I agree on the quality control with these cars. Terrible!
On my beater wagon, I run a 15X10 with 4.75 backspace and 275/60/15 tires. I run them because I had them laying around. I did trim and roll the outside lips and did a tiny bit of clearancing with a BFH to the inner wheel well.
On mock-up. everything seemed to clear. But during the first test drive the passenger side was rubbing really bad. So I notched that side. I never did anything with the driver's side. Only on super rare occasions, I'll get a slight rub on that side. It's only the raised white letters (tuned inside) making the contact. Hardly enough for me to justify the effort to notch that side.
The results were the same with two different rear axle assemblies. P.O. had a 3:73 in there and I swapped it for a 2:41 out of an 80 Cutlass. Both fit the same way. I often wondered if the frame was tweaked. But after reading posts on this site, I see that is pretty much par for the course.
When I bolt on the winter rims with the 235/75/15 snow tires on Pontiac Rallye wheels, the passenger side rubs the wheel well on big bumps. I'm about to purchase a new set of snows that are a little shorter anyway. We get A LOT of snow here.
