The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop centering '66 short fleetside wheels

i'm in the process of building a big window, short fleetside from the best pieces of my '66 long fleetside and a '64 gmc short fleetside.

stripped both down to frame and using the best parts ( that fit ) during re-assembly. the frame is por'd, the later model 12bolt rear w/leafs is in, the later model front suspension w/discs is in. the re-assembled bed is on, the big window cab is on. the 350/350 is in.

but i realize i don't like the look of the wheels in the rear fenders. there's maybe two inches clear in front of the tire, and maybe eight inches behind. not very symetrical.

but the wheels are centered in the wheel wells so i'm guessing that's how they're supposed to look.

i'm thinking of taking out a section of the outter fender and moving it foward on the body to center the wheels in the fender opennings.

has anyone done this? any thoughts or advice? from other posts it looks like i'll need some 19 gauge sheet metal to patch the rear of the section, let me know if you can think of anything i may be over-looking.


thanks

can you post a pix.. i'm confused, if they are centered in the wheel wells, then they should be centered every where?

i ran a quick check of shortbed fleets for sale on e-bay and they all look like mine. factory look has wheel placed forward in the fender opening, not centered.

the back is flooded right now (irrigation day) so i can't get to the garage to get a photo, but if you look at any shortbed fleet photos you'll see what i mean.

thanks

there shouldn't be anything wrong with moving the wheel opening to center it. it would probably be a lot of work. if your frame wasn't already done you could of got some new spring hangers and moved the axle to the center of the wheel openings. but it;s your call on how you do it.

i thought of moving the axle, but one of the nice things on the '64 gmc is that it was already set up for leaf spring rear and my 12 bolt litterally 'dropped' in.

plus, moving the axles then moves the wheels in the wheel wells, which i don't want to do since they're centered in there best i can tell. it also looked like the axle is right where it needs to be in relation to frame and bed.

so moving the fender openings looks like the way to go, i've got quite a bit of work to do before then.

any hints on where to get an aux tank for this beast? i pulled the cab one out and the tanks carried by lmc and classic look to be to big to bolt behind the axle in a short bed.

thanks