Rear camber

[dbeardsl]

I've been having a dilema, I bought a set of used aftermarket riviera wheels for cheap. I put them on(with my nice 195/60s) and the back two wheels rubbed the fenders heavily. For a month or two I had temporarily put two 165/60s on the back till I figured a way around it or bought new rims. I had heard of "rolling the fenders with a bat", I tried it and was only able to bend them an eight of an inch before I got scared of cracking the paint or making a crease. I looked in to buying a different set of rims with less offset. I was just poking around my supension when I noticed that there were some shims between the outer rear trailing arm mounts and the frame, so I spent the next couple of hours jacking up the car, removing the bolts, then the shims, then put in and tightened the bolts. the left side fit, but on the right side I had to bend the little lip up underneath(not as easy as it looks). The camber adjustment probably moved the top of the tire in about 1/2inch Then I touched up the paint where it cracked, the fit is real tight (1/8) of an inch clearance but it doesn't rub, even on hard cornering. The adjusted camber is pretty obvoius and it will make tires wear funny but not too bad, but the handling improvement is great! I just posted this to let everybody with the same problem know about the camber adjustment possiblity.

[This message has been edited by dbeardsl (edited 12-06-1999).]

[Doug M]

My car did the same thing but they would rub under cornering.I changed out the old bushings and it fixed the rubbing and corners a lot better.
Doug

[John Rogers]

Brian is right about the rear suspension. Also the comments about the suspension bushings are good. As for the fenders and slightly flaring them, if the paint is old or original it will be brittle and be prepared for cracking. I would measure the gap, then buy various dowels of increasing size and work them into the gap by increments. Also do it when the fender is very warm from the sun as the paint might be a little easier to work with. The up side is a good paint shop can do just the edge and match the faded color exactly. I did the front fender lips on our 1987 Turbo and one side cracked the other didn't and it came out okay after the paint repair.

[dbeardsl]

Thanks, but its done already, I've adjusted the camber, and I'm not gonna change it , I like the way these rims look a lot and I dont wanna spend $600 for a nice pair of fuchs or somehting, then another hundred to switch the tires and another hundred on some nice center caps, I can get these high quality tires for fairly cheap from a friend of mine who owns a tire shop(plus I only drive the car about 3000 miles a year). I know that adjusting the camber will make your tires wear funny, but the camber isn't adjusted much ( I calculated a (1/5)in. difference in the height of the right and left sides of the tire. Besides, my car isn't fast, so I like to make up for it in handling(which the camber adjustment helps). since the camber and toe adjustments both depend on the position of the outside trailing arm mounts, I will have the toe proffesionally adjusted cause it might have changed when I messed with the camber. By the way, I wrote the original post as an alternative to 'rolling' the fenders, which can dangerous.

But, thanks for the advice, you guys have helped me lots of times before.

[dbeardsl]

Oh, which bushings are you be talking about?

[Gruppe5]

Uh... that would probably be the only bushings in the rear trailing arms ...
The ones that hold it onto the car, yes?