Getting close to the finish line on this 64 F-85 Pro-Touring car-then maybe I can drive this car and meet some of you guys!. Car currently has 1 inch Hotchkis drop springs in the front and rear and do not like the stance in the rear. Ordered 2 inch drop springs for the rear that I will install when it cools off. Then figure out how fat of a tire I can get in the rear. These are on GM 15x7 big car steelies. I believe on 68 on up you can get a bigger/fatter tire under the rear of the car with less clearance issues than the early A-Body's.

 

Local Hero have you run any of Coker's whitewalls or any of their other tires? I have a set of their radials on my 54 and have had them for over a year with no problems. Before that I had their BF Goodrich bias belted tires and had no problems with them after several thousand miles. I took them off because radials handle so much better. It is surprising how they remain the largest manufacturer of classic car tires if their tires are no good.

 

Just to make sure you're up to speed - reading a tire size -
1st number is the width
2nd number is the sidewall height as a % of the width of the tire
3rd is the rim diamater

So in a 225/70/14, the width is 224 millimeters, the sidewall height is 225mm x 70% and the diameter is 14
A 225/60/14 would be the same width but shorter.

 

 

1 inch in wheel width.

 

 

Depends on whether you have disc brakes on your car. If yes, you need 14x7

 

 

The rims on your car right now are 14x7. The width determines how wide a tire you can go with (along with other factors. A thinner rim will limit how wide you can go. The rims on your car now are nice and pretty valuable.
If you plan on changing rims it behooves you to go up to at least a 15 if not a 17 or 18.

 

True enough Ron. Not very often we see a car with the OEM SS1 14x7 wheels.

 

When going for the "rubber rake" and putting 15" rims with taller tires on the rear, should there be some concern about the combined affect with the rear end gear ratios and performance? Speedometer accuracy?

 

Big & Little tires also throws off the caster of the front end alignment.

 

Yes, I have.

Their custom whitewalls started peeling off the sidewall of the tire like the vulcanizing was no good.

Another set could never get balanced due to excessive runout.

Once I went to Diamondback, zero problems since on four sets of tires. Four different cars.

 

I have a set of Coker repro Wide Ovals. I didn't have any issues with them other than the inherent nature of a belted tire.