I installed some fat new wheels and tyres this morning, and it looks like my axle is offset towards the driver's side. I checked that the tyre size and wheel offset are same on each side, yet one wheel pokes out a good 25mm more. The car has never been in a serious prang, so I'm assuming it came from the factory this way and I simply never noticed it before on account of the skinnies that were on it previously. The alternative is that I somehow put the axle in incorrectly, but with only four mounting points for the spring eyes, that seems kind of unlikely. Anyone seen this before, and is there a fix?

Sounds like an odd one, if the axles are out the brake drum/ disk would be off too.
Do the lugs on the sandwich bush line up with the axle housing?
Or is the flange on the end of the axle clashing on the centre hole of the wheel?
Give me a call if you want me to head over and lend an extra set of eyes or hands... Drew...

Everything went in just fine, but I suppose I could undo it all again and wiggle it about to see if that makes a difference. I did some careful measurements, and the axle is effectively 10mm off centre (i.e. one wheel is 20mm further out than the other), which, unfortunately, is probably within Ford's production tolerances back in '78.  Perhaps I will get lucky and it will true up a bit once the front is off stands and has been bounced around after driving. The car has been backed into the garage, so I can't see whether it looks odd from the rear, but I sure hope not given how much money and time I've thown at the old thing.
 
I just spend over an hour carefully cutting back the paint and bog the repair guy put over my chassis ID. It was a "professional" restoration place too, not a run of the mill panel beater, so you'd think they'd know better, but obviously not. Got most of the numbers back OK (sandblasting appears to have taken its toll), so I figure I just doubled the value of the car seeing it's a matching numbers vehicle!
 

They have always sat further out on the drivers side, don't know why. Built my housing 10 mm further to the left as it was longer O/A to original factory unit. Works fine with 16 inch rims and no rolled guards.
Cheers
John

Yeah, I was thinking about that this morning, and checked a spare axle I have to see whether there was any varaition in the placement of the mounting pads - nope. I suppose I could move the mounts over 10mm, but what a hassle. I think I'll save that for another day, and in the mean time hope that the $/£ ratio improves to the point where I can fullfill that dream of an alloy housing, Quaife ATB and stronger half shafts.

My rear axle on the drivers side sat further forward, noticed particularly when springs were lowered and my rims filled the arches much more than the previous set. Ended up getting a new set of standard springs to give me clearance, thought that maybe the original springs had sagged on that side, also didn't want to change rims.
Len

When my car was only 7 years old the rear springs were reset as they had they had sagged so much. The guys who did it set one slightly higher than the other, which they said to put on the drivers side (to counteract the twisting motion of the engine presumably). Fast forward 30 years later and that side still rides higher. What the heck did they do that Ford couldn't?

Just measured my van, and that axle is only 3.5mm out compared to the 10mm on my coupe.  Strange things are definitely afoot.

Just been out to the garage for a measure, you've go me thinking mate, mines spot on which is suprising after the kerbs and dirt roads I hammered as a teenager... having a look at my rear spring hangers, is there any way of shimming them over to one side? or maybe loosen everything off, centre it, then see if you can slowly tighten it all back up, out of ideas otherwise...
Good luck Drew...