I can only speak for my car.  She’s a factory built CMC Ford.  The tires do stick out about a inch past the fenders and the body is slightly raised when compaired to a real TD.  I always attrubated it to the reverse rims and/or wider rims and tires compaired the the 1950’s rims and tires.   I had trouble with the tires rubbing when I first bought her but after new shocks and springs, and some tweeking, I finally got her to ride smooth.   She was in storage for most of her early life, shocks were dead and springs weak.   She kinda has a Hot Rod stance, little higher and wider.   I would like to try some standard offset rims and see if that would bring the tires inside the fenders.   I would love to make to Carisle and compare with everyone elses someday, maybe after I retire.     

My 14″ Cragar TruSpokes had a wider offset than the factory steel wheels the Pinto was equipped with and rubbed the fenders. I modified the fender to gain clearance. When I went to the 15″ Mustang police wheels, they rubbed the upper control arms. I cut the flanges from the sides of the arms to gain clearance there. No loss of structural stability was encountered. Once I installed the drop spindles, the wheels contacted the lower control arms. Once again, grind off the flanges for clearance. Now, I can’t run a grease fitting in the lower ball joint because the clearance is that short. I have to remove the wheel, remove the threaded plug and install a fitting and grease then replace the plug. Glad that’s only a yearly deal. Anyway, the only wheels that fit the body without problems were the steel 14″ wheels from a Fairmont I had used.

I once fit a pair of 295/50R 15″ tires on the back of mine. 12″ of tread width. I contemplated splitting the rear fenders and spread them but ultimately thought it would look too far out of scale.

This street rodded TD is a more subtle than the all out racers above.

PMOSSBERG2013-01-07 11:08:35

Zoom into the garage in the photo of the black MG. What is that red car?