Need advice on my ‘37 rims & tires
 

Greetings,

I own a ‘50 Tudor but need help choosing tire size for my newly acquired ‘37:

https://i.imgur.com/jC5nAYh.jpg

The current tires are 6.00 x 16. I believe the rims are original:

https://i.imgur.com/P9cl5Xx.jpg

I’ve searched the forum but couldn’t find what I’m looking for. A couple of questions:

1) Are the rims original?
2) What is the width of the rim?

By the way, I’m probably going to buy “bias ply look” radials from Coker

Thanks in advance.

Dan

Re: Need advice on my ‘37 rims & tires
 

6.00 - 16 are the proper size for the 85 hp vehicle.
If it is a 60 hp, then 5.50 - 16 are the size.
And yes, those are the correct rims and hubcaps.
Nice original looking Tudor Slant.

Re: Need advice on my ‘37 rims & tires
 

Thanks for the quick reply! Much appreciated!

PS - Always wanted a pre-war car. Prayed/wished/hoped for a 3-window coupe but realized they’re unicorns. Very happy with the slant back.

Re: Need advice on my ‘37 rims & tires
 

It's not so much that 3-windows are as rare as unicorns,,,,it's just that unicorns are more affordable than 3-windows! DD

Re: Need advice on my ‘37 rims & tires
 

The rims are 4" wide. Don't use tubeless radial tires, use tube type, buy the tubes from Coker. I am getting ready to purchase radial tube type tires from Coker for my '36 Ford 5 win.

Re: Need advice on my ‘37 rims & tires
 

Nice 37

Re: Need advice on my ‘37 rims & tires
 

Then on the other hand, these Stahl Excelsior TUBELESS radials run just fine on these stock 1940 and 1948 Ford 4" and 4-1/2" wide wheels which are mounted on Heard's '36 3-window coupe in Florida. Nary a problem, and they sure do handle nicely! DD

Re: Need advice on my ‘37 rims & tires
 

Thanks for your reply. I’m not familiar with the reason to run tubes; kindly explain the need. Thanks in advance!

Re: Need advice on my ‘37 rims & tires
 

There is a lot of "old wives' tales" justification used these days to qualify the supposed need for tubes. Too many guys are proving that that idea just doesn't hold water. I like to "butter" a small coating of JB Weld or other epoxy-type sealer over each of the rivet heads inside the drop portion of the wheel just to make sure there will be no leaks there. With clean, smooth inner beads, these wheels seal tubeless tires very well. Your 1937 16" X 4" wheels differ from the 16" X 4" and 16" X 4-1/2" wheels in my pictures ONLY by the centers which have different bolt patterns. The hoops are identical in design characteristics. DD

Re: Need advice on my ‘37 rims & tires
 

About the only car I have that doesn't have at least one slow leak is my '51 with stock wheels and tubeless Coker Classics. Make that two; I spent about three weeks last summer chasing down the last one on my Corvette. My truck and the family car? It's just easier to add air when they need it after what it took to track down and fix that last leak.:rolleyes:

Re: Need advice on my ‘37 rims & tires
 

Congratulations. The car looks great. I love the 1937 style.

Good luck down the road.

TonyM

Re: Need advice on my ‘37 rims & tires
 

Or buy some wider rims. For the high price of Cokers, you can buy wider rims and run regular steel belted radials. I am running F100 wheels (pre 67) 5" wheels with Cooper steel belted radials from Discount Tire at $97 a piece. P225X 75 X R15s are the same circumference as your 600 X 16s.

Re: Need advice on my ‘37 rims & tires
 

You will have to change the brake drums and brakes to run those modern rims.
Stick with the original rims and hubcaps--- the vehicle looks great the way it is and enjoy it.

Re: Need advice on my ‘37 rims & tires
 

Yep; I agree completely.

Re: Need advice on my ‘37 rims & tires
 

Me too. That is a nice looking, original looking car. Good find. The 37 Slantback is my personal favorite body style. To my eye, better then a coupe.

Re: Need advice on my ‘37 rims & tires
 

curios question whats the bolt pattern. Im still running crossplys on mine simply because i cant buy suitable tubeless rims in Australia that use the wide five pattern

Re: Need advice on my ‘37 rims & tires
 

Thanks. I really wanted a 3-window but I got lucky finding this clean and original slant back.

Thanks! My plan is to keep it stock and just enjoy it.

Thank you!

Thanks!

That’s a nice big and little set-up!

Re: Need advice on my ‘37 rims & tires
 

That’s a valuable tip regarding JB Weld. Thanks!

Re: Need advice on my ‘37 rims & tires
 

The wheels on my '36 Ford 5 win are original '36 Ford wheels, they have been on the car since 1961-62. We took them off of my brothers unmolested '36, he wanted 15" wheels and '47-48 dog dish hub caps, which is what I had on my '36, we traded. I upgraded my drums to '38-39, used my brothers '36 caps.
My '36 has had bias ply tires on it since '61-62. Drove the '36 for about 30k, then in '85 I put new bias ply 3.5' white walls on it. Since 1985 I have not driven the car 5,k., it mainly sits in the garage on axle stands.
I am in the process of freshening the '36 up, going through all of the mechanicals, ergo the new tires. I gave my set of 600x16 bias ply tires to me brother for him to use on his '37 4dr sdn, a very nice car that most people think is stock, however, it is not. it is a 40+ year old restoration.
Ok, now to my comment about tubes in the radial tires. When I had my business we had several trucks, from 1/2 ton to 18 wheeler's. In the mid '70's I switched all of my vehicles to radial tires which cut our tire problems to near zero and doubled the tire life. Several of the 1/2-3/4 ton vehicles had tubeless tires because Ford started using tubeless tires on the F100 in '58, however the F250-350 trucks all had tube type tires, some of which were split rims.
we had trouble with the tubes in radial tires because at the time the tubes were not made for radial tires, the tubes failed which caused a tire failure. Solution, new tubeless type wheels, problem solved.
If the wheels on my '36 were welded in lieu of riveted, I would use tubeless tires w/out tubes.
I have had the wheels for my '36 powder coated satin black. The paint on the wheels was very good, especially on the inside which had never been exposed to the weather or road salts. I know that there are some people which feel that powder coating wheels is not a good idea, their thinking being that the tire will slip on the rim, which is non-sense.
I have P215/65R15 tubeless radials on my '39 Plym conv cpe. The wheels are 15x7, had to have them special built because I wanted 7" rims, with 4.25" back set, with centers that would accept the stock 10" dog dish Plym hubcaps.

Re: Need advice on my ‘37 rims & tires
 

What he says.