Hello All,

I installed Year One’s reproduction 17” by 8” Rally 2 wheels, with 4.5” back-spacing on the front of my ’67 Firebird. On the wheels, I installed 245-45 tires and they rub when I hit bumps (side note: I put the 17” by 9” with 275-40’s on the back and they work great). The rubbing is on the out-board part of the fender well. The suspension is completely stock. I think the wheels need to go inboard a little bit (maybe an inch or so), but unfortunately these wheels aren’t available with additional back-spacing. These wheels look awesome and really help bring the car into the 21st century. I just need to get rid of the rubbing without spending too much money.

I am going to add negative camber to the wheels and that should bring the tops inboard a bit. If my calculations are correct, increasing negative camber by 1.5° will move the outer edge of the top of the tire inboard by about 0.34” (and it would move the outer edge of the bottom of the tire outboard the same amount). A 2° change would shift things by about 0.45”. Seems like these values are a bit on the high side for camber, but auto-crossers use this value quite a bit and I’m not too concerned about tire wear (I just want the car driveable with the least amount of hassle and expense).

I also plan to raise the front end by an inch or so, giving me a bit more suspension travel prior to rubbing on the wheel sells. To raise the front, I will use aluminum spring spacers inserted between the bottom of the spring and the A-arm. The spacer manufacturers state that you get 2 times the lift for a given spacer thickness (a 1/2" spacer gets you 1” lift). Can anybody confirm this one?

Any other comments on my plans would be greatly appreciated.


Another couple of things to consider. I should have mentioned that I swapped the factory drum brakes for a set of disc brakes off of a ’74 Ventura. Everything worked fine and I assume it all fits properly (no obvious issues). I tried to research the internet and find out if the rotors from the Ventura were dimensionally identical to those that would have originally come on my car. I realize the ’67 would have come with the 2-piece rotor/hub rather than the one piece with integral hub. I’m trying to figure out if the mounting face for the wheel is in the same place. In other words, would using a rotor from a ’67 Firebird locate the wheel (relative to the center of the vehicle) in a different location than using the rotor from a ’74 Ventura?

On another note, has anybody ever machined the wheel mounting surface of a rotor with integral hub? This area looks to be pretty think on the rotor, so I was considering machining it slightly to bring the wheels in a little bit. But this is a bit riskier than changing camber or adding a spring spacer. If you have any experience or comments about this, it would be appreciated.

Running 1.5 to 2 deg neg camber is going to wear those tires out pretty quickly on the inside. You are correct that autocrossers may use that high of a number, but they aren't worried about tire wear. Also raising the front end 1" over stock may lead to some handling issues.

I am running 17x8 wheels with 4.5" backspacing myself. I have 225/505/17 up front. My front end is actually lowered from stock. I had a slight rub at the bottom of the wheel well on one of the bolt heads holding the inner fender to the outer. This was only apparent after I added more caster. I think I got to about 2.7deg of caster. I just removed the bolt and replaced with a button head bolt and all was well.

If you're just rubbing on the fender lip, you can have them rolled.

Thanks for the update and info. I take your point on the tire wear if I go to -1.5 degree camber. I'm going to set it at that much and see if the rub issues are fixed. If I can get positive results from this much camber, I can adjust it back a little and see if the problem is still fixed. Is the car on your post the one with the wheels/tires in question? From the picture, it looks like they are pretty much flush with the outside of the fender. I'm starting to wonder if my suspension is just a bit too loose, because the tires pretty much hit the wheel wells themselves, rather than a bolt. There is missing paint and shiny wheel well metal to verify this. And it got a bit scary when I hit a rather large bump the other day. The car became quite unstable and difficult to control as the tire dug into to wheel well. I drive A LOT more slowly after that incident.

Since I have received positive info from a couple of other forum members that this wheel/tire combination should work, after getting the alignment dialed in, I think I'll move onto stiffening up the suspension a bit prior to attempting to adjust the ride height or other items. One interesting thing I should have mentioned, the rubbing is much worse on the passenger side, even when I ride alone in the car (I weigh 230 lb). My front end is completely stock, original anti-sway bar, springs, A-arms (new bushings, but stock style), and stock style shocks.

I appreciate the help from everybody. Being new to the forum, I'm sure I am repeating things that have been previously discussed, so please bare with me. If anybody has additional comments on what I'm saying above, please let me know.