Opinion Piece

So, my every day driver is a 1964 Ford F100. I bought the truck from another HAMBer over a year ago and have done very little to it since I got it. In my mind, the truck is perceived more as a “tool” than as an “old car” and as such, I’ve done very little to pamper it. I’ve washed it maybe three times since I’ve owned it and I’ve opened the hood less than a handful of times – each simply to change the oil when my book tells me it’s time.

So, for all intents and purposes my truck is a beater.

Anyway, the only major complaint I’ve had with the little hauler is that the brakes were absolutely miserable. My last daily driver was a ’39 Ford sedan which featured Ford’s first use of a fancy new technology – hydraulically operated brakes. By my estimation, they functioned ten times better than the brakes featured on the F100 sold more than 20 years later. No shit.

So, what to do? Typically, I’m not a proponent of modernizing old cars. It’s just not my thing. I love driving old cars and part of that love comes from how they handle, stop, and run. But, the brakes were so bad on this damned truck that I decided to add a mostly Chinese made disc brake conversion kit sold by…. You guessed it, Speedway.

The install was straight forward. I removed the drums and installed the discs and calipers while Ben and Kieth ran the brakes lines. It was done in no time and the test drive went swimmingly. The old truck now stops like a new one… Boring, but like I said, this truck is a tool.

Regardless, there’s a point to this post. The above is really just background to catch you up to the point where I am now – trying to make decision on wheels and tires.

See, when I got the truck it had a set of vintage E-T 5-spokes – 15″ wheels on the rear and 14″ wheels on the front. I loved the look, but the 14’s on the front had to go when I added the disc brake kit. I had planned on finding a pair of vintage E-Ts to keep the look going, but couldn’t find any… Then I decided to just get a new set of E-Ts, but the cost of them didn’t make sense on this truck. So, that left me with the obvious – slap a set of steel wheels from Coker on it and be done.

I ordered a set of 15x7s for the front and 15x8s for the rear. The 8″ wheels were backordered, but Coker got me the 7’s for front within two days. I got the tires mounted this weekend and got it all together yesterday.

And now that it’s together, I have a decision to make. Run steel wheels on the front and the vintage mags on the back or go as planned with steels wheels on the front and back. And what about caps?

This is a big time decision for a car guy, right? I need some help… Let’s hear your opinions.

Option 1: Steel wheel with no cap on front and vintage mags on rear:

Option 2: Steel wheel with ’64 poverty cap on front and vintage mag on rear:

Option 3: And finally, steel wheels around with caps… This is a bad photoshop, but you get the idea:

A few things to keep in mind:

• I realize that the front needs to come down a couple of inches. However, this is my daily driver and finding time to take it off the road for an axle swap is tough. I hope to do it some day though…
• The current rear tires are some weird 31×10 SUV jobs… I will be going to something like a 255/70/15 when I decide what wheels to use back there. This won’t help the stance.
• The front tires are 215/70/15.

What do you all think? The answer is kind of obvious to me, but…

***