Orginal tire size 59 T-Bird

[tjacobs]

My owner's manual reads that the tires size is 8.00 x 14-4 and I am wondering what size that is in today's tire language and what size whitewall came on the cars in 1959?

[bcomo]

Good question.

I'm looking for the same translation from 8.00 X 14 and also 8.50 X 14 to radial language.

By the way, what is the width of the original Ford wheel rims?

[dgs]

I think the original wheels are 4.5" wide, but I may be wrong. I remember they are a lot narrower than I thought.

On sizes, here's what I just posted on another thread:

I could go into a dissertation on tire sizes, but I've done that before (do a search here on tire sizes, you'll find it. ). The bottom line is that most folks go with either 215/75R14 or 225/75R14. The former is supposed to be close to the 800's, the later the 850's. In reality, they are each a little too short and a little too wide, but they are the best match. I believe that's what Coker recommends as well. They have a handy conversion chart here.

Discount Tire has a neat tire size calculator that can help too.

[bcomo]

Thanks Doug. That's what I needed to know.

[GTE427]

The original wheel size is 14x5.5 Look in the OFS page G2-34, they covered the wheel size and marking very well.

[GTE427]

what size whitewall came on the cars in 1959?

The original white wall size is 2 1/4". This size WW is available in bias from Coker and Universal. The radial WW sizes run slightly larger.

[tbird430]

Ur 430cid has A/C, like mine, Bart. So ur Bird would have had the 8.50 X 14's on it new in 1959.

-Jon