview/
Use some washers between the rim & hub to find the minimum space you'll need to move the rim out. Now you know how much more backspace you need, and if the tire doesn't rub the fender with this spacing you just need some simple, cheap spacers. Like this: https://www.summitracing.com/parts/sdk-sp601-s/overview/ I wouldn't use big fat ones, but I just got done dealing with the same problem as you, and all I needed was 1/8" thick spacers and extended thread (for alloy wheels) lug nuts.
I worked in the 4x4 world for many years. It was a recognized and accepted practice to gently grind down caliper bodies, primarily to put 15" wheels over 12" disc brakes. My daily driver (for 240,000+ miles) had four ground calipers. If you do the washer trick, and discover that you need just a little more clearance, and that need only be about 1/16th, grinding might be the answer. I used a flap disc.
Stock '57 wheels were before the advent of disk brakes and the need to clear calipers. The old style axles also tended to be narrower and the wheels to have less backspacing. In other words the wheels tended to push out more from the mounting face of the hub. This is probably why the tires are now so much closer to the outer fenders since the axle switch. I'm guessing this means the new axle is wider. It's true that a spacer may solve your caliper clearance problem but a spacer will also make the tire contacting the fender worse. Your hope to avoid increasing backspacing given your description probably isn't realistic if you are already rubbing the fender. If you had a ton of room in the fender well, yea, then it could happen. In general, alloy wheels tend to have caliper clearance and more backspacing (positive offset) to tuck the tires more in and away from the fenders. No doubt there are steel wheels that will do this also. The trick is to find some in a vintage style that you like, that don't clash with the front wheels, etc. For someone tackling this issue of having to move the tire in or out for the first time, it's hard to visualize and come up with the new wheel specs. What you have to do is make a couple of measurements and draw it out on paper. Basically the first step is to measure from the hub face in to the chassis side of the fender well and then out to the body work. Draw those 3 points on paper to scale. Chances are your hub face isn't going to be dead center in the wheel well. The second step is to establish the section width of the tire you will be using. For example, let's say it's 7" wide. Draw the tire width to scale where you want it to sit in relation to the outer body work. Give it enough clearance that you are comfortable it won't rub. The last step is to draw a vertical line designating the tire section center and another vertical line designating the hub face. If the tire center is inside the hub face, that's positive offset, outside is negative. The distance between the 2 lines (in millimeters) is the amount of the offset. The drawing will help you communicate the specs needed to any wheel vendor you choose and it will help you visualize the what/where/why. To help getting your mind around all this, it's a good idea to practice measuring a few wheels or wheel/tire combos you have on hand. All you need is a straight edge and a tape measure. First measure the total width, then the backspacing. Draw a straight line on paper the exact width of the wheel/tire. Measure from one edge and mark the backspace dimension. Then split the total width and mark the center. The distance between the 2 marks is the offset. If you have measured in inches and fractions, you just need to convert that last dimension to millimeters for the offset. Just some basic math... not too hard.
What gimpy said I've done and it works. Just a little grinding (or in my case I just used a portable belt sander) does the trick. A quarter inch spacer could work too which I've also done. Good luck.
It only needed a few passes of a coarse hand file over the calipers to fit 15" Renault steelies on my DD VW Golf Mk1.
Maybe contact Currie and see what they suggest since you probably purchased the rear end as a supposedly drop-in replacement.
I seem to recall that Danchuk has a 15x5 steel wheel just for your situation, to put disc brakes on a 55-57 Chevy. Give them a call or go on their website. Bill
The Jalopy Journal
