Tire question for the people. For tires for the 64-75ish crowd, there seems to be four groups:

There are your modern "muscle looking" tires. Mostly RWL (Raised White Letter), you have the BFG Radial T/A, the Cooper Cobra, the Mastercraft Avenger, the Milestar Streetsteel, the Hercules H/P 4000, the M/T Sportsman S/T, and its more expensive brother the M/T Street Comp. Then there's your reproduction OEM looking tires, like your Coker made tires, and I don't know who else makes them and who is just a distributor. Then there's modern tires for street found on tire rack.com, and, lastly, there's drag racing tires. I suppose there are display-only original tires for a fifth group.

Let's say I wanted to tire a 68 H/O and that the car was a show car. That car came with, originally, a Goodyear Polyglas GT G70x14 tire with a 3/8” narrow white wall.

Here is a Coker repro of a Goodyear right size and look. It is biased ply
https://cokertire.com/tires/goodyear...pe-g70-14.html

In a 225 70 R 14 radial, 26.4 dia 6.3 wide which is what compared to the G70 14 which had 26.82 dia and 8.75 wide, we have this:

https://cokertire.com/tires/p225-70r...ne-radial.html which is a redline BFG tire.

In "biased looking radials" we have Firestone red ovals.

https://cokertire.com/tires/fireston...e-gr70-14.html

or

https://cokertire.com/tires/fireston...l-gr70-14.html

What I really think is needed is this one in a 14 wheel

https://cokertire.com/tires/goodyear...e-gr70-15.html

So I called Coker and the Goodyear stuff is made by Kelsey and Coker distributes. It doesn't look like the steelgard will be made in a GR70-14, and I found out why. G70-14 is an oddball size and it only came on the H/O for Olds that year (I don't know what else they were used for.). 442s got F70-14 which is some .5 inches shorter and .5 inches narrower. This guy here is available in a biased looking radial (incidentally, that's what the R means in FR70-14)

https://kelseytire.com/product/goody...lyglas-radial/

Problem is that's not a white stripe like the H/Os had, but it's the closest I can recommend to my buddy for his. Or the Firestone redline.

Other alternative is Diamondback will make white stripe tires that are radial in the right size. 225/70/14

https://dbtires.com/product/diamond-back-ss/

So, in summary, for a 68 H/O, it's biased ply correct reproduction, biased looking radials displaying the wrong brand, biased looking radials F70 sized that display the right brand, modern radials with a custom white line that will look right from 5 feet, and BFG/Coopers.

Am I not thinking of anything or wrong?

 

If I'm driving it a bit, and not entering concourse events, then I would go for the Diamondbacks in a modern radial and the thin white sidewall. We all have our preferences, so it really is up to the individual as to what they want.

 

When I showed my 75 Hurst/Olds at OCA this year, it had Gold Strip tires from Diamond Back. They are not correct but I wanted them to go with the gold trim on the car. The car was supposed to have white lettered tires. The judges commented on good the tires looked on the car and I did not lose any points (I received a copy of my judging sheet today). By the way, I really like the Diamond Backs.

 

x3 on Diamondback tires

 

Diamondback's rep told me he could make me Green, Red, Blue, and Gold concentric stripes if I wanted him to do so. He said that a white line is basically considered a thin white wall, so I needed to provide him width of stripe and how far out from the bead I wanted it. Nice fellow on the phone. Think his name was Heath or Hyatt or something similar.

If I ever put my van on LSD, I will get that multistripe diamondback, lol.

 

Order them through Summit and there is no shipping, Diamond Back direct has about $160 in shipping.

 

Good advice. Problem is my bud would have to get custom ones due to the "custom" white line. Also, the mounter likes ordering them themselves; they say it's for liability, I bet it's for markup.

 

If you have Discount Tire in your area, they will order and install them.

 

Good idea.

Looking like Diamonbacks or radials that look biased in some style. The Goodyear Polyglas style is not made in biased looking radial. If it were, that would be the slam dunk.

 

I talked to one of the tire distributors at the Purestock drags a couple of years ago, he said that the bias ply style radials are a compromise in ride and handling, somewhere in between the two, better than the old bias ply, but not as good as a modern radial.

 

I'm confused. I thought you had a '67 4-4-2 and a '72 H/O. Where'd the '68 come from?

Regardless, here are my picks: for the '67 -- Coker redlines, for the '72 -- Cooper Cobras (approximates the look of the Polyglas, close enough for rock 'n' roll), and for the '68 -- redlines again (I know it's not exactly dead-nuts correct for the H/O but I love the look).

My 0.02.

 

Just looking towards the future.

So, for a '68 H/O, paring all those options down leaves the following:

1. Coker biased Goodyear Polyglas replicas. (they're actually Kelsey, Coker distributes)
2. Several different actual Coker or Kelsey biased appearing radials, none of which are the G70-14 Polyglas.
3. Modern radial that looks old. BFG redline, or Diamondback SS with whatever line I want.

I would do #1 for a trailer queen, very light driver, #2 for a limited driver, #3 for a drives-a-lot driver.

 

My neighbor paints only classic cars and dies custom airbrushing on them as well, mostly for patina. Anyway, he painted the sidewalk of his fifties Chevy pickup so they were wide white walls. That seemed to hold up well for a few seasons.

Is that an option for you?