Notch in car on DFW side?

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Vitamin K
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Notch in car on DFW side?

Post by Vitamin K »

So last night, we shaved the DFW sides of the cars in order to move the dominant front wheel closer to the rail. One thing I noticed on my son's car, though, was that, while the DFW wheel spun freely on its "default" position, there was enough slop with the stock BSA wheel and axle that I could push the wheel up against the side of the car to the point where it would rub the wood. Feeling kind of paranoid about this, I cut a small notch into the side of my son's car, to permit wheel clearance no matter what.

Image

Does anybody envision any problems with what I did? Is it totally unnecessary? We'll be toe-ing that wheel in, which seems like it's even more likely to risk rubbing on the body when we do.
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Re: Notch in car on DFW side?

Post by ngyoung »

That is normal. I have seen a lot of cars that have done that. For whatever reason on my cars the rim never touches the body though before the hub hits.
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LightninBoy
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Re: Notch in car on DFW side?

Post by LightninBoy »

Yep, that will be fine. I've done similar things in the past, though never with stock wheels. That makes me curious as to why you need it, but the notch itself is harmless.
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Vitamin K
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Re: Notch in car on DFW side?

Post by Vitamin K »

Wondering if the side got slightly concaved when we narrowed the DFW edge. Will re-examine tonight.
LightninBoy wrote:Yep, that will be fine. I've done similar things in the past, though never with stock wheels. That makes me curious as to why you need it, but the notch itself is harmless.
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sporty
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Re: Notch in car on DFW side?

Post by sporty »

You might have not taken the 1/16th up closer to the front. Longer then the wheel.
it happens.
Notch is just fine.
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sporty
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Re: Notch in car on DFW side?

Post by sporty »

Btw.
did u do some wheel work ? Looks like some minor sanding and polishing done ?

That style design always drove me batty.
what I mean. Is it sometimes can give a visual of the left from wheel having some toe in. Due to the shaping behind the wheel.
I use to check the alignment due to that visual effect.
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Vitamin K
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Re: Notch in car on DFW side?

Post by Vitamin K »

We haven't done any wheel work yet. I think what you're seeing is sawdust (those are dirty wheels!) and camera artifacts. I don't think we'll be doing anything than selection for out-of-the-box roundness and bore polishing, due to time constraints.
sporty wrote:Btw.
did u do some wheel work ? Looks like some minor sanding and polishing done ?

That style design always drove me batty.
what I mean. Is it sometimes can give a visual of the left from wheel having some toe in. Due to the shaping behind the wheel.
I use to check the alignment due to that visual effect.
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davet
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Re: Notch in car on DFW side?

Post by davet »

We did the same thing. Worked well for us as we use stock wheels and axles too. One tip: Stock axles are oblong in the area where the wheel rides. I mean its shaped like an egg. We install our axles so the axle in "horizontal" as if the egg were laying on it's side. This means less toe in or toe out slop.
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Re: Notch in car on DFW side?

Post by Noskills »

I have done this with a round file. Not sure if my wheel rim ever has rubbed the body (no obvious mark but I may recheck my old cars)
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