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I now need to get tires for my 54 Cavalier as the driver's front went to the ground this morning on the way to work.

I thought I would ask (knowing others have recently asked) what is the best choice for radials that have a good fat whitewall.

Then do I ship these tires to my home and find some shylock to mount them.

I was getting inside wear on the drivers side and some outside wear on both fronts. The tires I was running were old bias ply and worn when I mounted them about 3500 miles ago.

King-pins are a little loose, tie-rod ends were nice and tight last time I looked.

I always appreciate the help from the experts.

Jim

I was getting inside wear on the drivers side and some outside wear on both fronts.

Sounds like you've got some significant front end alignment issues as well; for the sake of your new tires have a good front end alignment done after you take care of the king pins.

The specs say the original tire size was 800 X 15.

I think the replacement size should be 235 75R15.

Can someone confirm?

I don't recall The tires on the car but I believe they are a slightly bigger size and were a real PITA to get on the rear.

Going to order tires and have a local shop (friend of old cars) mount tires, replace king pins and wheel alignment.

I'm too busy to do this my self (too old and creaky).

And who makes good tires these days?

Jim

You may want to consider either the most expensive tires on the market or the cheapest.

Let me explain. You can get correct reproduction bias ply wide whitewall tires but they are expensive.

Or you can get modern radials which are too fat. But the cheap brands are narrower than the expensive brands by over 2". The cheap tires are actually closer to the appearance and size of the originals.

The cheapest radials today are better than the best tires of 1954. Except they will dry out and crack in 5 years or less.

Rusty

When you say wider I assume you refer to the tire width, not the whitewall.

The tires on the car are so wide that I have to let the rear wheels fall below the top of the opening with the skirt removed and they are difficult to get on and off in the driveway.

As I am not doing car shows, I could live with a little narrower whitewall and I believe what is on the car is wider than original.

There was a thread going here that I lost track of, but are there any preferred brands? I assume I would have to ship tires to whoever I want to mount them. Regular retail won't supply the original looking whitewall, I assume.

Jim

I was running 4 tires labeled Broadway Grand Prix - Polyester Cord - 4 ply L78 15. I got these used for cheap with a good amount of tread remaining (wide whitewall).

These are tubeless tires. I understand Packard introduced tubeless tires.

The left front took a slow blowout due to inside tread wear which I knew was happening but not aware how close to the air it was.

I put on the spare which is a "Commander" Polyester Cord - 4 ply L78 15 which was essentially brand new.

I assume these are bias ply tires and they are old and the spare was mounted in the mid 1990's.

There are a lot of pros and cons about running radials on 50's cars along with using different size tires along with the width of the whitewall. Apparently an 800 15 tire is not the same size it used to was and I have to translate.

Now I need to replace four tires (maybe five) that I probably can't look at before I spend money.

The Packard service manual shows tires to be 800 15 for the original size.

The tires I had on the car had the following annoyances: the car tended to follow ruts in the pavement with a bit of a wander, especially as the tread became worn down. The cornering was sluggish and heavy. The ride was a tad rough when the tires were inflated to 27psi, but not too bad at 24 psi. The tires I removed from the car when I bought it several years and about 3500 miles ago had both inside and outside tread wear with little tread remaining. These tires had gone about 15000 miles and were the same brand as the spare.

I realize an alignment is needed and I have the parts on hand to do the kingpins. Planning to check the entire steering at this time before I drive farther than around the block.

So now I am looking to know what has worked best for the group including brand names. I drive, I don't show.

Jim

"There are a lot of pros and cons about running radials on 50's cars"
Really only 2 cons: Standard radials are not usually speed rated, I suspect you are not worried about this....
A radial does not "look" like an original tire.
Pros include longer tread life & decreased rolling resistance among many.
Any freshly made repro bias tire will ride better than your old, hard tires. Belted Bias tires changed the world & are a great update if available in your size.
Radials seldom match the OEM dimensions exactly but if they fit, are a light year forward, kinda like Halogen lights. You could read for days on the subject.There has been some concern about radials mounted on wheels engineered for Bias tires but unless you are going to the proving grounds for a 24K mile test....
Bottom line, if you don't like your new tires, they usually sell quickly on Craig's list.

No firm suggestions, just a few comments.

The Letter-series tires are generally a poor choice for cars prior to the 70s yet they were often used because they could be had in 2nd or 3rd line tires from the likes of Pep Boys for very low prices - but the prices were commensurate with the quality of the tire. Even from first-line tire brands their profile wasn't well-suited to older cars. Your brands of Commander and Broadway strike me as such off-brands.

Yes, radials do often offer some advantages in road-handling though not particularly in earlier pre-war cars. To me the major trade-off, assuming authenticity isn't an issue, between equal quality bias and radial construction is carcass life if the car is driven relatively few miles per year (e.g. 1000 or so) and doesn't have a major component of it's driving as very high freeway speeds. Good top-line bias ply tires, assuming they aren't driven enough to wear out the tread, can still be serviceable after 20 years or so. Not so generally with radials and especially the non-premium brands which should probably be discarded after 5-8 years regardless of tread wear. Doing some math on your part on the # of miles you expect to drive each year might put this in better perspective.

Another factor to keep in mind is that many vintage car tires are not manufactured by the name that might appear on the tire. For example those really nice 700x16s with the Firestone name in the whitewall are not made by Firestone any more than those nifty Lee blackwalls are made by Lee. Finding our who the true maker is can be challenging unless you look up the tire plant code molded into the tire.