[Ripped]

Okay Friday night, and nothing to do. Upon the oohs and ahs of my son and his friends when they came by to view the 'stang a week or so ago...
I got thinking; Is it possible to move the rear 1/4 panel out, to accomodate a little wider tire?

Here's what I am wondering if it is possible. Zip blade the outer wheelhouse away from the inner wheel house, and free up the 1/4 panel at the rocker for about 2-3" from the wheel opeing.
Then carefully with a tape measure and a couple of jacks or turnbuckles move the 1/4 panel out at the wheel lip.

I imagine, that if still attached to the rest of the car, it might be possible to get another 1/2 to 3/4" without getting into major distortion problems.

Has anyone tried this? Thoughts?
1/2" is hardly worth it, perhaps, but I am curious.

The only other guy I know who did something similar, told me he used two complete pairs of 1/4 panels, combining the two to get a wider rear wheelhouse. He said it was done in such a way that most people would never be able to tell it was done. Kind of a stock or sleeper type of look.

[MARTINSR]

Sure it is possible, but I am not sure if it would look like you expect. Check out Johns site at Gihaspecialties.com he has some very cool "widened" fender cars there that don't have "flares" but simply, well, widened.

I saw a display for a restoration shop here in the bay area at the last Goodguys event in Pleasanton CA that had a Mustang with this same procedure done to it. I can't for the life of me remember the name of the place. Darn it, I'll sleep on it and see if I can come up with it for you.

Brian

[OneMoreTime]

i went to one of John Kelly's classes and he does that with a hammer and sandbag and then runs the shrinking disk to take out the wallnuts..he gets a couple of inches or even more in some cases that way..

Sam

[John Kelly]

Thanks Brian and Sam.

If you want a little more room, and decide to cheat, you might be able to pull a little more clearance. The problem with cheating is that you are not creating more surface area, you are rearranging what is already there. That means if you pull the wheel opening out, you will have an effect elsewhere. Maybe you will not notice the change, but it is possible to pull big warps in your quarter panel this way if you go too far. You can change door gaps, shorten the front to back distance of the wheel opening etc. If you plan to do this, take templates of the quarter panel up and down, and front to back first. This way you can see how much unwanted change you are getting.

John

[shine]

use to have a big tractor tire on a chevy rim, we would let the air out and mount it on the rear and then inflate it to swell the qrt. we could run the old wide ovals then. gets you about 2 in and yes you can funky up a qrt if you get carried away.