Help! How much space gained by rolling fender lips on '70 Dart?

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1970dartcustom

1970dartcustom

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I ordered wheel vintiques series 63 black steel wheels, and Cooper Cobras 255/60/r15's for the rear of my 1970 Dart. The 4.5 inch backspace seemed like it would be enough, and the inside is way good towards the springs, as they've been moved in...

But the outside edge of the Tire to the fender lip is like a quarter inch, and I haven't put the Drums on yet!!!! :banghead:

Now I am considering having the rear fender lips professionally rolled up flat, but how much room will that give me??? I have heard around half an inch, is that true???
 

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These were the only small bolt patter black steel wheels I could find that suited my purposes... Unless there is some way to order these exact wheels with more backspace??? IDK.... 15x8's...
 
4" Backspace would be worse.I have read a 245 is the best choice for a tire
 
Rolling the fenderlip won't help.
Whenever the body moves downward on bumps, the inner fender will contact the tire.
Remove the tire and look up to the inner fender. There's an annoying ridge that will contact the tire.

The proper fix is to move and reweld the center of the wheels for more offset. That is, if you still have room to go inward.
 
I definitely do have more room to the inside, on the wheels and towards the springs... the springs have been moved in a ways before i bought the car... I guess I should find the centerpoint between the fender lip and the spring and make the center of the wheel end up there???
Is it hard to get the wheel cut n moved and still be weighted properly???
 
Rolling the lip is only for tires that pretty much already fit, but simply need a little more room. I agree that you need more back spacing, not a rolled lip.
 
ok. well is there a possibility of ordering this same wheel with custom backspace? or is it pretty easy to have the vertical section moved out on the rounds???
 
I have 245/60/15 on 15x7 rims with 4.25" backspace on my 68 Dart (same rear quarter lips and wheel tubs). The rub on the inside and outside enough to leave rub marks and slight grooves.

The 8" wide rim pulls the outer edge of the tire out and you have a 255 wide.

I think if you'd roll the lips, you'd gain 1/4".

Here's pics the lips I rolled on my Barracuda

Wrap and body dolly in dense cloth and hold on outside of fender lip edge. Then hit/bend in the fender lip with a hammer. Small hits. And SLOWLEY move outwards. The SLOWER the better. No big hits. Just work the metal over. A sheet metal pliers with the edges radiused helps too. The sharp corners will dimple the metal.

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Another side note from my past experience with wheel vintiques. Their wheels are lug centric requiring a special lug mount adapter for the balancing machine. I had a set of 16x8s I fought years ago with this...
 
You can send the wheels to Wheel Vintiques and have them move the BS as needed.
 
So, does anyone else know exactly how much space they gained by rolling the fender lips? I swa the pics someone posted... but how much space was gained???
 
"So, does anyone else know exactly how much space they gained by rolling the fender lips? I saw the pics someone posted... but how much space was gained???"

I am referring to a '70+ Dart, not any other vehicle... My father is building my dart 2,000 miles away, :cheers:so, I am having to make decisions without hands on knowledge #-o... Thanks!
 
Look, the quarter lip on a 70+ Dart is only about 3/4 of an inch wide. But, as was already mentioned, the wheel tub is not flush with the inside of the quarter. Not only that, but the wheel tub tapers in at an angle. And THEN, about an inch or so above the top of the quarter lip, there's a "bump" in the wheel tub that limits clearance again.

So, how much room can you gain by rolling the lip? Maybe a 1/2". Maybe, and that's the absolute most you'd get. But that 1/2" toward the quarter that you gain only goes up another inch or two, before you have even LESS room than what you had to the original quarter lip. So you just rub on the wheel tub instead of the quarter lip. Maybe it works when you're not moving, but if hit a bump or throw some people in the backseat you'll still rub.

You can't really make room for wheels that don't fit by rolling the quarter lip. If you have a slight rub when you have people in the back seat, or when you're hauling a bunch stuff in the trunk, or when cornering hard etc, then rolling the lip back a little bit can help your cause and buy you the little bit of extra space you need.

Bottom line is, a 15x8 with 4.5" of backspace isn't enough backspace for 255's. You say you have a quarter inch without the drums, so that means you actually have almost zero clearance with everything assembled. You need about a 1/2" to the outside to keep from rubbing, so what you really need is a 15x8 with 5" of backspace, minimum. Because if you have a little too much backspace you can add a small spacer. Too little and you have to cut things, as you're finding out.
 
I started to roll the lip on my 72 Dart the whole lip (bondo rust n all) fell off no more rubbin but doesn't look very good
 
Narrow the rear, to make the drum faces slightly shy of centered in the tub, between plumb-lines dropped from the aforementioned outer-step and the inner-wall/spring. Then you can run almost any wheel. That's what I did, and no more problems.The cost was not very much.
 
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