Paint and Body Extra Clearance After Fender Roll

Tango_Yankee · Nov 28, 2018

A while ago, I swapped the axles on my 1990 over to SN95 axles for the 5 lug and the rear disks. I'm running the 17" Cobra wheels from the same year on 275/40's. I rolled the rear fender lip in, however, I am still getting more than a substantial amount of rub when I have anything remotely heavy in the car other than myself. I've been putting off doing this, but it's been really aggravating me lately; enough to finally prompt me to do something about it.

Is there any way I can get just a little bit more clearance on the fender short of grinding the hell out of it? I'm far from a body guy and of course, I recently got it painted, so if possible, I would like to keep that intact, although I know that's not always possible. Honestly considering just slapping stiffer springs in the rear to mitigate it.

Thanks in advance.

2000xp8 · Nov 29, 2018

Lose the sn95 axles and replace them with fox length axles and north race car brake brackets.
It's a fairly easy task.

Stiffer springs aren't going to help.

General karthief · Nov 29, 2018

What, no pics? I'm a visual kinda guy, I have to see it before I tell you I can't help ya.

dgollem · Nov 29, 2018

smaller tires, narrower rear end, possibly different offset wheels, taller springs, is the car lower than stock? adjustable lower control arms i.e. maximum motor sports has some with adjustable spring pedestals, Cutting up the fenders is probaly the most costly in the long run. Good luck

Tango_Yankee · Nov 30, 2018

2000xp8 said:
Lose the sn95 axles and replace them with fox length axles and north race car brake brackets.
It's a fairly easy task.

Stiffer springs aren't going to help.

I mean, they would in that when hitting bumps, It's going to rebound a lot quicker and the body won't dip as low.

General karthief said:
What, no pics? I'm a visual kinda guy, I have to see it before I tell you I can't help ya.

Yeah, sorry about that. It was a bit short notice.

dgollem said:
smaller tires, narrower rear end, possibly different offset wheels, taller springs, is the car lower than stock? adjustable lower control arms i.e. maximum motor sports has some with adjustable spring pedestals, Cutting up the fenders is probaly the most costly in the long run. Good luck

Thanks for the control arm recommendation. I'll take a look at them. The car is at stock height, but I am considering taller/ stiffer springs.

2000xp8 · Nov 30, 2018

Tango_Yankee said:
I mean, they would in that when hitting bumps, It's going to rebound a lot quicker and the body won't dip as low.

Yeah, sorry about that. It was a bit short notice.

Thanks for the control arm recommendation. I'll take a look at them. The car is at stock height, but I am considering taller/ stiffer springs.

Taller stiffer than stock stock springs?
Stiffer maybe (which is not necessarily an improvement), but taller? That would be a first around here.
You aren't going to limit the travel of the rear with stiffer springs either, it's still going to bottom out on dips.

I'm not sure if you understand how the suspension on the fox works, but the springs and the control arms have absolutely nothing to do with your problem.
Even if you somehow could stiffen up stock height springs, it would ride terrible, traction would suffer and it would possibly wheel hop.

Your wheels and tires stick out too far because newer cars have wider rears and fenders.
You have 275's (which are wide for a fox) there is no room for error.
I know, that's what I run.

You either have the wrong wheels and tires or the wrong axles.
The cheaper more logical fix is the axles. The longer axles make wheel fitment a problem and seriously limit wheel choice on a fox.

There is a possibility that a more narrow tire would work.
But with what tires cost with mounting and balancing, it's a still a risk.

Tango_Yankee · Dec 2, 2018

2000xp8 said:
Taller stiffer than stock stock springs?
Stiffer maybe (which is not necessarily an improvement), but taller? That would be a first around here.
You aren't going to limit the travel of the rear with stiffer springs either, it's still going to bottom out on dips.

I'm not sure if you understand how the suspension on the fox works, but the springs and the control arms have absolutely nothing to do with your problem.
Even if you somehow could stiffen up stock height springs, it would ride terrible, traction would suffer and it would possibly wheel hop.

Your wheels and tires stick out too far because newer cars have wider rears and fenders.
You have 275's (which are wide for a fox) there is no room for error.
I know, that's what I run.

You either have the wrong wheels and tires or the wrong axles.
The cheaper more logical fix is the axles. The longer axles make wheel fitment a problem and seriously limit wheel choice on a fox.

There is a possibility that a more narrow tire would work.
But with what tires cost with mounting and balancing, it's a still a risk.

As I stated in the OP, I'm running the SN95 axles because I want the 5-lug. I do understand that they're slightly longer, which is soley causing my problem, but I was just looking to see if anybody had any quick-fix ideas in mind short of dropping shorter axles in, because then I would need to figure out a new spindle/ brake setup.

I fully understand that the springs/ control arms are not the reason it's rubbing, the extra axle length is. But, if I can use the springs/ control arms to garner myself just that extra bit of clearance, I'm all go. The terrible ride isn't something I really care about (I daily it with a quick ratio manual steering rack. Bumps are the least of my problems.) but traction and wheel hop is.

Like I said before, this problem has been around for a bit. It's just annoying because I can't chuck all my tools in the back without rub. It's not so aggravating to the point where I'm going to spend the money to rework my rear end if there is a shortcut for now.

2000xp8 · Dec 2, 2018

Tango_Yankee said:
As I stated in the OP, I'm running the SN95 axles because I want the 5-lug. I do understand that they're slightly longer, which is soley causing my problem, but I was just looking to see if anybody had any quick-fix ideas in mind short of dropping shorter axles in, because then I would need to figure out a new spindle/ brake setup.

I fully understand that the springs/ control arms are not the reason it's rubbing, the extra axle length is. But, if I can use the springs/ control arms to garner myself just that extra bit of clearance, I'm all go. The terrible ride isn't something I really care about (I daily it with a quick ratio manual steering rack. Bumps are the least of my problems.) but traction and wheel hop is.

Like I said before, this problem has been around for a bit. It's just annoying because I can't chuck all my tools in the back without rub. It's not so aggravating to the point where I'm going to spend the money to rework my rear end if there is a shortcut for now.

Tango, I know why you used the axles, at this point probably 50% of this forum is 5 lug. Unfortunately your car is done with the wrong axles for your wheels (and imo the wrong axles period).
Just not sure where you get the logic that the springs and control arms will get you any clearance. They are in a static location on every car. You have a location problem, not a mechanical one and changing out the springs and arms will have no effect.

Most guys on a budget would have used the two same side ranger axles, they retain the fox length (which can be had dirt cheap).

Regardless, I've had a lot of wheels, tires and control arms and I can say with certainty that i'd rather pull the axles than change the control arms.
It's no harder than a brake job combined with pulling out a single C clip.

I've been doing this a long time and made my share of mistakes, quick fixing anything is a mistake, in the long run it rarely works out and without a doubt always costs more money.

It's your car, do what you like, but me personally I don't risk expensive tires being slashed by a fender.

Paint and Body Extra Clearance After Fender Roll

Tango_Yankee

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2000xp8

General karthief

wonder how much it would cost to ship you a pair

dgollem

Tango_Yankee

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2000xp8

Tango_Yankee

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2000xp8

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Paint and Body Extra Clearance After Fender Roll

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wonder how much it would cost to ship you a pair

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