When I purchased my '55 it came with 15 inch steel wheels and four different sized tires mounted on them. I will be installing the Aerostar springs and 2 inch blocks on the back to lower the vehicle. My question is for guys who have done the same. What size tires are you running on your lowered cars and have you had any rubbing problems? Thanks.
My 56 has that exact same setup as far as drop with original wheels. Pretty sure I have 205-75-15's on it and have no issues with rubbing. I can make sure that is the size on it, but pretty sure they are the suggested replacement size for the original 670-15's.
Jeff, you have those flipped right? 205/70/15 should be slightly shorter at the same or slightly less width right?
I just installed 225 70R15 all around on mine. Somewhat harder to mount on the left rear for some reason. The car has areostar springs and and some work on the spindles and 3" dropped posies on the back. It sits nice and level with about 6" or so of road clearance.
The 205/70/15 is shorter but the lower the center number is the wider it is in section width,which could cause the rubbing issue.I spent about 18 years in the tire business and one thing that can vary is the width depending on the brand of tire,less expensive brands tend to have less section and tread width even though the height is constant because less material equals less cost.Example on my '54 I have a good pair of used Yokohama's on the front the rear tires are new Cornell 1000's from Pep Boys even though the tires are the same sizes the Yokohama's do not clear the rear wheel wells with the same size and offset wheel.I have used the Cornell's before and they do deliver good wear for the price.A lot of tire fit comes down to the amount of positive offset that the wheel has like in this thread:http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/mustang-rims.945557/ the Mustang wheel is a 17" X 8" the tires are 245/45/17 with a 25.7" height and 9.6" width the backspace of the Mustang wheel is 6.3" a typical 205/75/15 is 26.98" height and 5.2" wide. So if using stock wheels with a 205/75/15 you would be OK,but if you go to a custom wheel that backspace measurement is important,there is a link in the "FAQ Sticky" that shows you how to measure for backspace.
I went with big n' littles on the '59. The picture on my avatar is with the aerostar springs and no drive train. Got P235/75-15 on 7" wheels out back and P215/75-15 on 6" wheels on the front.
I'm still up in the air about which way I'm gonna go on my Galaxie. If I go with radials they will probably be 205/75/15s. I'm still leaning towards a set of WWW Bias plies G78-14s or 15s.
I run 205/70/15 on the front of mine, and 215/70/15 on the back. I like the staggered look on mine. I have dropped spindles and cut almost 2 coils out of the front. Plus 3 inch blocks in the back