I run 205/60/14 tires on a set of 7" wide rims on my V8 Roadster. The
wheels were off a salvaged 280-Z. I have no wheel arch flair, & no tire
rub.
How can that be, you ask? Start out with a wire wheel rear end, remove
the wire wheel spline adapters, bolt on a set of steel wheel hubs, & off
you go. The wire wheel rear is about 1-1/2" narrower than the steel
wheel rear. To center the very wide tire/wheel combo, a 1/4" spacer was
required on one side, 3/8" on the other. Note that almost all MGB rears
are not perfectly centered, with some off as much as 1/2". Of course,
with 165/14 tires, it doesn't matter.
I found this out by accident, as my first V8 rear was a 3.07 MGC unit
from a wire wheel car. Almost all the C's in this county came with wire
wheels, so I am sure this discovery has been made by many other V-8
converters.
Another solution was used numerous times at Mountjoy's Auto Shop, a
local British car parts & repair shop. Tim, the owner, would approach
the offending car & owner with a baseball bat. Those that did not flee,
had the wheel arches gently re-shaped by Tim putting the bat between the
tire & fender, then pushing the car to pull the bat the length of the
arch. This was done several times, gradually increasing the bat diameter
until proper clearance was achieved. Generally, this did not even pop
any paint.
Jim Stuart
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