'57 T-bird tire rub

Milt K from Pa

Milt K from Pa

Senior Member
Barners, I just stepped out of the flathead world into a '57 Tbird. A couple of questions on the car I bought.
1- The right rear tire rubs the skirt on hard right turns, it has G78-14 tires on it.(should be 7.50-14) Is this my problem??? Also I have heard that '55 skirts have a shorter release arm on them which can cause this problem. I don't know the length difference between the two???

2- It is said that measuring the center of the tail light lens, it should be 27 inches to the ground! Mine is 25 inches one side and 26 1/4 on the other. Do I need new springs, or is this no problem. (60,000 miles on car)

Thanks in advance.

Milt K from Pa
 
A while back there was a discussion on Y-Blocks Forever about "adjusting" the T-Bird body so it was centered on the frame. Appears that it is not uncommon to have the body off set to one side making resulting in one side having more tire clearance that the other.

How are the spring bushings?

As for the ride height; maybe you have a broken leaf on one side, resulting in different heights. Also you could have the springs re-arced to bring it to the desired height.
 
I centered the body on my 55, an I clear 235/60 15's on 7" rims. No skirts. Depending on the car, rear tire rub can be either the body shifting reative to the axles, or body roll. You might try slightly jacking up the right side on the frame, and see how the clearance changes. Then have a couple large buddies sit on the left rear fender. If that doesn't hit, it's likely the body, and you can check that. The tire typically has a little less clearance to the back of the rear leafs, and as a last resort, wheelsmith could build some stock rims with a little more backspacing if the tire/spring clearance allows it.

You can allow check the bushings at the front of the spring, and in the shackles, to see if they're breaking down from age, as suggested above.

Which side sits high, and did you measure with your weight in the car?

My car is different at the tailights as the right quarter was replaced somewhere along the line, and they did a poor job.
 
It has been a long time but I seem to remember that the rims on the Bird had a different offset. Do you have the right rims? A call to one off the Bird parts suppliers should get the answer if no one posts. This is based on memory of a long time ago and I could easily be wrong, feel free to correct me if I am wrong.

Charlie Stephens
 
Barners
Thanks to all who responded. I will be jacking things up to inspect the shackles and u-bolts. One T-bird expert I talked to said it was most likely the G78-14 tires. Since the tires a like brand-new I hate to experiment with this. If I do get tires, I would like to put on the new radial 750-14's. But $257 a tire is rough!! Diamond Back doesn't make this size yet, only Coker. Thanks

Milt K from Pa
 
The 205/75 15 cokers fit my bird with the skirts on, and Diamond back makes a 205/75-14.

Mine were mounted on the 62(?) style, 5"wires. I would think if 15's fit, so would 14's. And they're $204.

Looking at wheelsmith, they don't talk about stock wheels much, but they did a set of stock centers on 7" rims for me some years ago. I suspect they still will, and the right offset might save the new tires cheaper than the alternative.
http://www.thewheelsmith.net

Note the .net, .com is a bicycle shop
 
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