Question about tie rods

[lofat]

1979 w123 300D

bought a great running car with bent tie rods. apparently some zero of a tow guy at some point had hooked up to them to tow the car... i dunno but anyway, i was less than pleased with the shop that did the work. the work seems fine, but getting the car in (and especially out of there) was a hassle to say the least.

the car drives nice, steers nice - but i am a little paranoid about every creek or other sound i hear from under the car.

so the other day i got to looking under there while i was doing some other work. I was a little surprised and somewhat concerned by how close the tie rod ends come to the inner tire. like really close. there is no evidence of any rubbing of any sort, but it just seems awfully close. like if i had a blow out or something i feel like it could catch.

now that i have given a good look under the car, i feel a little foolish having paid to have it done, but the car was new to me, and i lack some basic stuff (for the moment) like floor jack, jack stands etc.

is this normal?

i am going to try and get out to take a pic soon, but if any one has any thoughts or pics of tie rods installed on a 123 correctly - i would love to hear/see.

i did a pretty exhaustive search on tie rods looking for pics and text but found nothing that addressed my issue.

thanks in advance

Scott