Whitewall Tires

[Anders]

If they are for Snow, it means they are way softer than "ordonary summer tires" as the cold require softer rubber in order to give some grip under cold conditions. That also means they wear faster during warm comditions and most probably require more fuel as the rolling resistance is heavier ( due to the additional grip ). Opposite, "normal tires" gets super hard under cold conditions, and that means by-bye grip & traction.

Iīm a bit suppreice that the sell White walls for snow though. Didnīt know any was using there old treasures under those condition.

[DKheld]

Scumdog - "Exxon Valdez" ---- ha ha ---- now that's funny. It's actually the oil pan gasket and rear main seal - looks worse than it is - that's about 2 years worth of oil and the pan is real thin - too little to empty on a regular basis - but I got a good laugh out of that.

Anders - on the M&S WW tires - from what I gathered DiamondBack used different "lots" of tires - probably whatever they could pick up cheap and glues the WW's to the tires in the same manner they are made originally - just not in one step - thus you could buy M&S or all season WW tires. Looks like they use more street tread styles these days.

Chris - you might want to consider getting 5 (one for the spare) and rotate them regularly including the spare if you have a wire spare. That way if one gets damaged you'll have a spare that looks similar in weathering and wear instead of having to wait for one to be shipped - probably wouldn't add much in shipping with the original order. Just my thoughts.

Eric
registry 5347

[RustyNCa]

Hi Guys, I'm getting ready to purchase Radial whitewall tires. Can you please give me an idea on the top brands for comfort & handling. I'm told that Diamondbacks are really good. Some input would be gratefully appreciated.

Thank you,

Chris....From OZ.

I have been very happy with the Diamondback we are running on our 65 TBird. I went way over stock size however which is one reason why I went with them, Coker had nothing in the sizes I was looking for.

What I also liked about dealing with DiamondBack, I was able to order the width of the whitewall and the spacing from the rim. I went with the widest width I could get and the white wall stepped off the rim about a quarter.

The car drives amazing, smooth, quiet, solid. I think it is the best driving car I have.

I would purchase from them without any worries.

Cheers
RustyNCA

[scumdog]

Thats a lovely car, I'm jealous!

What I'd LIKE to do is get some '66 rims and use the centres to fit into some "7 (or thereabouts) wide rims and fit them to my 'bird (cos it's bloody hard to get 'mag' style wheels that fit and clear the caliper without using a spacer.
And in N.Z. if you use a spacer you have to have your vehicle 'certified' by an engineer for that spacer to certify it is safe, $300 thank you very much! ( not this boy, no way, I was born in Scotland and I'm too tight with my dollars!)

Of course I'm open to info about custom wheels that fit a '66 WITHOUT a spacer.

[Anders]

Looking into bying a set of Whitewalls, I have discovered that different brands have different outer diameter by some reason.
I have no clue what was the original outer diameter when the car left the factory in 1958, but the tires I have on her now, some strange "Road King Courier" 215/75 R14 ( Made in Costa Rica...) is 26" + 1/4" ( Whatever that is called... 26 1/4 or 26.25?

Looing at some new fresh ones, "American Classic" have one P215 /75 R14 with outer diameter 26.69"
Next one up, B.F Goodrich Silvertown: P205/75 R14 diameter: 26.10 Looks like thin tires, but they donīt seems to have wider in 14".
Cooker tires seems to have more than one option: P205-P215-P225/R14 with outer diameter resp. 26.11,-27.11,-27.62.

Pretty big difference in outer diameter, as I see it. Any thoughs about that?

[Guest]

Anders
The tire profile whether it be 50, 60, 70, 75, is a direct proportion to the tread width that's why a 205/75 has a smaller diameter than a 215/75.
I have 225/70/14 silvertown's on my black 60, see post towards the top, the diameter is obviously wrong as my speedo is a little out. This doesn't worry me as I use a GPS speedo in all my cars and read in Km/h

Richard

[Anders]

Yeah, But if we leave the 205 out and just look at 215/75, ther e is different diameters.
My ól Road King: 26.25
American Classic: 26.69
Cooker: 27.11
I just wonder wich one is closest to the original from the factory, as they seems to be quite different...?
Your BF Goodrich Silvertown is 26.30, but donīt that tire require a wider rim?

[Guest]

Hey Anders
Take a look at this

http://clubs.hemmings.com/clubsites/chevylist/tech/tire_size_conversion.htm

Acording to the OFS 8.00 x 14 was std 8.50 x 14 was optional for '58

Richard

[dgs]

You can get the diameter for any modern tire size pretty eaisy. Lets take the 225/75R14:

225 = The section width in mm

75 = Aspect ratio, in this case the side wall is 75% as tall as the section width. So, 225mm x .75 = 168.75mm

R = Radial

14 = Wheel diameter in inches.

So, there are 2 side walls, one up top and one at the bottom. 168.75 x 2 = 337.5mm.

Next, we need to convert that to inches. 337.5mm / 25.4mm per inch = 13.287 inches.

Add that to the 14 inch wheel diameter and you get 27.287 inches.

That said, for reasons I'm not sure of, tires of different brands in the same size have slightly different outside diameters. Also, the outside diameter will vary depending on the width of the wheel it's installed on.

Also, if you go to Coker's web site and look up the bias ply 800-14 and 850-14, you'll find the heights listed there. The 800 was 27.58" tall and the 850 was 28.10" tall. That's the only source I've found for heights of the originals.

When I bought my rims & tires, I wanted to get as close to the original diameter as practical so they'd fill the wheel wells. My 235/55R17's are 27.18" tall, theoretically, which is pretty close in my book to the 800's anyway.

Hope that helps.

[Anders]

Thanks alot.
Yes, I was looking for the same ( original diameter ).

[YellowRose]

Whitewall Tires

Thanks for that information, Doug! I added it to the Technical Resource Library. You will find it under the Tires picture.

[GTE427]

Take a look at similar thread for a while back. Another reason it's been suggested to buy tires in pairs, you could end up with different size tires if you bought the same sizes from different manufacturers.

http://squarebirds.org/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=4354

[Anders]

Ordered 5 Coker P215 /75 R14 today
Thankīs for all tips and efforts guys