Kustoms With Radials!!

I have my mind made up that they need bias ply but my buddy thinks he wants radials...I need some pictures that will sway him to the correct path...Its a 50's custom just so you know...show me some picts please and info on the tires

 

Is he going to drive it? I don't see what the radials would hurt with full fenders.

 

Try running a loaded (and already heavy) car at 70 down the freeway and lose the tread on one of those bias ply tires. The '59 Ford wagon now runs Silvertowns. Never handled better at speed, loaded or empty. And bias plys tend to get a little spooky in the rain. Sure, it looked better with the bias, but my whole family takes trips in this car.

 

Uhh..............the looks for starters.

 

No it doesn't. No one has ever pointed to my tires and said , yuck, look at those radials. If the thread on your tires is what folks are looking at on your custom then you've got major issues with the look of your car and your tires should be the least of your worries.

 

Diamondback (Michelins) 225 75 R15
They ride/drive like a dream. I couldn't be happier.
and yes, I've had bias plys on this exact same car and they sucked, even on dry pavement.

 

Do what you like unless you are worried about mindless criticism.

My cars all run bias plys and I am good personally good with that.

 

I only run Firestone bias on my car have driven it tons of miles!!! The side wall on a radial tire does not look right!!! To bulgy if thats a word!!! Here is a pic with of my Chevy with the Firestones

 

Denise you car is in another category so the Bias/Radial debate does not count. It's far too nice for it to matter.

Now I actually think that if you like radials then you should run them but when I see a car with them it absolutely sticks out like a sore dick. For example this past weekend we seen a really clean '40 Ford Coupe that was dead nut perfect except of the bubble gum rubber radials it was running on. It was certainly the first thing I would change because I feel like it does not belong. For me the the most important aspect on a Custom is the Stance. The next logical place to go is wheels and tires. I feel as if you were to get those two aspect right the car is about 80% on it's way of being cool. Just an opinion and I know I am new but I don't think I'll ever run Radials on my car because that's just too important of a part for for me to skim over.

But then again, I do not put as many miles as Denise so she definitely knows her shit.

 

yep,full fendered car,who gives a shit,just so long as they got whitewalls.As for 'correct path' & '50's kustom' if you wanna get picky Michelin made radial tires available to anyone who appreciated comfort and handling in 1947.
Paul

 

Seems to be a personal preference. My dad would not put radials on the truck I now own. He drove his buddy's '57 Cameo with radials and hated the way it handled. I got the '55 and hated the way it handled, so I threw on some inexpensive radials. World of difference to me. No more sway and darting on grooved roads, wet roads aren't scary, and the beam axle is fine with it, no matter what anyone tells me.

 

Here we go again! Bias vs. Radials...It's your car run what you want. I personally would never run bias tires on a driver. Tried it and didn't like the ride or handling. My cars are made to drive and there are certain "modern" products I will not run without. Radials and gas schocks are two of the most sugnificant improvements to an older car you can by I M O.

 

I gotta say Jeffery i agree that the bias are the true look but really for me it's just about the safety factor. I put my wife in the truck and will be doing some decent long road trips next year and honestly i just trust the radials better.

 

I run bias plys on all my cars, i've had some cars with www radials before and yes they handled nice, but they never looked "right". And I may not say it to your face out of respect, but when I see a bad ass car with radials, i'm a little bit dissapointed. Dissapointed the same way as if I were at the beach and saw a smoking hot chick that turns out to be a dude...

Personally I think bia ply tires handle good if they are new. My shoebox runs brand new 670-15 bias ply and it drives great! My edsel on the other hand used to run old bias plys, still in good shape but old, and it drove like shit. Then I put brand new bias plys on it and it drives like a new car.

As for road trips and rain, I drive me cars alot, and far. Last summer my edsel racked up 17,000 miles through rain snow blood and beer and everything else imaginable, and the bias plies handed it all with no problems. Although I will admit they suck in deep snow and ice.

 

I drove bias ply on my merc until I moved back to SoCal and started driving on the 710 and 405, those grooves and pot holes made for some interesting driving. Now I run radials.

 

i've been building and driving cars for over fifty years and as far as i'm concerned radials are the best improvement made in driving and handling in years. i just finished a 51 ford and had bias tires on it. they were brand new firestone. the car is subbed with an s ten and it was a bitch to drive. even on dry roads it darted and weaved all over. i built the car for my wife and she wouldn't drive it. i put a set of diamond back radials on it and now i don't get a chance to drive it anymore because she's in it all the time. to me handling over looks anytime

 

Another thing I wanted to point out. I drive old cars beacuse I like them, and the way they drive. I like to feel the road when I drive, and have little bumps and squeaks and rattles (just little rattles though). I love how when you accelerate you can actually feel the power transfer through the entire car. I love how the orginal steering wheels are big and skinny, and how cool it feels sitting on an old bench seat looking at an old dash.
And thats another reason why I like bias ply tires. It gives a TRUE feeling of how an old car is suppose to feel and drive. If I wanted it drive like a new car I would just go and buy a new car.

 

Sounds like the small-block debate. I run mine because it's the one my truck came with. The wagon has an FE.

We use the wagon as a wagon, just as it was intended. It hauls a full load of camping gear and people and does a damn good job at it. It did with the bias plys, but was a bear to drive. I'll bet it was like that in 1959, too. We got the radials after a mishap on I-71 headed home from Dragway 42 this year, and yes, they look fat, but the 15" Crown Vic wheels and P225/70R15 Silvertown wide whites aren't too out of place on a lowered '50s station wagon. We'll be hiding the rear ones with the stainless skirts this winter anyway.

And holy shit. That is one of the most beautiful '55s I have ever seen.

 

A picture of the actual car in question would help. An open wheel car must have bias tires for "the look", but some cars hide so much tire in the fenders, that it's not such a big deal.
I learned to drive with bias tires and remember when they made the switch to radials, it was definitely an improvement, and some of my friends might still be alive today if radials would have come along before the muscle car era.

 

Bias to look at, radials to drive on.

 

Rode enough on bias when you had to!! Radials for me all the way

 

When did those old Michelin radials hit the market? 1945? Radials were available in the 50's, so they're not out of the realm of period correctness. If you were a hot rodder and could afford a better tire that rides smoother, doesn't jerk you around so much on the road if you get in a rut, and even gets better mileage, would you have run it?

If you like bias ply, run em. If you want radials, screw what everyone else thinks.

As a side note, I just had a flashback to when I was a kid. My dad had radial tires on the '72 Vega GT. Every time we'd pull into a gas station some guy would tell him his tires were low. He'd get so frustrated trying to tell people they were radials and were in fact properly inflated that he started letting me do it. I was probably about 3. Funny how things like that can pop in your head from many years ago just from a conversation about tires.

 

if your car makes more noises than your knees and elbows when you get up---radials..if your young enough to take the pain--bias

 

wide white radials on a custom... I have no problem with that. to tell you the truth if I were to make a list of my favorite newer built customs I couldn't tell you what they had. a proper custom has about 10% of the rear tire showing, and up front 10-20% or more is hidden, all I see is the big whitewall and the fancy hubcaps.

 

My '62 NY wagon had bias plies under it when I bought it over 10 years ago.
Drove around with them for a month in the city and put them up on the roof with a ForSale-sign on them at the next meeting. They sold rightaway fortunatly. I didn't want to take them home again.

Now ofcourse the wagon was not a custom car so looks weren't 'that' important to me.
But since I'm now trying to lightly customize the wagon, I decided the first step was to get some decent looking wheels and tires, so I bought a set of Supremes from Summit and a set of radials from Diamond Back.
Best move I've ever done. Only thing I might've done better is selecting the right tire size, which in hindsight perhaps should've been a 70s series and not a 60 series, like currently on the wagon...
...but then again, I still like the way it looks (from the side) and the way it drives.

 

I have run radials on everything I have built in the past 30 years. Mostly for ride, comfort and safety. If someone else doesn't like them...that's great....buy it from me and put whatever you like on it. Nuff said.

 

i only use bias plys and i drive my cars everywhere and i live in nj home of shitty roads and bad drivers and i think they handle just fine no problems. and my bro had em on his 60 buick and drove that thing all year every day to work. white wall radials look horrible especially on early customs