I built a 1952 Ford 1-ton from the ground up and its driving. But I have a small problem. Some of you might get mad. Any way when I built the truck I rebuilt everything,but mounted it on a 1996 1-ton rebuilt dually frame. It looks great but here is my problem, to me the front wheels stick out a little to far. It drives and stirs great. But I dont like the look, and if I drive it through anything.It throws it up on the outside of the front fender. ( mud, etc. )If I could just pull the front wheels under the fender a 1or 2 inches. It be so much better. The 1996s had I-beams. I even thought about running 3/4 spindles. But the factory dually front wheels wont bolt up to the 3/4. But the 3/4 front end is not as wide as the 1-ton. Maybe the 3/4 or 1-ton single wheel I-beams are shorter then the 1-ton duallys. One guy mention to have the I-beams Pro-Shortened a little. I guess like cut. This is a driver not a hauler,so weight or axles size is no problem. i just like the looks of the truck with all six wheels the same. I know narrowing front axles is done on street rods. Has anyone done this or seen it done ? Its not to bad of a truck. Least its still 100% ford and not running a chevy eng and stuff. Also before its mentioned, I will ask in the later 1996 FTE truck forum, if anyone run across this also. THANKS !

 

I think Mid Fifty offers some wider front fenders.

 

Thanks guy, I check Mid Fiftys on line catalog, But they only sell stuff for 1953 and up. 51-52 are a diffrent style truck. But thanks !

 

Have you thought about looking for wheels that have more dish? That extra dish would bring them in closer front and rear. Generally going with wider rims adds dish because there's added tire deflection to compensate for on the rear. Stu

 

That's one of the major problems with frame swaps. Frame length is relatively easily modified, but tread width is not since it affects steering geometry. The best/easiest solution at this point would be to widen the front fenders the appropriate amount. Not a super difficult job to do if you are comfortable with doing body work.
Next would be using wheels with different offset ("dish") but this will affect the handling, how much depends on the OEM front geometry design and the change in offset. It could range from negilable to undrivable as you increase the offset.
No one I know of would narrow a beam axle due to liability in case of failure, nor would I get behind the wheel of such a mod. With some beam axles, heat dropping the axle results in narrowing a small amount if you want to lower it at the same time.

 

If I recall another post I remember Dave Boley saying something about F7/F8 front fenders being wider and possibly just a bolt on swap. I could be wrong.

But maybe if that is true between that and the deeper rims you can get that little bit of coverage you need.

If he doesn't post you might write Dave a PM.

Julie!