swag

Hi, I've got a bad case of tire rubbing on the left front fender of my car. It seems to be getting worse

Ok, a couple things that were done recently (not sure if they would have impact):


1. had a four wheel alignment done on the car.
2. put new tires (255/60R15) on the car. It already had the same dimensions on there without rubbing.
3. This one makes me sick: I had two jacks on the driver's side and passenger's side and was jacking up the car. The drivers side slipped and bent the heck out of the rocker panel. (Found out they weren't original too) I checked closely for anything that looked bent or damaged and it looks ok except that a bolt that holds the inner fender to the clip broke free from the fiberglass. I tried to wiggle it around but the other bolt is holding it so I don't think the clip is sliding around.

So, I know this is an old car and I am not certain what has been replaced from original.

Do I simply need a new front end alignment? or is the spring bad? shocks? trailing arm?

I've attached a few pics.

Thanks for your help!

Alan 71

Hi Swag,
In photo #4 it appears the tire is rubbing on the rear of the fender apron, not the fender.
Is that it?

When the jack slipped did it bend the inner splash shield which has pushed the apron forward so it rubs on the tire tread?
Regards,
Alan

This is the area I'm referring to.

swag

Hi, Alan! Thanks for the fast reply.

Well, it is rubbing on the inner fender and the clip. See Pic #6 for the clip.

I know that I need to do some fiberglass work in pic #5. It stripped the hole where the fiberglass bolts on to.

But, I just saw additional damage in pic #7. Looks like the splash shield pulled away from the clip. The white area is a gap.

Maybe if I fix #5, it will fix #7?

Thanks!

Alan 71

Hi ol,
It certainly appears that the bond between the apron has at least partially failed.

I believe I'd get the splash shield unbolted and out and then see if the fiberglass moves back into the proper position.
I'd also look for signs the the splash shield is bent.
Regards,
Alan

swag

Hey Allen, you were right on.

I took the splash shield out and it's all bent up where it connects to the clip. Since it was bent, it was pushing the fender out and forward.

See if I can straighten it and reuse it. It seems to be missing the rubber seal. I'll see if I can get one to replace it.

If this solves my problem, I am very lucky I didn't cause more damage.

For the rocker molding, I found out that they were aftermarket too and found some very rare original moldings (1968/1969).


Thank you!

DUB

CURIOUS QUESTION:

How does the other side look when you turn the wheel.??? I am concerned about your PIC#6???

When you turn your wheel and stop it and see how close the rubber of the tire gets to what it can hit in PIC#6 is what I would like to know.

DUB

swag

Hi Dub

Passenger's side is clear and no rubbing on the clip.

There is minor rubbing in the inner wall (way up near the top of the tire). I think I might have done that when I was parking the car and had to make a sharp right. I might look at getting a little smaller tire in the front. Car will probably handle better if I do.

I was planning on taking the car in for some paint work. I'll have them take a look at the clip and see if they can repair easily.

Thanks

DUB

If there is a visible distance difference from the drivers side to the passenger side ...thus meaning the tire is no where close to hitting the corner of your fender on the passenger side like on the drivers side. I am not concerned about it contacting the inner skirt. I am more concerned about it touching the corner like it had on the drivers side where it has been ground on or wore it at an angle. That is telling me that you might have a wheel 'set-back' due to a previous accident or something that caused the lower control arm to get pushed back towards the rear of the car on the drivers side.

I am concerned about the tire scrubbing on the inner skirt...but that is a result of wheel set-back and would be corrected if the wheel was centered again by pulling on the lower control arm forward.

DUB

Garys 68

Pics of your upper control arm bushings?

swag

Hi, I finally got this all complete and back together. Once I repaired the fender shirt and attached everything together the rubbing is back to what it was before.

Dub, I think it looks a lot better (see attached picture), right?

I think what was happening was the fender skirt was rubbing against the tire (especially since it was loose) and forcing the fender into the tire.

I still have rubbing but that's when I make stear at an immediate left or right.

I might see if I can exchange the front tires that aren't as wide.


Thank you all for your help!

7T1vette

Somewhere around 1/3 of '68/69 cars will accept a 255 wide tire without contact. In the mid-70's, the wheelwells and rocker panels were changed to allow more room for larger tires (and even then, 255's were the widest optional tire available).

235's will fit on all 68/68 cars (that have no frame problems). Appears you rolled the 'dice' and had a negative result.

71VetteLover

Here's two pictures of the rear of the wheel well in a '71 and an '82. Note how the '71 is a 90 degree angle and the '82 is angled back at a 60 degree angle for additional tire clearance. That's why the later '78 thru '82 rocker panels are shorter in the front. Due to small tolerance differences in the early C3's some will accept the larger 255X60R15's and some won't. My '71 had enough clearance on the left side but not enough on the right side so I went with 225X60R15's on the front and 255X60R15's on the rear.

swag

Yes, well, it had 255's on there before and I didn't notice the problem. Maybe once but I never looked at it because it was rare.

I didn't notice this issue until my jack slipped and knocked the fender skirt loose. Then, the side effect with that was when the skirt would pull the fender into the tire and scrape there too.

I'm going to see if I can exchange them for some 235's otherwise I will have to be careful when turning. It's scraping the fender skirt on both sides.


Thanks!