Safe clearance between tire and bedside?

[JJorgensen52]

Hey all, looking for advice.

I'm in the middle of a build on my '50 GMC and I am planning to use a 4WD s10 rear axle in it, but this has got me muddled up over wheels, tires and backspace.

I was looking at running a 215/70R16 on a 16x7 with 3" backspace. The tire has an 8.9" section width on that rim, which gets me to about 4" of tire inside the wheel mounting surface.

My axle measures 59 1/4" wide WMS - WMS, and the bed is 50" wide between the wheels.

Long story short: My combo is sitting right now with just a shade over 3/4" spacing between the tires and the beside.

Is 3/4" enough? What are y'all running? I'm used to running about 1-1/4" - 1-1/2" but those are 4x4/work trucks. This is going to be pretty much strictly a cruiser.