zep's Gemini Coupe

[zep]

I finally got around to fitting the rear wheels to assess how much room I have in the wheel wells and see how much I need to shorten them by. Turns out I have hit a snag that might turn into a blow out of a range of proportions.

Here's where I'm at with the fitment:

Looks like I have about ~33mm to try get in the arches. Looking from the other side, there is about 50mm between the tire and the chassis rail, so I figured that's not too bad. However, there is a decent amount of meat where the inner and outer guard skins meet, so I'm really working with only about 10mm of extra space in there. From the outer fitment point of view, I will definitely have to pull out the guards some -the plan is to keep them looking as stock as possible. I thought I could remove the inner skin where it meets the outer and weld it back in higher - not sure if this is a legit thing to do or not? Do I need double skin all the way down?

The other issues is this:

I only have about 7mm of spline I can cut off. And because the axle tapers in, I can't put the splines in the exact place I need them to be if I were to cut new ones. I've spoken to a bunch of diff places and none recommend filling and cutting new ones, so I figure I have 3 options.

1. Find some longer 5 stud axles that I can cut off after the taper and respline. I've looked around and turns out 5 stud ones (with the right centre bore diameter for my wheels) are pretty hard to find. Most seem to be 6 stud.

2. Get some billet axles. There are PLENTY of places that will make axles to a custom length in 30 spline and whatever stud pattern you want. The main problem is that none of them make an axle with the hillux bearing size. I could go down this route and try to find a bearing that will match the housing on the outer and whatever axle I choose on the inner. I did a quick check on ford 9" and couldn't find any in the right specs. I need to look a bit harder and longer as there are heaps of different axle diametres out there.

3. Convert to full floating. Today I spoke with a guy who makes full floater kits. You cut off the housing flange and weld on the one he give you, buy his axles which will be made to fit, and bob's your uncle. This is considerably more expensive than just buying axles and from what I've read, the only real benefit comes from if you ever snap and axle, which I feel like I'm unlikely to do.

Any thoughts on this?

[zep]

I have since has a chat with a man who knows everything about Hilux rear ends and have been assured that I can use any axles from any Hilux or Hiace. Now I just need to find the widest one possible!