Narrow rear end.

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Buford19

Buford19

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On my 67 barracuda I am going with a 4 link suspension, and mini tubing the car for tire room.
So the mini tub will be two inch, should I shorten the rear end the same? Two inches on either side. Also since I presently don,t have a rear end, which one do you recommend. Thanks for input.
 
are you building a race car...street car ....a show car...????????????
 
More importantly, have you chosen your tire/wheel combination yet?
 
If you are doing the mini-tub, you will be moving the inner tub half over to the subframe. You can measure to find out the amount of tire width you will be able to use. Just make sure you allow for side to side movement and leave a little clearance.

Once you pick a tire size you want to run you will still be affected by the backspacing on the wheels you will choose.
 
1967 'cuda said:
More importantly, have you chosen your tire/wheel combination yet?
Click to expand...

This!!!

Figure out what tires you want to run first. Then figure out what size rims you'll need to do that, and what backspacing they're available with. Most newer, commonly available wheels have a lot more backspacing than the classic wheels. You may not want to narrow the rear at all. I have a 68-70 B body 8 3/4 in my Duster. It's a full 2.3" wider than the original A body 8 3/4", and it works perfectly with the 18x10's and 295/35/18's I have on it.

What you don't want to do is arbitrarily narrow the rear axle, then find out you need to pay for custom rims because nothing off the shelf will fit.
 
To give you an idea. I had a 68 dart, what I did is I bought the wheel & tire size that I wanted to run ( 15x10 w/ 5in back spacing ) & a 325x 50 x 15 tire. I put them up in the wheel where I wanted them to be, then I measured the space between the back of the wheels. I ended up moving the inner wheel well in to the frame ( 3in ). Put in a spring relocation kit. Narrowing the rear 3in from each side. I like a lot of wheel dish on the outside. It gave me real good clearance all around. O & used a stock A body rear to narrow . The barracuda is a little diff. You will have to deal with the back of the back seat. Plus if yours is a fold down seat & want to keep it a fold down. My 69 came with a fold down seat & I wanted to keep it that way. So I only moved the wheel well in 1 1/2 inches. I also narrowed the rear 1 1/2 in. from each side, & I also put in the spring relocation kit. I get a 15x 8.5 rim with a 275x 60 x15 tire on it. Good luck Let us know how you make out.
 
After we mini tubbed my dart we took measurements using the stock width A body rear end. To run a 15x10 tire would have required a 7 1/2 inch backspace wheel. That's fine if you want to run modern wheels, but that wasn't the look I was going for. I had Strange build me a custom width S60 that is four inches narrower than stock on each end, which allows me to run a 3 1/2 inch backspace wheel.

IMG_6701.jpg
 
BrianT said:
After we mini tubbed my dart we took measurements using the stock width A body rear end. To run a 15x10 tire would have required a 7 1/2 inch backspace wheel. That's fine if you want to run modern wheels, but that wasn't the look I was going for. I had Strange build me a custom width S60 that is four inches narrower than stock on each end, which allows me to run a 3 1/2 inch backspace wheel.

Click to expand...

Now that's sweet lookin
 
BrianT said:
After we mini tubbed my dart we took measurements using the stock width A body rear end. To run a 15x10 tire would have required a 7 1/2 inch backspace wheel. That's fine if you want to run modern wheels, but that wasn't the look I was going for. I had Strange build me a custom width S60 that is four inches narrower than stock on each end, which allows me to run a 3 1/2 inch backspace wheel.

Click to expand...

I always loved that look of a deeper dished wheel.
 
Thanks guys for the kind words. It's a driver not a show poodle.

I pretty much fell *** backward into the look I was going for. I mean, it took lots of careful measurements and a few sleepless nights to get the right wheels tucked up in there, but the springs were just pure dumb luck. I ordered ESPO +1 inch springs and this is where they settled to. The picture above is kind of deceiving because my driveway slopes down. The rear end doesn't sit up as high as the picture indicates. Here's a picture on a flat floor at work.

IMG_20120528_153651-1.jpg
 
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