Hello folks, my dad has a 57’ corvette that he has rebuilt over the years (not all original). Years ago he put some 225/60/15 tires on the rear and I never noticed any scrubbing issues. It does not get driven too much but recently I have heard the tires scrubbing in the rear, even to the point of seeing some smoke come off the tires when hitting bumps or going around sweeping curves. I just replaced the rear shocks with Bilsteins and it is still doing it. Are these tires too wide or could it be weak leaf springs? Please excuse my ignorance on the subject but I’m just trying to get some info. Thanks in advance for your help and suggestions.

 

GregT. How much side to side clearance do you have on the inside and outside of your tire to the body and frame? You should be able to see where it's rubbing. You can place spacers between the wheel and brake drum to gain space. Then you have an issue with the tire rubbing on the fiberglass fender, if the tire is too far out. Leaf springs get soft and sag over the years, you can replace them or add more leaves or install air shocks. you have lots of options. If the rubber bushings on the leaf spring ends go bad that will allow side play on the differential causing tire rub also. On the 62 I had I did not like the fender spacing So I cut them out and replaced them with 68 fender flares that were lying around, looked pretty good, I replaced front and rears no tire rub, don't remember the size of the tire but they were J C Penny Scat Trac tires worked very well. Hope this helped.

 

Thank you Thomas. That’s very good info and I’ll definitely check everything you suggested!