The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Driveline Will old steel wheels (40's) accept tubeless radials

I gathered a pile of original steel wheels for the 1940 half ton so I could pick the better of them to get back to original look. I had them blasted and powder coated and they look pretty good. They still have some of the pitting you will find on the inside, but I feel the bead seating area looks good on all of them. The exposed area that the hub caps won't cover looks really good. I now am in need of new tires and I am wondering if I should be buying bias ply with tubes or can I go with tubeless radials? Or is there a need to use a tube with a radial on these old rims?

Tubeless radials will be just fine. They'll handle better and won't leak or go flat like tube tires.

My '39 Packard has it's original 4" wide rims with modern LT radial tires, 225/85 R16.

If you're worried about leaks, paint the inside of the wheels with Flex Seal. It works. A friend of mine restored a set of Cadillac Sabre wheels that are riveted together. He was experiencing a slow leak in one of them and coated the insides of all of them. No slow leaks since.

If you want blackwall tires, find some with a sidewall and tread design you like. If you want wide whitewall tires, I'd suggest Diamondback tires over Coker tires. Cokers don't have a good reputation in the collector car community especially among those who put many miles on their vehicles. My personal experience and that of friends bears this out.

www.dbtires.com

To add to this then - is 6.00x16 the correct tire size and is Coker the site of choice to purchase them. I am unaware of another place to buy vintage tires.

I've had Cokers in the past and they were the absolute worst tire I have ever had on any vehicle I have ever owned. I'm not alone in this experience.

If you want whitewalls, go with Diamondback. If you want blackwalls, you can find light truck tires in that size. 225x85R16 is pretty close to the original bias ply size.

www.dbtires.com

Another option on tires is Simpletire.com. I bought 6.50-16 tires from them for my truck.

Thanks for the input folks. I was not aware of Diamond Back or Simple Tire. Nor was I aware of issues with Coker. Based on what I see on DB's site, I believe they should be manufacturing a better tire. I didn't find much for options on Simple Tire. Not that it would be a bad tread design, I just like the way DB tries to mimic the look of the old tire.

I've had Diamondbacks on my Cadillac for 10 years (after a belt separated on a Coker Classic in under 10k miles). The Packard has them and I've had them installed on a '56 Fleetwood and a '58 Coupe de Ville.

They're the best tires I've ever had on The Bismarck. These tires were made by Diamondback prior to their new Auburn design that has a sidewall around the tread that more closely resembles bias ply tires.

Of course, these are all wide white wall tires. If you want blackwalls, light truck tires from just about anywhere will be a whole lot cheaper.

I replaced my bias white walls (with tubes) & original rims, I asked questions here also and read the concerns. But after reading both sites and the description on these Roadsters, I still bought from Coker. Diamondbacks were on back order when I called them. They are bias looking radials. these are not the Coker classics they are a newer version from them called Excelsior Roadsters. I am very happy with the improved drivability albeit I only put about 500 miles on them so far. I didn’t do anything to the rims when I went tubeless. I actually got a best wheel/tire award at a show. Who da thunk, lol.

WOW those vehicles are sure beautiful. I have another question now. I see Rick has wide WW's on his pickup. Did the pickups in the 40's come with a wide WW or were they always black? I ask because I was thinking I should go the way it was when my dad used it for a construction rig, black, but if they came with the wide WW I do like that a lot. Even if it was a narrower WW I think it dresses it up, but I am not doing a full restoration so I don't want it to look like I bought new shoes for church but forgot to change out of my work clothes. All opinions are appreciated here.

I don't think there was a box to check on the option list for whitewall tires but a dealer certainly would have sold them if requested. I doubt any farmer or tradesman would ever have spent the extra money on wide whitewall tires for a work truck. The same is true for pickup beds finished out like a fine piece of furniture rather than correctly being painted black.

I've never seen a period photograph of a pickup truck with whitewall tires.

It's a nostalgia thing where people think they had whitewalls or that they should have had whitewalls, so many people install them on their trucks today with the notion that that's what they looked like in the old days. Model A Fords were never offered with whitewall tires, either and dealers were forbidden by Ford from even installing them, yet virtually every Model A you see today is equipped with wide whitewalls. They're restored the way people think they used to look rather than how they actually looked.

Otto - thank you for that input. What you say makes a lot of sense and is what I believed myself. I can't say I made a definite choice yet, but this makes me feel whatever the choice it is not wrong. It is just my choice.