'68 Riv tire source

[jscheib]

I tried a search and perhaps I am doing something wrong but I could not find much on tires.

I am looking for a source for proper and close to original tires for my '68. I know the size, but none of the replacement tires by the vendors seem to match the width of the whitewall on what I have now - BFG, with about 1 1/4" wide whitewall. These were on when I bought the car and 5 years ago.

On the limited original literature I have, the tires have a gold-white-gold with narrow gold and about 3/4" white. I know these are really not available now, and I do not like that apperance anyway, but would like to add only two new ones to match the existing as some poor alignment resulted in some damage to the fronts that are now on the car. I have rally wheels, not hub cars.

I would appreciate any suggestions. Thanks, in advance.

John

[cool57]

Google "broadway classics" Made by Multi Mile

or bite the bullet and go with Diamondback

Edited May 7, 2010 by cool57 (see edit history)

[JZRIV]

Tires | Diamond Back Classic White Wall Tires - Vintage Tires - Redline & Redline Radial Tires for Antique and Classic Cars

This site is DiamondBack Classics. They are very customer oriented and have people that are very knowledgable and helpful over the phone. Besides the stock tires, they can make any width whitwall you want

[jscheib]

Thanks for the prompt info. Now, one more question. What was the original tire sides (whitewall) for the '68? My sales brochure shows the gold-white-gold with hub caps, so I am not sure what was on the rally wheels.

John

[rivgs]

John,

The brochure shows a triple stripe whitewall, not gold/white/gold. I had to look at my brochure and I can see why you thought it had gold pinstripes on the tires as the color of the gold car seems to "bleed" onto the tires. I think you will be fine with a 1" whitewall to look correct, but Coker does do the triple whitewall if you are interested.

[JZRIV]

As mentioned above, your car likely had the 3 stripe whitwall in size 8.45 x 15 bias ply on it from the factory.

Note the 3 stripe whitewall Coker tire that Kevin mentioned is a 9.00x15 which is a higher profile tire. 900-15 B.F.GOODRICH TRIPLE Whitewall Tire - Narrow Whitewall - Bias Ply Tires - Tire Styles

The difference is enough that it looks a bit odd on a Riv but thats just my personal opinion. To me the trade off to get a 3 stripe tire is not worth it.

Optional on the 68 was a 70 series bias whitewall Wide Oval tire which I believe was an H-70 and is not reproduced to my knowledge. A G70 bias whitewall is available from Coker but those are a tad small vs what it should be and is a steep price to pay for something that isn't quite correct.

Also optional, was a 225Rx15 whitewall Radial tire but I don't think many cars had those because people were still afraid of radial tires at that time. I have no idea what width the whitwall was on the radial.

Since a radial was optional, I would definitely go with that and technically it would be correct under 400 pt judging and make for a very enjoyable ride vs a bias tire. I have found the 235 70 radial is close as far as diameter to what was original and I prefer that. Some people go with a 225 75 which is very close as well. If you went with the 225 at least the first number would match up to what was offered back in 68.

[jscheib]

Thank you Jason and the others. I think this information now allows me to make the decision.

John