Tragedy!!! Pass. side tire causing damage to fender!

[Guest paulmac1968]

Anyone with a classic car will feel my pain. This is the stuff that ruins entire weekends!!! I've had my '55 bird for 2 1/2 years. Back in April I had my passenger side wheel cylinder replaced by a mechanic I have used and trusted for years. Since that time I've had two incidents where the pass. side fender has been damaged by my tire!! When it happened in May I was stumped on how the damage happened. I assumed someone with a scooter or carriage had caught it under the wheel well and just pulled out in a panic when I was at a show. But then this morning my wife and I went to breakfast and decided to take the bird. When I was making a hard right I went over a hump going into the drive of the restaurant and heard a big awful grinding noise. And there was the damage. Exactly the same as before. It was then I remembered that I had heard that same noise going for ice cream the night before the first incident.

So we went home and started to reconstruct. Cut the wheel hard and bam. You could see exactly how it happened. The tire hit the fender. You could actually see checks on the tire. With the wheels straightened out, my wife stuck her fingers between the wheel and fender and that's when she noticed the pass side tire was closer to the wheel well than the driver side (clever girl!!).

Before my wheel cyl was replaced, in over 2 years, this never happened. Since the wheel cyl replacement, it's happened twice. What could have happened? I'm just looking for answers. I'm not looking to attack my mechanic!! I've been taking cars to him for 15 years and he's by far the best I've dealt with. Good mechanics to work on our babies are hard to find. Just looking for ideas.

Thanks.

Paul

[Guest billybird]

For starters; I would jack up the front end and check the tire for play/looseness. Could be a bad wheel bearing or bad tie rod end.

[Guest paulmac1968]

Thx. I'll give that a try. But w issues like tie rods and bearings, wouldn't I notice that in the ride? Seems to be riding great.

[Guest billybird]

Sometimes cars do strange things. I've been all over the front end of my 56 and it's really not all that complicated. If you search for the problem I'm confident you'll find it. Removing the tire { with the car on jack stands } improves visibility 100%.

[1957Birdman]

Hi Paul,

What size and type of tires are you running? If you are running the orgininal 6.70 X15 bias ply tires there should be plenty of room underneath the fender if everything else is alright. If you are running radials it may be that they are too wide. It is also possible that you don't have the correct wheels on your car. An incorrect wheel offset can also cause problems. Most likely it is worn parts of one sort or another, but it could be multiple issues.

These are just something to think about.

[ramair]

I would suspect you have one wheel with a different offset. Try this , get a tape measure and check both sides of car's wheel fender clearance. Then trade wheels and measure , Good Luck, Michael

[Guest paulmac1968]

Thx for the info, gentlemen. I wanted to get a starting point and have about a half dozen. Thx again.