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New tires for my Wildcat


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I'm planning to purchase a set of new tires for my 1968 Buick Wildcat convertible. I am running, facrory styled chrome wheels and want narrow white side wall radials, 3/4 to 1". The car is an occasional driver: 500 to 1000 miles per year, little to no freeway speeds, mostly rather short suburban and country trips. 

The question is cost/quality/brand, probably in that order.

I've looked at Vogue, Corker, Douglas(Goodyear), Vercelli, Tornel, and a bunch of others. I know you get what you pay for (if you're lucky), but the customer reviews, warranties, and prices of the "economy" brands seem to satisfy my requirements for limited local transportation. Even with my regular daily driver I end up replacing good-looking tires with plenty of tread as they age out. I don't abuse the the car or tires and can't justify a higher price because of the name on the side wall or the tread design.

I'd like to ask anyone with experience with low-cost tires to either confirm or refute my premise. Please comment. Thank you.

 

P.S. My mind is made up - white walls and white walls only!

image.jpeg.377da7a9d26068a1ed40f8a73a2a586f.jpeg  

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Find the best name brand quality tire with the highest Temp/Traction/Treadwear, then shop for price.  Don't skimp out on cheap tires!

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2 hours ago, Twisted Shifter said:

I'm planning to purchase a set of new tires for my 1968 Buick Wildcat convertible. I am running, facrory styled chrome wheels and want narrow white side wall radials, 3/4 to 1". The car is an occasional driver: 500 to 1000 miles per year, little to no freeway speeds, mostly rather short suburban and country trips. 

The question is cost/quality/brand, probably in that order.

I've looked at Vogue, Corker, Douglas(Goodyear), Vercelli, Tornel, and a bunch of others. I know you get what you pay for (if you're lucky), but the customer reviews, warranties, and prices of the "economy" brands seem to satisfy my requirements for limited local transportation. Even with my regular daily driver I end up replacing good-looking tires with plenty of tread as they age out. I don't abuse the the car or tires and can't justify a higher price because of the name on the side wall or the tread design.

I'd like to ask anyone with experience with low-cost tires to either confirm or refute my premise. Please comment. Thank you.

 

P.S. My mind is made up - white walls and white walls only!

image.jpeg.377da7a9d26068a1ed40f8a73a2a586f.jpeg  

Confirm!!  

 

  Ben

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I love the thin white line tires. Very common in the 70's and nothing at all wrong with their use on your wildcat. Unless you are afraid to lose judging points I would not worry about buying a high priced tire just because. When I shod my 77 trans am a few years ago I was a bit naive as to a tire purchase. I went to the shop that did all of the tire work for our then fleet of trucks. Said I need a good set of 15" tires with the specified size. This was a large shop and he had exactly 4 tires that fit!!! Of course not wanting to wait and order something I had them installed. They are something generic with 'GT' written on them. I too dont drive my car as much as I want to but have probably put a couple of thousand miles on them with no problems. At the time they were about half the price of the 'name brands'.

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I'm going to take the dissenting opinion here. Price does not necessarily equate to quality. There are a lot of products in the world where paying more just means that you're wasting money. And let's be honest, does a car that is never driven in bad weather and that only sees a couple of thousand miles a year really need high dollar speed-rated tires? These expensive tires will likely age out long before the tread wears out.

 

8.45-15 tires were about 28.6" in diameter with an 8.45" section width. That's right between 225/75-15 and 235/75-15. The 225's are the correct section width, the 235s are closer to the correct outside diameter but are harder to find in whitewall. I have 235/75-15 whitewall Hankooks on one of my Delta 88s. The price is very reasonable, but they have very poor wet traction. If you never drive in the rain, this may not be an issue for you.

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2 of my local tire stores had narrow whitewalls available for my ‘84 LeBaron convertible (185/75R14) a couple of years ago. They had Cooper Trendsetter and Uniroyal Tiger Paw AWP II. I picked the Uniroyals. About $80.00 per tire plus installation. No shipping charges as they came from their warehouse. Lower cost than the prices from the “vintage” tire dealers. 

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