A few weeks ago I got a free 1966 Chevy C-10 pickup from a widow at church. It was not in driving condition. A friend and I did the brakes and rebuilt the differential then threw on some HUGE Nissan Titan wheels and BFG tires! Which didn’t fit… easily.

We had to space them all out 1/2 inch, remove the rear wheel tubs, and cut the wooden bed 1 1/2 inches to make room for the new rubber. Once on the road, the tired manual steering gear box promptly exploded with the strain of the wider tires so I got another busted one and combined the two.

My original plan was to cut the wheel tubs in half and widen them with a strip of metal but I found a second set of original tubs for $50 just a few miles from my house so I nabbed those to combine with my existing ones. Half the welding, half the grinding, half the time for a better fit and look, yes please! I cut all four tubs a little more than half way down the middle and ground the paint off to avoid contaminated welds.

Today I plan to weld the pieces together and install the new, widened tubs.