Re: Tire suggestion needed for 1938/1604

Posted by su8overdrive On 2012/9/23 3:21:42

Bridgestone and Yokohama offer the vast advantages of steel belt radials in bias-ply-sized 7.50/16 LT blackwalls if you want an understated, serious, road car. So you get the best of both world; the proper vintage dimensions with the handling and other improvements of radials. If you want whitewalls, Diamondback vulcanizes these on 7.50/16-sized Yokohama LT radials, as they do on 7.00/15 LT Yokohama radials for those with 1941-on Packards.
The specs for the Bridgestone and Yokohama are identical in both of the above sizes. I selected Bridgestone merely as a
veteran gearhead friend swore by them, and i liked the more Yank-sounding name, in case some nosy parker crouched down to look for the brand name. The irony is that Bridgestone is now part of a Japanese corporation, Yokohama now a Canadian firm.

Should you go this route and not buy them whitewalled by Diamondback, you can always take a die grinder to the raised black letters.

But if matching or approximating the precise tread/style pattern you picture is paramount, the above's moot. The tire you show in the third photo above is a Denman, as that simple tread pattern is Denman's alone. Denman still offered a wide whitewall 7.50/16 bias ply, but curiously, stopped producing the 7.00/15 used on so many 1941-up cars.
Though Denman declared bankruptcy March, 2010, one of the major vintage/Classic car dealers might well have some 7.50/16s still in stock. Denman was founded in 1919. I ran Denmans on my Packards decades ago, got good service, as bias plies go. It was also nice having tires made in the US by a company in Packard's hometown, Warren, Ohio.