Day 2 tires--- what are you looking for?

[Salvatore]

not many of us messed with rims wider than 7-8" back in the late 60's early 70's. Most ran 7" wheels and if they wanted the tire to stick out they would buy the deep dish version for the rear. Many times the center of the tires wore out because of to much air pressure. Even if you buy vintage tires like I do, you will need to drive on them for 50 years before anything wears out. I drive my cars weekly(weather conditions) but only 8-10 miles at a time. Remember, unless these cars we are talking about are time capsules like Mockingbirds Deuce we are really only cloning a Day-2 car today even if we run all vintage parts its still a vintage Day-2 car of 2011. That is why to me, a "real" Day-2 car is priceless and should by any means not to be restored if possible unless ALL the parts that are on that car for the last 40 years gets restored with it. My 69 Z/28 is in Day-2 trim but it is a Day-2 clone of an original 69 Z/28 that was modified in its day. I like 15X6 in the front and 15X7's in the rear. Its up to the individual.

[69 Post Sedan]

Just to be clear, I run my rear tires around 25 psi without any issues on the street. The picture of me at the track was around 17 psi. I should have been around 13.

I thought if you ran a wide tire on a narrow rim the center will wear out in the center? [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/hmmm.gif[/img]

Kurt

[LeeP]

This is another great discussion. It is springing off a post and recent discussion about a day two look on an Oldsmobile 442.

I will add that since there are no 14 inch 60 series options and the currently available F and L 60X15 you only have a size I would not have bought and huge tire and rim option. I know my car &quot;day two&quot; got a set of 14x7 inch aluminum rims. So for day two correct I currently only have reproduction tire choice of G70X14.

I never ran 70's on the rear of my cars during my muscle car years, always ran 60 series. So I would assume next set of tires after the stock ones wore out would be H60X14 or better which is what I am going with. You probably need two sizes of 14 inch 60 series to satisfy an almost stock look and a oh wow those are big meats look. Lee

[PxTx]

To be honest, I feel comfortable with the current offering of tires for the rear. What I would love to have is new rubber that is a reproduction of these Stahl front runners!

[Hemicolt]

The original question on this thread : Is there a size that is needed for the Day 2 group? Now we know the specs of the F60 and L60-15. The L60 covers the guy wanting 28 inch height and the F60 doesn't. Now, if someone wants to run 15&quot;x 8&quot; rims and wants 28 inch tall tires, the only thing he can run is a L60. This tire has a section width of 12&quot;. This tire is to wide for an 8&quot; or 7&quot; rim. (I'll get back to this in a minute).
The F60 is the required width for the 8&quot; rim but it doesn't have the 28&quot; height that the buyer wants. So this tire is to short in the eyes of the buyer.
If the buyer wanted to run a 10&quot; rim, the L60 will cover his needs, but not for the 8&quot; rim. This is why I made the statement in my 1st two post. Is there is a void here for the tire size the buyer wants? I say yes as of right now. I have not seen a 28&quot; tall, Polyglas tire, etc. that is the proper width for a 8&quot; rim. I'm not saying there is or isn't, I've just not seen one. So this is why I said what I said. I saw a &quot;size that is needed for the Day 2 group&quot;.
The person who wants this size rim and tire may or may not care what is exactly period correct. It's their car and they can put whatever size rim and tire on it that they want. I'm going to put modern, repop Cragar S/S rims on my car. They are made a little different than the &quot;real deal&quot;, but I don't care. The only person I need approval from is myself.

Now about rim width and tire width. You can get a full contact patch with narrower rims and a tire to wide, using a DRAG SLICK. The reason is because a drag slick has soft, flexable side walls and when the car accelerates the tire sidewalls allow the tire to flex enough to put the full width on the ground. The reason alot of 10.5 tire guys tend to run a little wider rim is because those street/strip tires have a stiffer sidewall. The can't flex as much and get the entire patch down.
Street tires are different. They are made for driving on the street. Which means proper air pressure rated for the tire. Not 12 to 15 lbs so the tire can have even contact. That's for racing, we are talking about driving on the street. When you mount a street tire that is too wide for the rim, the sidewalls pull in and the edges of the tire pull up to some degree and they do not have the same pressure per square inch across the contact patch. And the reason the center wears out first? Heat. Heat builds up in the area that has the most pressure per square inch and will wear that part of the tire quicker. There could also be a problem in cornering and wet conditions.

All this doesn't have anything to do with looking dead on correct or driving your car 8 to 10 miles at a time or really anything that has been brought up.
It's got to do with a gap in a tire size being offered, that others and myself like to run. 28&quot; tall tire with a section width of 10&quot; that works good on a 8&quot; rim, so as to have a more even load on the tire. I'm sure that SmallHurst is speaking of existing tire sizes and that's fine, but I do not know for sure if there was ever anything offered that might cover that size being needed by buyers who are wanting that size.

[whitetop]

Chandler, the L60-15 is perfect for an 8&quot; (steel)-8.5&quot; (aluminum) rim.

I think a 7&quot; rim is too small for an L60 tire. A 10&quot; rim on L60-15 is pushing it but passes. You don't go by section width but tread width when matching tires to rims. You want the tread to be no more than 2&quot; greater than rim width and with most L60's at 9.75 -10&quot; tread width that is ok for a 8&quot; rim..

Every original spec I have ever seen on L60's is they are for 8-10&quot; rims.


M/T L60-15 with 15 x 8.5 Ansens. Looks pretty good.


Cragar 14 x8 on Dayton L60-14

[whitetop]

Cragar 15 x10 on L60-15. Not the greatest match to me..the part of the tire attached to the rim is wider/sticking out further than the top of the tire. Check out the tire in the top picture were it meets the road. The tire is wider near the rim than the tread so it bulges out.

[Salvatore]

And my last sentence was &quot;its up to the individual&quot; I like 7's cause they don't stick out or rub. Was never really worried about the footprint. All good points fellows.

[Hemicolt]

Actually if you do it correctly, you go by section and tread width. I learned this by going to tire seminars and learning from chassis builders who knew what they are talking about. And there was plenty of info about street tires.
Here again, some peoples first priority isn't looks. They want their tires to have an even contact patch on the road. Here is a 255/70/15, which has the measurements I spoke about. Around 28&quot;tall, 8.5&quot; of tread and a section width of 10.25&quot;. It is mounted on a 8&quot; rim. The tire has a nice bulge on the side wall and has dead flat wear pattern and looks right. A L60 with a 12&quot; to 12.25&quot; section width is 2&quot; wider than this tire. To wide for this 8&quot; rim. This is my priority because I put more than 8000 miles a year on my car.
Another example, a 235/60/15 mounted on a 8&quot; rim. You can see a bulge on the side wall and flat contact patch. This tire also has a section width of 9.75&quot; to 10&quot;, not 12&quot;. Looks good and flat tread. This is priority for Todd because he is going to put 1000's of miles a year on this car.
I really can't tell from the side view, but the top picture of the Camaro looks like the center of the tire is raised higher than the edges. I can't tell on the Mopar, but I think it looks good from the side. But I wouldn't pass any kind of judgment until I could see the contact patch.
If the Camaro in the bottom picture has a flat contact patch, the tread is 9&quot;, the rim is a 10&quot; and the section width is 12&quot; to 12.25&quot;, I can go with that. But that's me. I like proper function 1st and looks 2nd.
None of this really means any of us is right or wrong. To the appearence first people, they are right because they like the way it looks and that's all that matters.
To the function first people, they are right because they want proper wear pattern and that's all that matters.
To the purist people, they are right because they ran 7&quot; rims back in the day and that's all that matters to them.
The man asked if anyone thought there was a tire size needed. I gave him my answer. Around 28&quot; tall, 10&quot; section, 8.5 tread and that's all that matters to me.

[whitetop]

Chandler, back in the day we did not have all the tire choices we have today. If you want a specific tire imprint on your car you might not get it with vintage bias tires and might have to use a modern radial tire.

Basically all you had back in the day if you wanted a larger size tire in terms of width was F60, G60 and L60's-there was nothing made in between those two sizes unless you went to the 50 series but then you loose height. Our tire choices back then then kinda reminds me of the old Wendy's commercial on Russian &quot;evening wear and swim wear&quot;..the older guys will remember that commercial.

Just as in limited tire back then, wheels were also very limited. you had two offsets back in the day, stock and deep dish(reversed) in custom wheels and this is if you were lucky. Many aluminum wheels such as slots just came in one offset. An American or Ansen 15 x 8.5 slot for instance just came in one offset back then-deep dish. That is why shackles and air shocks came about. Today you can get any offset you want from each wheel available..some wheels have 5-8 different offsets available.

Sammy is right, the 6 &amp; 7&quot; rims were common in the late 60's and early 70's due to the fact street tire choices in larger widths were extremely limited. Guys who wanted something wider went with mostly slicks or cheater slicks or super wide Indy car race tires. The L60 series tires were not released until 1971.

Pos-A- Traction also had some wider street tires in the late 60's in a larger width based upon the tall L70-14/15 tire core. I think the tread width was around 8&quot;