Help! Amateur Mistake $$$

[oasis]

I asked a lot of questions before doing my '71 Super. Heck, the questions actually started before I bought the car. That didn't stop issues from blindsiding me. I have two virtually new tires in the shed as a momento.

There is an adage which states, "No matter how much you plan and budget, figure to add an extra 50% anyway."

I was very haughty about my abilities to investigate and to set up a budget. I still found the adage to be more correct than me. Quite humbling, really.

You seem to have the answers already. At least one of your items needs to change. Fenders? Wheels? Tires? Beam? Amount of lowering? The answer(s) will depend on the final result you want to accomplish.

Any change you make will affect the driving characteristics. That may outweigh the live-and-learn tax being levied. That leads to two follow-up sets of questions in my mind.

Were you able to drive your bug enough to get a driving impression beyond the rubbing or was the rubbing too imposing to get that impression? If not too imposing, what did you like and not like about the modifications?

Is the rubbing subtle enough to consider rolling the lip of the fenders to diminish or eliminate the fender fouling?