Here are the new tires and different wheels. Diamond Back Auburn Deluxe, 6.70 with 2 1/2 inch whites. Sent from my SM-A102U using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
With that stance, I'd agree that generally, whitewalls and some nice trim seems appropriate. I like the look of tall blackwall tires on shiny black painted steel wheels with a simple hubcap... maybe even more, just chrome lug nuts. Gives it more of a badass hot rod look, and it can work even on bigger cars. But in my opinion, to pull off the look, the car would really need to have a more aggressive stance. Skirts or not. But probably not.
...it's easy to spend other people's money, but I think some Salt Flats mags would look good on that with big n little blackwalls,.....anyway, paint those wheel weights red please.
I think box skirts would look great on your car with the steel wheels and whitewalls. I knew an older guy when I was a teenager who had a '49 Merc and a '57 T-bird. The 312 got moved between the two a couple times. The Merc was maroon with red oxide primer where it was nosed and decked, where the handles were removed and on the skirts.That image is cemented in my mind, which brings me to chop or not. I feel they are perfect un-chopped but it's not a deal breaker. I like your Merc...looks like a driver!
I'm not a fan of those rally wheels on anything that isn't a '68-up Chevrolet product, I think your new tires and wheels were the right choice. I'd like to see them with wheel covers on. It's not bad looking without skirts and I wouldn't mind it that way but I feel like spotlights and skirts go hand in hand, spots look kinda awkward without the skirts.
Its a personal preference thing, but I like my Merc better without skirts as I like a bit of a hot roddy feel to it. I can see the appeal of the skirted tail-draggin' customs, but yours certainly fits the hot rod bill with the louvered hood. I do like it skirt-less.
I like the WWW, but the offset with those skinny wheels looks bad without skirts. So, wide wheels and blackwalls= no skirt White walls and skinny= skirts needed
...with caps shared in another Thread...this certainly looks better than solids minus caps imo... Credit to Photographer, Owner
ZZ, You might want to throw the skirts on to see how it looks...are they cruiser skirts or the typical fill the well only style which the latter is what I'm hoping they are...again No Skirts with Caps does work but you should toss the skirts on to see if it talks to you...switching out looks is a nice option as someone mentioned...
I'm into hot rods and really don't are much for customs; BUT, I'd trust Moriarity's opinion evey time.
OK the pic with caps really sells it for me. Those are the wheels and tires that the car needs. It looks good without skirts but I think it'd look just as good with them, either way is fine, just as long as the rally wheels don't go back on, I'm on board. I really like the roof vent too. It's a bit more late 50's but still I really like it. When I was a kid putting my '53 together I wanted one of those SO BAD but I could not find a car to cut up to get it. Now I think I could just buy the chrome and fab the rest if I had to.
ZZ, I also agree that WWW and skirts are proper on a Kustom. Just remember to NEVER mix genres of other style of cars like no billet on a Kustom. I will say however, that the Steelies and WWW Without skirts also looks good on your car. You may think about just adding spider caps to corner the lugs as this too is a traditional look too. The cool part here is that you can run with or without skirts depending on where you are going. The stance is correct for both looks imo, your car just has the right look in general
It looks sooo much better without skirts. I’d pick up sone nice full caps though. Tires are a big improvement.