So toward the end of the summer I noticed that when I make a sharp right turn I'd hear some rubbing. Well after checking it out, I found that the tire is rubbing against the back of the wheel well. Further investigation led me to find that my wheel well opening aren't the same on both sides...

Today I finally had a chance to take some pics and get some measurements.

First thing I checked was wheel base on both sides from center of the center caps on the wheels and both sides are the same, thankfully...

(click to enlarge pics)
here's how the wheel wells look:



there's a noticable difference, and I don't know how I never seen it before.
Sorry about the blurryness in the pics, but holding the camera in one hand and tape measure in the other proved more difficult than I expected, hehe

Driver side:


Passenger side:



Seams where clip meets door:




Back in '97(before I bought the car) it was hit in front of the tire damaging the clip and bumper, so a new clip was put on. Since the shop that did the work totally F'ed up the paint job, it doesn't suprise me that they F'ed up the body work as well...

I'm wondering how I could stop the rubbing? I'm thinking of sanding down the spot or something like that, I won't be able to replace the clip/repaint it for a long long time... so a simple solution that will last me until then is all I'm lookin for.

:banghead:

[edit] also how much room should there be between the tires and fiberglass with stock size tires??


[Modified by Metal Wulf, 3:31 PM 12/11/2003]

 

:lurk:
TTT
im in the same boat

 

bump

 

Are the doors rubbing against the clip. Yes you can see that the door gaps are uneven. By owning a Corvette for some time you are probably aware that the gaps are not going to be Porsche like. But Im sure the bodywork could be done better. The wheel rubbing against the wheel wells that is another story. Have you any an idea or able to find out where the clip came from? This is interesting please keep the forum posted.

 

Its not unusual with that year car to see some bad bodies from the factory. With that set of wheels and tires, they would trim out the rear area of the fender near the front of the rocker moulding. If the shop did not trim the replacement parts when he installed them, it could do this.

 

When looking at the car from the front, does it appear that the clip could be cocked to one side. I just replaced the front clip on my '69 and could not get it to fit as far back as I thought it should. I am therefore having to glass in the door gaps to get them correct. Just looking at your current door gaps doesn't tell you anything. The body shop probably had to glass in on one side of the clip to get that door gap correct. It does not appear that your fender liner is the problem since it is just bonded into the wheel opening (with no relationship to where the wheel might fall in the opening). Sorry, but I can't see any easy solutions to the problem.

 

I'll have to take a good look at the front of the car and see how it looks...

just pisses me off that I'm going have an azz load more work and couple grand more to put into the car than i previously thought...

Not sure where the clip came from, i'll look into it though