Good morning all! Newbie here, I have a 1930 Model A 5w coupe, that I'm putting a new set of wheels and tires on. I'm going with 5.60-15 fronts on 15x5 Chrome OEM steelies (not smoothies), and a L78 tire on the rear on a chrome OEM steel. Both will be blackwall, but I'm stuck on picking rear wheel width. Do I go 7" or 8" wide? I've searched and searched, but a lot of the old threads the picture links don't work anymore. I'd like to go with the 8" wide wheel because someday I'd like to go with a cheater slick for a different look - but maybe at that time I order the slicks on their own set of wheels? Will a Coker blackwall L78 tire look OK on an 8" rim (not too bulged out?) Or would it look better on a 7" rim? The section width is roughly 9", so on an 8" rim it'd be sucked in about 1/2", but maybe it'd look better sucked in about an inch on a 7" rim. Help!!
https://www.dbtires.com/crossreference.html I would use the 8", according to the chart a 235/75/15 fits well on 8" and was used by OEM several times.
L78 or 235/15 tires can be put on a 7" wheel. OEM applications back in the day may have even been on 6" wheels.
Coker site says their L78 is good for 5.5-8" rims, 8" might be pushing it. 7 sounds safer. One thing you could do for your second pair of rims for cheater slicks is to have them reversed for a deeper look.
A lot of big Chryslers used this tire size on a 6" or 6.5" wheel. Some Imperials and limos used a L-84 x 15 tire on 6.5" wheels.
I'm running a pair of L78s on 5" wheels on the back of my car....they work. It was pretty common to put big tires on narrow rims on the back of a hot rod in the old days.
Front 15x5 wheel with a Firestone 6.70 15. I would have picked a tire a little smaller for the front if I had to do it again. Rear tire dia= 29" front tire dia = 28".
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