The time has come to decide what tires to get. The ones on the car are old and going flat every couple weeks. I hate to dish out the cash right now but how is not making my hot rod safe and bitchin' a priority, right? The car's going to be kind of a mild custom/hot rod hybrid with somewhat of a rake. It has a mild 350 and now sits about 1.5" higher in the rear due to clearing issues as well as constantly bottoming out. We're going to try to get a 15x8 wheel in the rear if at all possible. I've been leaning towards wide whitewalls. Not super wide, just medium. Maybe 2" in the rear and 1.5" up front. And we want to go with a wider tire in the rear so I was thinking of having a little bit wider whitewall in the rear as well. My pops could care less and said he'd be fine with blackwalls but I don't know if I'm feeling that. I think we're just gonna run the OG hubcaps with the black wheels as well. Any opinions out there? Here's an older photo. Like I said, it sits a bit higher in the rear now... Thanks!
One of my favorite "looks" is that of the early '60s with black wheels, "dog dish" caps and narrow whites...just like your avitar ! My vote is to replace what you've got now with the wider steel wheels, as you mentioned, and new big 'n' little narrow white 70-series radials...and keep the beanie caps. Very authentic to what was hot when I was in high school in '62-'65. Nice car, by the way!
Talked to Diamond Back Classic Radials about tires for my Nomad. New radials with any size WW would probably be 180-200 range each. He priced 14 inch for 57 Nomad at 176 each. That is a Cooper tire with letters shaved off outside with 2 1/4 WW. You can get skinny whites at Sears, BFG Revelation 60,000 mile tire for around 60 each.
Thanks for the input guys. Cash is a little tight right now so I may just pick up a set of inexpensive blackwalls or skinny whites for the time being and plan for the staggered wide whites down the road.
The cool thing about whites like you are talking about is that if you get sick of them or want to change the look, you can re-mount them the other way 'round. Easy face lift. When I was a teen in the late '70s , the popular wheels for tri-fives was either Cragar SS 5-spokes or Chevy Rallye wheels. Now you can buy rallys in a multitude of sizes, but back then the trick was to get Vette 15x8 for the rear. If you wanted the 'Big-n-Little' look you would use Chevelle/Monte 14x7 for the front. Most of my buddies had the 14x7s because they were much more common and so they were cheaper. We were all poor then, and were always strapped for $$. One of the tricks guys would do was to buy the wheels (from the junkyard) and get them on the car, then when money allowed get the center caps, and ultimately the trim rings. One piece at a time. Ahhh - the good old days. Take care and good luck!
Just don't go to 20", 19" or anything else but 14" or 15"............god I hate an old car with those huge wheels on them. Look like freakin hot wheel cars. Like hot wheel cars but not in real scale.
There is no way I would do anything bigger than 15" on my car. I just wasn't sure if I wanted to do reverse chromes or something like that. I'm gonna stick with the painted black steelies and OG hubcaps and pick up some staggered whites down the road. I dig the cragers but it's not really the look I'm going for since it's lowered. Thanks for all the opinions, though!
Is torrance near california? near the city? Here in chicago there are plenty of "Inner city" tire shops where you can get good tires for $20 a piece. You could do what I do and paint (spray on) your own whitewalls, there are a few threads on here about that. I saw some pics of a 59 chevy with ralleigh wheels with super fat whites which was an intresting look. Personally I don't think you can wear too much whitewall. You could always paint the wheels with a uniqe finish, like the "hammertone grey on my chevy or the "hammertone copper" that I used on my caddy. Dog dish caps are nice but I just finished mine off with chrome lugs and Hub covers. Let me know if your pops quits digging the 56 itself.. good luck!!!
Chrome reverse (not baby moons) on wide whites. I think lowered cars like yours look bad ass with this combo. Theres a light blue '60 Bel Air on here that nailed it, but I can't find a pic at the moment....I could do without bullet center caps. I think they look better capless, graffiti style.
the black steelies look great now, if I was going to change it up I would do the reverse chrome steelies and wide bias plys like whats on the green pick up, they would look cool too.
My wagon has a similar rake with 8in rims in the back with G78s denmans and oem repops from wheel smith. The denmans are cheaper than radials, if the buget is a issue . You can even get blems from Lucas tire in lakewood I think. Jack
my ol wagon.. i liked the way this looked.. the new owner put on skinny whites it still looks ok, and probly more appropriate for the car, but i liked it this way!!
If you go on tires-easy.com you can get some tires called runway enduro 75's for about 47 bucks a piece that have a nice 1.5" whitewall (wider than regular pinner whites) that gives a good early 60's late 50's look to your car.
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