Tires and Rims

[jord]

Looking to ordering tires for my 39 LZ 4 door, noticed that I do not have the regular 16 inch rims but rather the 15 inch. Diamond Back tires say's the 820*15 Auburn Deluxe tire would be about an inch less that the regular tire diameter. Can someone verify the overall tire width inflated? This may help me if I do not have to buy 16 inch rims. 

[Paul S Allen]

[Ray500]

Someone might have changed the rims, not sure if 15's were standard or not.  The biggest issue is that with smaller tires the speedometer/odometer don't register the same.  The 15 inch ones work as you've experienced with the old tube type tires. But tubeless/radical tires are lot safer from blowouts the old tube type tires were on these cars.  You might also try Coker or other tire companies, but most tires are standard sizes.  16 inch rims are hard to find and expensive.  Good Luck!

[Keith L.]

From my understanding, 15 inch were standard on the '42 Zephyr.  Folks liked them because they had the clips on them and '41 hubcaps would fit on them...looking standard.  My '41 had 15 inch rims.  Somewhere along the way  someone put them on..  Problem I had was I needed to put spacers on the wheels to keep the new radials from scraping the tie rods on sharp corners. And the spare tire won't fit in the trunk well...too fat.

[40ZephSedan]

Another item you may have already considered,, If you have a two-speed Columbia, highway RPM's might not be a problem. but if no overdrive- you may want to think twice about a smaller circumference tire revving more on the highway.  Phil Knapp summarized rim sizes well in his 8/30/2010 thread on 1940's vs 1941's, in addition to what Keith mentions.    1939/1940 = 16x4,  1941=16x5,  and 1942 on were 15x5.   Fender skirts have pretty tight clearance as well- anyone with experience changing from 16x4 to the wider 16x5 or 15x5 rims know if there are problems with the wider tires rubbing on the 1939 and 1940 fender skirts?

[jord]

Thank you everyone, this is food for thought. This would explain why the car came with no skirts, will have to check with them on and also the spare in the trunk. I wonder if plain bias ply would work.

[Matt Harwood]

820x15 is going to be too fat. I'd look at a 700x15s, which will be suitably tall and skinny and was used by many cars in that time frame.

[abelincoln]

Don't know about 39, but someone in the dim past put 820-15 Denmans on our 48 LC, fits, looks and drives fine.  Haven't tried skirts though.  Early 60's Ford pickups had 16 inch rims with 5 X 5 1/2 bolt spacing.  Don't know about back spacing.  No hubcap clips either.

Abe

[jord]

Will have to wait for Diamond Back, they do not have any 700-15 in stock and with the virus everything is backlogged.They say maybe 3 months. So my question is will my non original 15 inch wheel require tubes? 

[Bloo]

Those wheels in the picture? They're riveted. The rivets could leak, but maybe not. I would still try to run tubeless if you can get away with it. Some folks have sealed the rivets with goo (silicone?) just to be sure.

 

One recent thread....

 

 

 

Edited June 18, 2020 by Bloo (see edit history)

[Guest]

My 1953 Buick Special had riveted wheels.  I drove tens of thousands of miles with never any problem with tubeless tires.

[Bloo]

My Pontiac does too. I'm hoping they hold air. I expect them to, but you never know.

[Mssr. Bwatoe]

use modern normal tubeless radials...they will clear dont waste money on silly overpriced "classic" tires..look at sizes..

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/tirecalc?tires=165-82r15-205-78r15

Edited June 19, 2020 by Mssr. Bwatoe (see edit history)