Height of wheel well opening over the tires, front and rear, and adding clearance for 17x9 wheels up front

[Blue Thunder]

My car currently measures 25.75" rear wheel well to the ground, and 27" front wheel well to the ground. It's up in the nose from my shedding weight from the car, and the stiff king cobra coils I installed years ago. While inspecting the car's undercarriage yesterday, I noticed the steering limiters I'd made for it, were reducing the steering angle to only 22 degrees each direction, without the limiters, even my trimmed and boxed upper control arms hits the wheel edge. But, I believe I can solve both my ride height discrepancy, and my steering clearance issue with one change. The 2" drop spindles... That will effectively move my front wheels up 2 inches in relation to the control arms, giving a ton more clearance with the upper control arm, and it will make the ride height level, with a tiny bit of rake, with the rear end being 3/4" higher. Not to mention, the improved aerodynamics of dropping the car 2 inches, should be substantial.
Has anyone else installed the 2" drop spindles? Results?
Does anyone know the stock height of the Mustang II, measured from center of wheel wells to the ground?

 

[LILCBRA]

So I can't answer the wheel well height with the stock setup, maybe someone else can. And I can't really answer about the 2" drop spindle either, I ended up just cutting a coil and a half from my springs. But I think you can get an aftermarket setup with 2" dropped spindles and big brakes? I can't tell you what caliper any of them use, but it may be worth a look if you haven't already.

 

[LILCBRA]

Man, it looks like they ALL use the GM metric caliper.....

 

[Blue Thunder]

Yeah, I found a complete kit with 2" drop spindles included, with those metric calipers. In my case, removing some of the spring height wouldn't give me the wheel clearance I need, since the upper control arm is in a fixed distance from the wheel unless the hub location is raised in relation to the spindle. Raising the hub up 2 inches may give enough room to actually fit a even bigger 17x10 wheel, but I think a 255/40ZR17 tire is plenty front and back, so the 17x9 is perfect. And I want to run the Toyo R888R tires of that same size on all four corners. I'm curious how the car will handle with that arrangement, as the R888Rs are basically drag radials with somewhat stiffer sidewalls. If I can get my steering turning circle back to stock, using the 2" drop spindles, that will be great too. With tires that sticky, the car will turn around in a circle like a dog chasing its tail.
P.S. From what I read, those 11" granada rotors are 1/4" thicker where the wheel flange is, so that will move the wheel out slightly, increasing room a little.

 

[LILCBRA]

There was SOMEONE in the wheel/tire thread that had big wheels on their car - something like 17" - but, like many others, they're not around anymore to ask what they had to do to get the clearance.

Here it is.....

well i finally got to do it due to being lucky in getting some 17x8 and 17x9 cobra R rims from a fox body mustang. the fronts are 17x8 w/4.5 back spacing and bolt right on fine. the rear are 17x9 w/5.5 back spacing and i had to add a 1" spacer and they bolted right on. on all 4 fenders the lips have been rolled. 275x40x17 rears and 245x45x17 up front. and yes i am running the 1" lowering blocks out back and 2000 mustang GT cut coils up front, handles like a slot car now

If you've not seen this yet, you'll need to scroll down the page to see pics.

I wonder if he has email notifications.... I'd tag him but it seems that I can't.

He probably can't help much with the brake dilemma, but I guess it's worth a shot!

 

[Blue Thunder]

I just measured my front wheel/tire, while it's difficult to get exact measurement with the tire mounted, bead to bead these wheels are over 9.75 inches in width, with exactly 6 inches of back space, and front and rear are the same. Hmmm I thought they were smaller. lol That's why I've been struggling to get steering clearance. Well, for future reference, if anyone is curious, (I will post exact measurements when I'm able) apparently, a 17x10 wheel with 6 inch backspace will physically fit on a II both front and rear, with some things taken into account. However, my car has a 1959 t-bird 9" axle, which is 1 inch wider drum to drum, than the stock 8" was. So it already has a 1/2" spacer on each side. lol For the front to clear the upper arms, I removed the outside half of the reinforcing rib and welded steel plate inside the arm, effectively boxing them. So technically, it's an OEM and it's a (triangular) tubular arm, all at once. With all that done, the wheels will still contact the upper arms when turning more than about 22 degrees left or right, as seen by the marks in the photo, roughly 3" inward from the balljoint. With the 2" drop spindle, that won't even be close to the arm anymore. The steering limiters make the car a pain to turn in a tight space, so I will be doing the 2" drop very soon.

 

[Blue Thunder]

This was how the wheel cleared the leaf spring back when I installed it.

 

[Blue Thunder]

The 255/40ZR17 tire is 10.06" wide, according to what I just read, thus they fit well on the 10" wide wheel. When I got the wheels, they had 275/40ZRs on the back, and those used to brush the edge of the quarter under certain conditions, so I went a little narrower, but when I do the quarter panel replacements, I will remove most of the inner edge of the wheel well, and those 275s will fit nicely. Thinking about it now, I am going to try to fit those 275s under the front too.

 

[LILCBRA]

I have 265's under the rear of mine, there's only slight rubbing with weight in the back while hitting bumps. I'm probably going to be going 275's when I get around to replacing the tires. I posted clearance pictures in that thread of how my tire combo fit, there should be enough room in the rear to get them in there, but it'll be close in my case.

The fronts, otoh, I have absolutely no experience - only secondhand from different people here. I doubt they'd fit my car the way it sits though. I'd say you have a head start in that regard.