Okay,I am no mechanic. So I have a question for those in the know. I have a 1963 Dodge Dart, 4 door sedan. I would like to put some nice rims and tires on there, to sport it up a little bit. Doing this, takes me from a 13" rim, to a 14" rim. Since the rear end covers a lot of the rear tire, I am thinking I need to raise it up, before doing the larger wheel and tire. Plus, it would just look better raised up a little bit. Any suggestions on how to raise it? So far from tire sales clerks, one says stay away from air shocks, and do something with the leaf spring. A different store, a different clerk says stay away from the leaf springs, and go with shocks. Any suggestions, other than quit asking sales clerks? Thanks.

Gas shocks will help a little. The other good options are new springs, springs re-arched, add another leaf or overload springs. You could install a longer rear shackle, but the problem there is you overload the rear part of the spring if you go far from stock.

D/W

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If it ain't broke, fix it!

Definitely stay away from air shocks. They will eventually break the upper shock mounts.

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'68 Dodge Dart 4dr Sedan

And stay away from coilover shocks also. I have a broken shock mount on my car now because of coilovers installed by the previous owner.

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82 D150-225/727
02 Dakota-3.9/5 speed
87 GMC C7000-8.2 Detroit Diesel/5+2

How large a tire are we talking about? On my '64 the stock tire diameter is 24.7" (I believe it would be the same for '63) so when I traded the 13" rims for 14, I just looked for tires that were approximately the same diameter, and had no problem.
To be specific, I went from stock 13" rims wrapped in P180 85/R13 tires, to AR Outlaw II 14x7" rims with 225 60/R14 BFG Radial T/A's. They're exactly the same diameter, and all I had to do was make sure the backspacing was right (4") and trim a very small peice of the inner front fender (bottom corner) to make everything fit perfectly.

If you just want to raise the rear (whether for larger tires, or aesthetic reasons), you can easily get some HD springs from JC Whitney, which would raise it a bit. ( or a LOT if you're current springs are sagging)


-josh

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64 Dart 170 /6

Wow, you almost pegged my paperwork. Yes, I have the same size tire on the 13" rim. Yes, I am looking at the Outlaw II 14 X 7. However, I was looking at 225/70, not 225/60. Well, that was yesterday. Now I will explore 225/60, and make the raising of the rear end a lower priority. Thanks.

Glad I could help.

-josh

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64 Dart 170 /6