looking for advice on the correct width for the 9" ford " rear in a full fendered 32 ford roadster . I am using the trick 8" wheels with 2" backspace. I won't have the body from brookville till April 6 and currently no rear fenders are available so mock up will be awhile. Hoping someone can help.
If you want the tires tucked under the fenders with an 8” wheel and only 2” of backspace, it will need to be narrow. I would guess in the 54” range from drum to drum. No factory ford ones are that narrow.
I realize no stock rear will work and planned to have one narrowed. I have an early bronco housing in the chassis now.
Your best bet is to have the body, have the wheels and tires and mock it up. Measure from wheel to wheel and build to suit those numbers. If you're making it custom ya better get it right.
Thanks and I agree. But brookville has no rear fenders at present and won't have when I get the body. My goal is driving by the 4th of July. No paint. Red oxide 327-4 speed. Just would like to make my deadline.
When I did my fendered deuce Vicky it was before trick 8's so I had Eric Vaughn take 2 inch's off the backside of a pair of 10 inch Halibrands. If my memory serves me I used a 52 inch rear. I looked up Real Rodders Wheels and they show a total back spacing of 2.25 and a total to the front of the wheel is 6.50. The total outside width of a 32 Ford with fenders is approximately 66 inches. I like to keep the rim back about 1/2 of an inch from the fender bead so the tire bulge just comes to the fenders edge. If the chart for Real Wheels is accurate and you take the 6.50 X 2 = 13 plus the 1/2 from the edge of each fender gives you a total of 14 inches which is subtracted from the 66 inch width equals a 52 inch rear. If you want more outside gap you simply adjust the equation to reflect the addition. I ran a 255/70/R15 BFG TA and it fit great and filled the fender. If your not using Real Wheels you will have to adjust the numbers to fit. I suggest you check with some else to verify how I do it.
Unless your narrowing the frame and tubing the inner fender wells the side wall to inner fender well will dictate you tire/wheel placement. You will want at least one inch of sidewall clearance . Once they are place you measure like 31 Vicky said and your good to go. And make sure you take in account the thickness of the drums or rotors you will be using otherwise they will build it flange to flange and you will gain up to a half inch on each side over what you want. [ learn that the hard way years ago.] Stock style fenders may still not cover tires. Good luck Larry
Real Wheels is going through some re-tooling and have no trick wheels available. Rebel builds the same style wheel and I have a pair of 16" with 255-70-16 tires. If I need to stand up the wheel wells I will do that. Gary's formula makes sense. I never considered the 66" measurement. I will check that out tomorrow. I remember Gary's Vicky as well as Tim Wells, and Ken Schneiders. They ran this same setup and it's a great look.
Takes about 4 hrs to narrow a rear housing, not sure how long it takes the axles to show up though. Lots of variety, I suppose if he aims short he can adjust the width back out using spacers without much fussing.
Can't add anything here that helps on the rearend deal but I will throw in ten extra points for the 327/4 speed combo.
For a fendered car you have to work from the outside dimension and adjust your wheel wells for clearance. When I did my Vicky and also my delivery I had to stand the wells up slightly for proper side wall clearance with no frame modifications. Both cars used 255R70-15 BFG's. I checked the Rebel website and assuming the 8 inch wheel has a total outside width of 9 inches as most wheels have. Taking 2.25 off of 9 inches leaves you with 6.75 from wheel mounting surface to the outside of the wheel. We take 6.75 X 2 = 13.50 plus the 1/2 inch fender clearance on each side to the outside totals 14.50 inches. Subtract 66 - 14.50 = 51.50 inch outside width rear end. This is just my speculation but you get the idea. When I order a rear end from Johns they take the drum width into consideration when building the rear end. I've figured 100's of custom rears over my almost 40 years of building chassis, they're not all the standard 56 inch width.
Doesn't really matter, but it would seem a shame to narrow the early Bronco rearend that many people desire. May as well narrow a wider one and save it for another project.
Surely Brookville could give you a dimension of what the outside of the fenders would be, figure in how much tire/fender clearance your comfortable with. Still would need exact wheel/tire combo for positive mock up.
8.8 Explorer rear ends are great...already about 53-inch wide...have 5 X4.5 Ford car wheel pattern... ...have disc brakes (1995-later)...have 3.54 or 3.70...or 4.11 gears...usually limited slip. They will handle about 600 horsepower. You just need to cut off bottom leaf spring pad and weld new ones on top. (Pay attention to pinion angle) The Explorer rear ends are $75 at "you pull" facilities...and about $250 at conventional wrecking yards. Why shovel money in a 9-inch when you can have a desirable/NARROW good wheel pattern/ disc brake limited-slip / strong /rear end for $75.00 when you scrounge around ?
The explorer rear comes at around 59" ish and easily narrowed by about 3" WMS to WMS finishes at 56 ish inside Backing plate to backing plate is 52ish.
The bronco rear end goes back in the pile. I am 60 miles from Johns Industries so I can get a new housing in ten days. This car is a combination of all the parts left over and not used on 30 years of building 32 fords. I even finally used the duntov 30-30 cam I bought in 1972 for $27 at the local chevy dealer. It was still in the tube. The 461 heads I had on a 55 Chevy in 1974.
I got my 66 inch outside width years ago from a Gibbon catalogue which listed the outside width for fendered cars from 28 thru 40. Has worked for me building many deuces.
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