My non-442 1968 Cutlass has ancient Firestone Supreme tires and I should replace them. The car has Olds wire wheel covers from a 1967 and I think the underlying wheels are rough looking red SSIII wheels from an unknown year. The current tires are 215/70/R14. I assume the wheels are 14x6 but I don't know and assume the only place I can see the wheel size stamping is concealed by the tire.

Question 1: What's the best size of tire I should be looking for? Looking online, I see recommended size of 205/75R14. Obviously, 215/70/R14 fits.

Question 2: I don't see a ton of choices at these sizes. My current tires are white walls but few of the options I see at the tire shop (I normally use Discount Tire) are white wall. Uniroyal Tiger Paws are available with white wall. Hankook Kinergy is available without white walls (and possibly also with white walls) as is Kumho Solus. Looking at Tire Rack, I see some General Altimax tires also. Looking for input what folks are using in these sizes and what you like/don't like.

Question 3: This is a bit dumb but I'll say it anyway. I never really cared for these wire wheel covers and thought about putting white SSIII wheels on the car when I bought it years ago. I know this wouldn't be stock but this is not a show car. I never did anything about it but I still think about it sometimes. At this point, my tires are so old that I feel like I should replace them and not wait on a wheel change. If I put super stocks on the car, I would probably like RWL tires. I suppose I could go for RWLs now and just face them to the inside. Or just opt for straight blackwalls and live with them super stock or wire wheels. Just thought I would mention this (decisions are not my strong suit and kids in college mean money isn't falling off trees).

Thanks for any input.

 

Put what you like on the car and don't worry about resale or what others thin. I certainly would get away from the 14" wheels and tires and this is a good time to do. As you have found out, your choices are pretty limited. You may want to look at Diamondback also. I have never used them but lots of folks have and they get good reviews. If you buy used wheels shipping could be a deal killer.

 

Nearly all of those tire size conversions are wrong.

The original tires on that car were 7.75 x 14, which were 26.70" outside diameter with a 7.75" section width.
Optional on that car were 205R14, which are NOT 205/75-14. 205R14 tires were 26.90" OD with an 8.07" section width. These would have been 205/80-14 in today's tire sizes. No one makes that tire size.

Today's 205/75-14s have a 26.11" OD with the same 8.07" section width
215/70-14s have a tiny 25.85" OD and an 8.46" section width.
225/70-14s have a 26.4" OD and an 8.86" section width.
215/75-14s have a 26.7" OD and an 8.46" section width.

You can get 225/75-14s in BF Goodrich T/As and also in redline

 

What I would do, FWIW-

Break em down, have wheels sandblasted, at least the faces, preferably the whole wheel. Sand them with 80 if they’re rough, finish 180-220. Sand the faces and the beads, the rest can be left with the rough finish. Warning - Sanding sandblasted wheels is one of the world’s crappiest tasks and is hazardous to your emotional health and the well being of your finger tips and nails, BUT, it is an important step for a nice finish. The sanding takes the wheel from however coarse a finish is left from blasting and turns it into smooth, shiny steel.

Powder coating would likely turn the process into a one drop stop, they would likely do them start to finish, Sandblast to coating.

Paint as appropriate and as budget allows, ie spray can vs catalyzed spray can vs body shop vs powder coat.

225/70R 14 Cooper Cobras or BFGs (or 75 series)

Install (procure?) cleaned up center caps, trim pieces & rings.

She’ll be looking and likely driving like a different car.

​​​​​​….

 

Moving up in wheel size would be potentially more economical and for sure more beneficial than spending money to refinish your 14's (unless you're seriously married to them for originality to the car). Added benefit to a larger wheel size would be ability to install disc brakes (if you don't already have an OEM setup). Plus as noted earlier, your tire choices increase as the size goes up.

If you deviate to a larger tire height, you would likely have to change out your speedometer gear set in the trans to calibrate against the new height specs, so that your speedo remains correctly calibrated. But worth it for upgrade in wheel and tire choices you'd have in a larger size. The gear set chart matched by tire height is outlined in the factory service manual and all are available for purchase in repro (and I believe still in OEM in some cases)

As an example, I run 17x8 wheels on a 245-50-R17 tire size (which essentially matches my old 15x8 wheel / 245-60-R15 combo with respect to overall tire height. So for me no gear swap was required and I now have an exponentially larger selection of newer-technology tires to pick from than just the old-school BFG T/A or Cooper Cobra option.

They don't look out of place in terms of visual size or tire sidewall height and the Falken radials I run provide upgraded ride / handling benefits over the BFG's I ran on my prior 15's

 

Personally I think a 60's or even a 70's Cutlass looks good with white letter tires on SSI, SSII or SSIII wheels or white wall tires if on steel wheels with hubcaps. On the bigger cars I think the white wall tires with steel wheels and hubcaps are the way to go. I say this because it closely replicates the look of that time period. We see so many black wall tires now, it seems that white letters are kind of a thing of the past to modern motorists except for some muscle cars so why not embrace originallity with our older cars. As to the sidewall height I prefer the taller look, I understand that having low sidewall, wide treadwidth is prefereable for a car that handles well and some Cutlii look ok with that combination knowing the owner has put a lot of money and time into improving the suspension/handling of the car, ok fine. But for most of the 60's and 70's cars that came with the taller sidewall just look better that way to me. This is all my opinion and not diminishing anyone else's, you asked for some opinions...

 

Thanks very much for the opinions. I appreciate you taking the time to share more than a single sentence which is so common today.

I spent a couple hours looking around on Craigslist, eBay, and FB Marketplace for 15" Olds wheels as well as repro options. This isn't a show car so I don't necessarily need to keep to original options but I prefer Olds (or repro) wheels, meaning I'm not generally opposed to using wheels from other years. My original thought was to use color-matched SSIII wheels (which would be white) but getting caps and rings and bezels and so on is more difficult now. My parents owned an '85 Cutlass (super sharp metallic grey 2-door) with the chrome SSIII wheels and I thought those wheels were sharp so I also considered trying to track a set of those down. The SSI and SSII wheels are not bad but I just wasn't planning on doing wheels right now so I have to think about things. My tires are OLD so I feel like the clock is running.

FWIW, my car has original drum brakes on all 4 corners.

 

I had 14" wheels and moved to 15" SS3 wheels.
If it helps you decide what to do - here is what my cost was
Used 15" SS3 wheels, sand blasting and paint.-$350
NOS center caps from another member of CO- $220
15" Trim rings- New Repro-$150
225 70r 15, 275 60r 15 Tires New $950
These prices were 2 years ago and prices were CDN currency.
and here is a pic. Very happy with the result.

 

I'm more impressed with the stripes.

 

I bought one set of 4 SSIII 15” wheels and a second set of 5, both sets with with all the trim for around $150 each set. Primer, paint, and supplies was maybe $50.
There are deals out there if you look for them.

 

My feeling is if you can find what you want in 14" you should buy 14" . Who cares if there aren't 50 or 100 other wheels you don't want, just because they are 15". The reason we have these discussions is because people stopped buying the 14s so the manufacturers quit making them. If we keep buying 14s then maybe our selections will go up a little. There are still plenty of cars on the road that could use 14s.