ODD Wheel Centers to Wheel Well Openings

[1937hd45]

 

 

 

 

 

NOT an early Funny Car question:

 

Do you notice odd wheel centers or tire to wheel well fitment that looks ODD? Even if it left the factory looking that bad would take the time to correct things so it looked right? The artist that did the Chrysler artwork made things look attractive. 

Edited November 28, 2022 by 1937hd45 (see edit history)

[keiser31]

Artist renderings are usually different/sleeker than the real vehicle.

[3macboys]

I suspect this is a case, as well, where black wall, instead of white wall tires would make a significant difference in the look as well as a slight change in camera angle.

[rocketraider]

Lower, longer, wider, and the people, if any, in the artwork were always impeccably slim and well-dressed.

 

The altered wheelbase cars were built with weight transfer more in mind than aesthetics.

 

But yes, production cars where the wheels and wheel openings are a little "off" stick out like sore thumbs. Some makes such as Oldsmobile in the mid-60s used very wheel-oriented styling and sometimes even those got the proportions a little "off".

 

Lord help these "box-on-wheels" styled cars, with the wheels pushed out to the corners of the car. It works on Minis but makes everything else look like a kid's toy car. A properly styled vehicle needs a little overhang fore and aft of the wheelbase. As always just my opinion.🙃

[1937hd45]

UPDATE: I picked the Chrysler Touralet because I worked on the restoration 50 years ago, it always looked odd to me from the day it was finished. Larger wheels or tires, rearching the springs, something could have been done. I would think "High End" car restorations would be corrected to make the eye appeal a bit better. 

Edited November 27, 2022 by 1937hd45 (see edit history)

[Akstraw]

Reminds me of an experience from ten years ago.  I was sitting along a 4-lane avenue in Havana watching a few fellows on the far side trying to get a non-working vehicle whipped into shape.  After a few minutes, a ‘58 Buick showed up and parked in front of the non-running vehicle.  Something about the Buick just looked ‘odd’.  A short time later, they hooked a tow strap from the Buick to the non-running vehicle and towed it off.  Later in the day, I saw the same Buick again, this time up close. It turns out it was a ‘58 Buick body on a Russian truck chassis. What had looked ‘odd’ to me was that the wheelbase of the chassis didn’t quite match the body.  I  learned that sedan body notwithstanding, it was the neighborhood tow-truck.

[George Smolinski]

5 hours ago, 1937hd45 said:

UPDATE: I picked the Chrysler Touralet because I worked on the restoration 50 years ago, it always looked odd to me from the day it was finished. Larger wheels or tires, rearching the springs, something could have been done. I would think "High End" car restorations would be corrected to make the eye appeal a bit better. 

Doing what you suggest would mean the car was not restores, per the definition of the word restore. I would think also that high end “restorations” are done to original factory specs so the car is as it was when originally built.

[hddennis]

My Maxwell came to me with what I thought was an odd rear wheel placement too far forward in the fender arch and I put it off to maybe with a heavy load it would look more centered?  It also had a flat front part of the fender and poor gap between the fender and back edge of the splash apron that I wrote off as poorly repaired accident damage from multiple accidents I could tell it had suffered. When I found this photo of a new 1916 with the same problems I went looking for period photos and learned I had over restored by correcting those problems as all the Maxwell's left the factory looking this way. Notice the dip in the top of the rear splash apron. Also a factory defect.

 

Howard Dennis

Edited November 27, 2022 by hddennis (see edit history)

[28 Chrysler]

The first photo is of an altered wheelbase Dodge. These were for the strip only, front wheels about 3" forward, rears about 2 1/2 feet forward.

[Hudsy Wudsy]

I recall a discussion once that included owners of fifties Ford pickup trucks. Their consensus was that the front wheels were not as well centered as they wished. Up to that point, I hadn't noticed, but after reading that I began to see their point.; It's difficult to find photos of them because people almost always take three-quarter front shots, which don't serve to prove the point. Here is a side-long shot that I got from Google Images. The rearward shift doesn't bother me any, but see what you think:

[zepher]

The front wheels are definitely not centered in the front wheel wells.

Reminds me of how the factory ride height of the '64 - '66 Mustangs had the rear end slightly lower than the front end.

Back in the 80's when I helped a friend restore a '66 it was something that drove us crazy.

 

[Layden B]

I have a 1920 Stutz sales catalog that has red pencil "corrections" to what was probably the printers proof. It would seem that someone in the graphics department was critical of the appearance of the wheel placement and windshield in this illustration. Does not seem that it was "corrected" in the second picture of another such catalog. Practicality probably reared its ugly head on this catalog and production vehicles above.