Trucka-you can see a pic of my truck in the gallery, Jim's 46, in the last photo you can see front and rear wheels.
I'm running the old 15" artillery wheels, backs were widened to 7" I think, it's been a while. Also I'm running radials all around so you can see in the photo there is enough room. It just may be that the panel is narrower, can you measure the width at the wheel opening, side to side and I can compare with the pickup?
I think the move to open drive was one of the best things I've done on the truck. Only then can you even begin to think about swaping tranys etc. As someone mentioned Steppenwood changed his stock rear axle to open via a pumpkin swap. THis would eliminate all your wheel issues. I wanted more ratios and the modern brakes under my truck plus I got lucky as a friend already had this 65 rear axle. I also have 57 pickup brakes on stock front axle, that's and easy bolt-on.
