Hot Rods RADIUS REAR WHEEL WELLS

This pic was after he refined it. Somewhere I have seen a pic of him waiting to stage that was really rough. I think he must have slammed it together and had to cut it Saturday night to go racin'. LOL

 

When these started showing up in the early '70s we called them "Street Freaks". I guess it was all for looks. I knew a guy with an early Falcon set up like this ,tri power 289 four speed etc. When he hit the throttle it'd swap ends and the car felt like it was gonna tip over. Tasted vinyl a coupla times.

 

Here's a nice version, not too high in the front.

 

A certain guy you may know, but I refuse to tell you who he is, had a 63 1/2 Falcon Sprint with the gasser look.
Damn did he screw up a nice little car. HRP

 

This junker has resized Falcon wheel arches on the rear.

 

A pair of Comet’s with radius rears. I’m in the far lane, my buddy Mike in near lane.

 

Old radius job on my Henry J

 

I kinda like it!!!....

 

Very well done, keeping the original style but room for more tire. HRP

The car was a lot of fun. HRP

 

Hello,

We bought a set of 7 inch wide Bruce Slicks for the 58 Impala to use when necessary for the street. But, we also used it at Lion’s Dragstrip in our timed runs prior to the class eliminations. The Bruce Slicks gave tons of bite and the times were much faster when we used them for the timed runs.

Since they fit under rear opening, the only way to identify the Bruce Slicks was to see the little indentions that were all around the edge of the slicks. On the street, by the time anyone saw the little indentions on the edge of the slicks, they were already behind. At the drags, they recorded the fastest times for our 58 Impala. On the street, only when an encounter was going to happen later at night, were the slicks put on the Impala.

1958 Impala on the return road with Bruce Slicks and K.S. Pittman zipping by...
at :15

When we got the 1940 Willys Coupe for our first hot rod Gas Coupe build, we put in a complete 56 Chevy rear axle set up with springs, mounts and a set of Traction Master bars. One of the reasons was that the interchangeability of the Bruce Slicks mounted on Chevy rims and the ability to interchange the 4:11 to 4:56 Positraction rear gears with ease.
1960 Lion's Dragstrip pits action
With the 7 inch slicks, there was no need to radius the wheel well. But, for some reason, my brother had a set of 15 inch Chevy rims that we took to Henry’s Machine Shop to get made into 9 inch wide rims. Why? He was looking at the future and saw other racers with the newly developed M&H slicks that came in all sizes. So, the 9 inch rims sat in our rear backyard garage ready for the next step. In the late summer, he had ordered some new M&H slicks that we were going to mount on those black 9 inch Chevy rims.


In the early version of K.S. Pittman’s 1941 Willys Coupe, he had some great slicks that fit comfortably under the rear fender.

Within a week or so, this new change rolled up to the starting line for a new look and better speeds.

One day, we sat using our chalk stick on a string to make the rear wheel opening chalk mark slightly larger to accommodate the new, wider slicks. We had already seen K.S. Pitman/John Edwards make the radius opening for his red Willys Coupe and the new M&H slicks.


Pittman/Edwards Lion’s Dragstrip

The new wider M&H slicks would have made our 671 SBC 292 c.i. motor get closer to the National C/Gas record. With the 7 inch Bruce Slicks, we were within .20 sec away from the National Record of 12.40 e.t. at 12.60 for our best time. Who knows how much faster the times would have been with the 9 inch wide M&H Slicks.

Jnaki

We decided to wait until we had the actual M&H slicks in our garage ( August 1, 1960 They were in a friend’s garage in Los Angeles) before we cut out the wider opening and rolled the edges. Within two weeks, (Aug 13, 1960) our drag racing had come to an end. Our summer was over.

 

It's a purposeful look. It arises out of Doing What's Necessary, without vacillation or ambivalence, in order to get down the quarter as quickly as possible under that chassis paradigm. The paradigm included stock axles, stock-width frames, and virtually-solid rear suspension rather than working with instant centres etc. If that meant cutting away the rear quarters around the tyres, you do it.

For that reason I've always felt that the look is most convincing when it's done as simply as possible. A tiny flared lip around the opening is about the most elaborate it should be. Once radiused arches start to inform ambitious design complexity it can very easily result in a sort of second-, third-, fourth-hand mannerism which just dilutes the concept.

That is not to say that any use of part-circular wheel wells is that. I don't think what @gimpyshotrods posted above is the same thing at all. It isn't about accommodating tyres wider than the body plus almost zero suspension travel; it's a completely different concept, all about what those Minilites imply.

 

I especially like the fact that you resisted to urge to move the rear wheel opening too high.

 

I ran them lower and tightened them up a little, as that is the way they appear on modern cars.

It is what people expect to see, so they essentially disappear, by not calling attention.

 

A slightly different take. Posted by Rad Rodes by Troy.

 

When we built this '55, I recommended using Buick side trim to match the radiused openings,

 

Marty , wise choice.
Most of us have no clue
Pics are from Beech Bend. We Love that Strip .
Stretch

 

I radiused my stock steel '36 Willys rear fenders to accomodate big tires. Also radiused the front fenders in the '36 Willys tilt fiberglass front I made from a mold taken from the stock sheet metal. Factory shape is a bit too shrouded, 1" radius gives a more carnivor look.

 

That bottom 55 is the poster for a street freak of the 70s. My grandfather had a 55 Chevy s door hardtop like that in the late 70s when he was flipping tri fives. Had a wicked 327 in it, sold it to some high school kids that wrecked it. They got on it in front of the high school then a car pulled out and they slammed on the brakes. The axle u bolts snapped and shot the nose straight into the ground and the car flipped end over end about 3-4 times. Someone only one of the 4 in the car got a broken leg and then just cuts and scrapes.


Our 55 Chevy had them cut out at one point prior to my grandparents buying the car in the early 70's. Found the weld seam when we stripped the car a couple years ago.

 

Wheel openings from my wasted original Front fenders grafted to the rear.

 

Nice work, we did the stock cars with twine and a sharpie to make the mark on the fenders. Cut it on the line with a torch, take water pump pliers, bend up a lip all around the inside. Finish it off with a dolly and body hammer. Most of the time it looked fairly decent and took an hour to do all 4 openings.

 

I grew up living next door to the Barnes brothers and Wayne Sperry was down the road a piece. They always had fast and pretty cars. Their '33 Willys coupe was my favorite.

 

1960 Stock factory wheel opening with 7 inch Bruce Slicks



Hello,

When we started our 1940 Willys Coupe build, we had tons of ideas to make it look good and go fast. But, as usual, our limited budget was the deciding factor. It had to be spread out as the income flow was low and we did need various parts to complete the build.

Initially, we wanted to immediately go to large wide slicks for the 1940 Willys Coupe. it would have taken us to radius the rear fender opening as the rims and slicks would not fit inside of the stock wheel opening. We had seen various stages of the early K.S. Pittman/John Edwards Red 19 41 Willys Coupe from completely stock with whitewall tires winning the B/gas class to his modified rear fender version stomping all comers to hold the class record for many months.

1959-60
stock to radius and larger M&H slicks

So, with that in mind, we saved to create some 9 inch wide steel Chevy bolt pattern rims that would be ready for the next step in larger slicks. Our Bruce Slicks were 7 inches wide and fit perfectly inside of the stock wheel opening without any rubbing anywhere. They were taken off of the 1958 Impala after we started the Willys project and did not race in the A/Stock car class anymore.

Jnaki

We also knew how to radius the wheel opening. My brother had made a radius chalk line on the primer paint. It was ready for the cut and body work, but we put it off until we had the larger M&H Slicks in our garage. (The New M&H slicks were “special order” and with the new Halibrand Mag Wheels, were sitting in a warehouse garage in Los Angeles in August 1960.)

Sometimes the wheel well opening is a perfect fit for the current size of the slicks, but different tire/wheel combinations to see which one gives out the best results makes for an odd photo. A new build, great competition, trying different combinations to make things work in a big drag meet. But, fast enough to win the coveted title at the 1964 All Gas Coupe and Sedan drag race at Lion’s Dragstrip.


1964 Lion's Dragstrip

 

Fellow Hamber cabong has a bitchin crossbred 53/54 Ford coupe with nicely done radius rear wheel wells. HRP