51 Chevy Sedan-Rear Inner Arch Bolts

Odd one this - in the inner rear arch of the rear fenders of my 51 Chevy Sedan are 4 bolts. Anyone know what they are for? I've just fitted 6.70's and one side is rubbing on the tire - can I just remove them?

Cheers

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Good one Banjo.

 

A picture is worth 1000 words here.

 

My 50 has them never removed one, not sure of the purpose either. But i's like yo know. I would guess factory access to attach trim, etc...

 

If they're on the outside in an even row matching the stainless, then that's what they do, hold the stainless on. You could probably trim the stud down a little. But if it's rubbing and only on one side, you may have the wrong rim, or some other problem. It shouldn't be that close to the fender. I have a '75 Camaro rearend (wider than stock) in mine, it has badly remade wheel arches, and still not even close to rubbing with stock rims and tires.

 

OK some pics:

inside the arch shot from below looking up...





here you can see where the very outside of the whitewall was rubbing on the bolt head



the 4 offending nuts..



the car in question



I can't imagine these bolts are for holding on trim??

Cheers guys

 

Theres actually a removable panel under there. I noticed it when I had mine on the lift working on the fender skirts. Mine was kinda hard to see with all the undercaoting and years of dirt. Nice 51

 

inside the fenderwell is a bolt on cover put there for reasons unknown. perhaps to access the back side of the fender for bodywork?? kind of a half circle thing. if tyou remove the wheel and stick your head in the wheelwell you can see it. if that were removed your fenderwells would be open to the interior of the car.

removing those 4 bolts probably won't do anything, since there are more bolts holding the piece in up top. after all these years the piece would probably stay with no bolts since it is probably stuck to where it goes by now.

 

Thanks for the replies guys, appreciated.

 

Is your rear end properly centered in the wheel opening. The pix look like it's moved forward,a few inches. If you have replaced the rear axle, without spacing it back, just be aware that the spring to axle pin is not in the center of the wheel well.

..............Jack

 

I had this problem on my 52. I have 7" wide wheels mounted so I was not surprised by the problem. I fabricated a new cover that was thinner and ground down the bolt heads. It cleared but was very close. I eventually replaced the rear springs and bushings and WALLA! I had sufficient equal clearance on both sides of the car. I could then mount the original cover and bolts. Your problem may be spring bushings or springs, not wheel and tires........

 

when I was into that part of my 51, I used some flathead screws in there.

 

Cheers guys, I'm yet to get it laser alligned but it's pretty much there....it's running a 70 Camaro axle, 5 link and airbags... for now I'll go with the flat head screws.