Please help with wheel size for 450 475 16 Firestone bias tires.

I spoke to Coker and Universal Vintage Tires this morning about Firestone 450/475 16 Bias tires and they said I will need a 16 x 3 wheel that both stores do not have. I am looking for a painted steel wheel with ford bolt pattern. Thanks in advance for any help.

 

1940 Ford wheels came in 4 and 4.5 widths. The size tires you listed go fine on the 4 inch and would not be too far off on the 4.5, but not as good.

Here is a picture of that sized tire on a 4 inch rim.



Don

 

Thanks Don, Both stores said the 4" wheels would be to wide but I see these tires alot and was wondering what people are doing.

 

No such thing as a 16x3. I think that a 16x3.5 (called the v8-60 wheel) was available in 39, but they are extremely rare. 16x4's are perfect for 4.50's...I (and many. many others) have them on the front of my Deuce, and they work great...
Sam

 

Thanks for the info.

 

I found another picture that might give you some idea of how well those fit on a 4 inch 40 Ford rim.



Don

 

Thanks Don looks great!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Not wanting to be a doomer here, but if you got potholes and expansion joints, those short tires are a real problem. I had 5.00's on my T and replaced them with 6.00 X 16's. The ride over rough roads is greatly improved.

I felt that the improvement was worth the loss of style.

 

I tried to buy new 16X4" wheels over 6 years ago, and was told they wern't available, and probably won't be made anymore, so I settled for 16X4.5" steel Ford style for the fronts on my '32. I'm running Firestone 16 X 500/525s instead of the 450/475s because of the much greater load rating (1070 vs 660 lbs). They are very close in overall size, and look and fit great (I think) on the 4.5" wheels.

 

My coupe has '48 Ford 16x4.5" wheels on the front with the 4.50-4.75 Firestones. It's pretty hard to tell the difference between a 4" wide and 4.5" wide wheel once the tire is on it, other than the fact that the 4.5" wheel covers more of the brake drum.

I've got a bunch of miles on this set-up now. Proper balancing is key with the small 4.50-4.75 Firestones.

I'm kind of surprised that the tire dealers recommended a 3" wide wheel.

 

Thanks for all your replys I was contacted by Coker from this post and they said I was told wrong by one thier reps and they will fit on 4.5" wide wheels.

 

do the 35 36 wires vary in width? what width of widths do they have?

thanks!

 

I use that same tire size on all my cars with a 16x4 rim and no issues you will be fine

 

This ch***is is confusing the hell out of me... Pro Street traditional???

 

I bought a couple 16x4 spare wheels that came off a dodge caravan. The bolt pattern is 4.5" but backspacing was the whole 4"s. I had a racing wheel company move the hub back so I had 2" frontspacing and 2" backspacing. Did the same to the rears and then widened the rears 2"s to achieve 4"s of front spacing. These wheels look better than any real 1940's wheel and are one of a kind. Leaves people guessing which is what car building is all about.