The wheels I want to use stick out about 1.5" too much. I can buy shorter tires for better clearance, but I still think it looks funny with the tires sticking out so far past the fender while my rear tires are tucked. Is there another set of control arms from a different year that I can bolt on to narrow the front? I'm not really looking to go the aftermarket route unless I find a good deal on them.

 

What yr truck do you have?

 

I think the easiest route may be to swap to 4wd fenders if you haven't already. My 84 2wd had the rail-less 4Wd type bed and the fronts looked like they stuck out alot and the rears sunk inward. That body style seems to have the most width difference between 2 and 4 wd fenders.

 

I have an 85 with the rail bed. I was looking into the 4wd fender swap, but I just don't like the way the front flare will stick out more than the rear(even with the 4wd bed). Or atleast that's how it appears.

 

You have 4 choices. 4x fender swap, hack apart your arms to shorten them, cut the frame apart and narrow the whole nose section or call up can do for a set of their narrow arms and swap to air bags since their arms don't allow using the stock torsion bar suspension.

The 4x fenders don't look so bad now do they?

 

..I'd say rock them until you find a buyer or a trade at the track for a set that fits better .. 1.5 ain't to bad ..

 

I'm going for a trashy/junkyard look with my truck(don't mean to offend). These wheels are perfect for the look I'm trying to pull off. They are 15x3.5 with 1.75 backspace. I wonder if I could mill the mounting surface on the hub or rotor or something.

 

post pics of the rims.

It sounds like the style you're going for is almost a 'rat' style.

...wait, 15x3.5? dayum

 

Yeah 3.5" width? Is that a typo or are you gonna run super skinnys?

 

A 3 1/2" wide wheel with 1 3/4" backspacing will only stick out 1 1/4" from the mounting surface of the hub so there is no possible way for that combo to stock out from the fender if those specs are correct. I'm running 7" wide wheels with 4" backspacing and I don't touch the fender under any circumstances with a 4/3 drop.

 

15x3.5 wheels and 28x4.5 tires.
EDIT: Backspacing is 1 5/8.

 

It looks like I may have some kind of spacer on my rotors or is that part of the rotors? I'll have to check it out when I get back to town.

 

It's the tire that sticks out not the wheel... That makes way more sense. Better swap some tires for a vw bug on there. They make some damned small tires for them that'll clear.

 

From what I can tell that's the rotor. I would run like a 155 width tire to clear better. But I wouldn't drive with tires that tiny on any Toyota that isn't a tiny old corolla. 195 is my minimum width for grip.

 

I would recommend going with the 4wd fenders. Also the 79-83 arms are approx. 3/4" shorter than the 84-94 arms. If you did both of those together should solve the problem. If not we could always build you a set to your dimensions but as mentioned before you would have to bag the front as our arms don't work with the torsion bar setup.

 

one thing to remember on the 79-83 arms is that you're not going to be able to run drop spindles properly on them (I don't remember why). And definitely no ball joint flip. Our generation (79-83) usually swaps out for the 84+ arms to run drop spindles (and allows us to pick up drop arms while we're at it).

I second the custom route if bags are on the menu.

 

I think the reason the older arms aren't used with drop spindles is the lower balljoints aims the opposite way. Same reason for the BJ flip.

 

If I ended up using aftermarket control arms, I'd convert to coilovers also. But I'm trying to avoid that due to my budget and deadline. I might try a shorter tire like was mentioned. I actually have another set of hoosier fronts that are 27" tall...might try them on this week.

 

Typically we run about a 24-26" tall tire on 2wd Toyotas. Mine are usually a 195-215 front width and 225 rear. That's on an older smaller body style though, my 78. The newer ones can spare a couple steps in sizes. A few guys on here have some pretty beefy rears.

Got any side pics to get a better idea of the look you have right now?