Rims, Tire sizes, Whitewalls, etc.

Carmine

Old Man with a Hat
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I want to show some of what I've done, and share some ideas. First on my '73 Imperial, these are the 235/75 Kumo's that everybody buys now.
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Obviously they did not come with the outer stripe. I added it using this technique:

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...which I call 4-jackstands, high idle and sandpaper. I'm wearing safety glasses, so it's all good. If you want the width of a sixty-series and the dignified look of a whitewall, you can also turn any white letter tire into a whitewall. That's how these tires were created on my '68.

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I used "portawalls" to get WW on my '51. They fell apart. However, I think that may have been more about the quality and age of the rubber than the design concept. If someone could tool these up from a soft, flexible plastic, they would be great.

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Which brings me to these rims... Anyone know about them? I love the idea of getting modern technology tire benefits (and better prices)* with old-school looks. The problem is I really don't want 20s... I'd like 17s because you need SOME amount of sidewall. The beautiful part is that you can use your stock 15" hubcaps.

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Which makes me think somebody should just come out with a "hubcap extender" that goes on a 17" rim like a trim ring, then your 15 or 14" hubcap snaps into it. Believe it or not, such a thing did exist from Chrysler. I wish I had a photo of it... It was used on 70s trucks with 16.5" rims and allowed them to run the 15" wheel covers that looked like this:

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*I want to mention that I'm not into resto-modding crap like giga-watt radios that look old, or adding fuel injection because I can't tune a carb. However, I consider tires to be an easily reversible mod, and tires are really the only contact you have with mother earth. The difference is so night/day that it ain't funny.
 
I've got a set of the "shrinkers" to run 15 in caps on a 16 in rim, would love to find a set to run 14 in caps on a 15 in wheel.
 
Okay, got a couple shots for you.

Thanks. Very interesting... I can't imagine it would work very well with a heavy hubcap (like a '69 Imperial) but it would probably be fine with a '70. To go from 15" to 17", I'm sure the valve stem would need to come through the adapter.
 
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