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White walls?

5K views 27 replies 13 participants last post by  MadMikeyL 
#1 ·
I need some new tyres on my car and am having trouble finding anywhere listing anything suitable in a 15" tyre. Apparently the only vehicles that take 15" tyres over here in the UK are either vans, or SUV's :rolleyes:

I've found a company that specialises in tyres for American vehicles that do list something the right size, but its got a white wall. They said I can obviously fit the white wall on the inside of the car, but I wondered whether anyone has ever fitted a white wall tyre to a T-bird, or if it'll just look stupid. Tried searching, but can't find any pictures.
 
#2 ·
I'd just have the white part turned to the inside of the vehicle so it's not seen. I've seen whitewalls occasionally over here on some newer cars (80s-90s) and it just doesn't look right regardless of the vehicle, IMO. The only cars it works on are the period vehicles (mid 30s through mid 60s), and even then only when done with the right chassis/color combo.
 
#3 ·
Yes, I think I tend to agree. Maybe there's a reason why there aren't any pictures around of our cars with them on!
 
#4 ·
Oh, I have seen pics of T-Birds with whitewalls. I am trying to forget them.

When whitewalls went out of style, they went WAY out of style. But it's hard to convince some people of that.

They looked good back in the 70's and 80's. I truly believe they are the reason SOS pads were invented. :wink2:

Al
 
#5 ·
I personally like the look of white letter tires on my car.
 

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#7 · (Edited)
Minor peeve, whitewall =/= white lines. White walls are what you see on 50s cars and rat rods, where the majority of the sidewall is white, where only the tread is black. White lines are more a white accent stripe in an otherwise black sidewall (like red lines on late 60s muscle cars, which look awesome). Any 60s-90s car with so-called whitewalls are actually white lines. I know I know, this is like shock vs. strut, I'm right about those too :tongue:

White lines look fitting on the 89-90 base/LXs with the chrome/black moldings and chrome trim around the windows, and especially with the optional wire wheel covers, in fact they were factory installed in those combinations (see attachment, from the 1989 brochure). Once the exterior trim went monotone by 92/93(which most on this forum now have Tbirds newer than) those tires look out of place.

Personally though, black sidewalks on 15" wheels look bleak as hell to me. American car design went hell bent on appeasing the europhile yuppies, and decorative tires - both white line and raised white letter - went by the wayside, and cars have been more boring to look at ever since. I think for most buyers who don't care about performance, but still buy the larger wheel option on new cars, do so because the larger diameter effectively mimics what white line/whitewall tires used to do.
 

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#8 ·
Interesting. I never knew the 89-90 cars had those as an option.

These are the tyres I'm looking at - white wall/stripe width just under 1":
205/70SR14 Galaxy R1 24mm Whitewall

I would have much more of a choices if I bought some in the US and had them shipped over, but the shipping would be the killer, unfortunately - like for everything else I'd like to buy.
 
#9 ·
I'm running these on one car:

225-70-15 B.F.Goodrich Tyre

There's a few sidewall height selections; but if you change diameter, you need to change the Speedo gear in the tranny to match.
1 toothe is about 5mph +or -.

If Summit Racing ships to the UK, I'd look into it; how much is 156 pounds nowadays? :surprise:
 
#10 ·
+1 on the BFGs, my dad's 76 Trans Am has those and he hasn't ever complained about them. Way pricier to be sure, but they've got a good reputation whereas the others you mentioned, I've never heard of. Not sure if they're better known on your side of the pond though. :)

http://www.northhantstyres.com/main...l-tyres/215-70-15-b-f-goodrich-radial-ta.html was also a factory size. If you're not into the white lettering they can be turned inside too, like the whitewalls.
 
#11 ·
That's good to know, I didn't realise that Northants did the BFG's too. I guess I was focused on the prices, which seem to vary enormously once they're classified as "specialist" sizes.
 
#12 ·
I've found that the g-force sports are the tires I like the best, but you need at least 16" wheels.

:frown2:
 
#15 ·
I didn't know that Focus wheels fit T-birds, that would make it very easy as there are millions of those over here. Not sure what it would look like though. I'll have to pay more attention to Focuses.
 
#17 ·
I didn't either; I'll have to look more too. :)

The white bird is my buddies, the silver coug is another on the site.
Looks good!

Here's what I found:


Looking over the web, they're very similar.

We had two options, and And I'm not sure Anyone Has Successfully fit 21x8.5" wheels on our cars.
I would really hate the turning radius, lol.

Here are the sizes:

Tbird: (This fits a Tbird STOCK.)
205/70-15
OEM tires: (669x205mm). Bolt pattern: 5x108 (5x4.25). Offset: 34 to 45 mm. Tires up to 689x245mm (front). Rims up to 21x8.5" (front).

225/60-16
OEM tires: (676x225mm). Bolt pattern: 5x108 (5x4.25). Offset: 34 to 45 mm. Tires up to 696x245mm (front). Rims up to 21x8.5" (front).


I'm running 225/60-15, 235/60-15, 225/60-16's, all stock wheels.

Jaguar wheels fit ours too. :)

The Focus wheels look like a good swap.

These are narrower than our tires stock, but that's a lighter car, so wtf.
Big tires fit, lol

Focus: (This fits a Focus)

195/65-15
OEM tires: (635x195mm). Big Brakes. Bolt pattern: 5x108 (5x4.25). Offset: 40 to 45 mm. Tires up to 655x235mm. Rims up to 19x8.0".


215/55-16
OEM tires: (642x215mm). Big Brakes. Bolt pattern: 5x108 (5x4.25). Offset: 40 to 45 mm. Tires up to 662x235mm. Rims up to 20x8.0".


215/50-17
OEM tires: (648x215mm). Big Brakes. Bolt pattern: 5x108 (5x4.25). Offset: 40 to 45 mm. Tires up to 668x235mm. Rims up to 20x8.0".


235/40-18
OEM tires: (645x235mm). Big Brakes. Bolt pattern: 5x108 (5x4.25). Offset: 40 to 45 mm. Tires up to 655x235mm. Rims up to 19x8.0".

235/35-19
OEM tires: (647x235mm). Big Brakes. Bolt pattern: 5x108 (5x4.25). Offset: 40 to 45 mm. Tires up to 667x235mm. Rims up to 20x8.0".


So, this looks like a broader availability of wheels, anyway. :grin2:
 
#18 ·
I'd really rather keep the stock size wheel on my car, but at least if it becomes ridiculously difficult or expensive to get them (over here anyway) at least there's a feasible alternative. Thanks for the info!

I've currently got 225/60/15's on my car, and I find it really annoying that for a given speed, the engine is running more rpm, and the speedo's about 5mph fast. I was intending on returning it to a more stock size.

I only ended up with this size as last time when I turned up for the tyre place to buy new ones, I was unaware that they'd stopped selling the usual size. I didn't have a list of acceptable alternatives with me, and took the recommendation of the guy in the shop, so I was hoping to be a bit more prepared this time!
 
#19 ·
Changing the gear in the side of the transmission fixes the speedo; the gear is ~$2, last one I bought.

Here an easy way to figure out which gear:http://www.sccoa.com/faq/speedgr.html

The smaller tires up the acceleration nicely. :)
 
#20 ·
I am running Cooper Cobra tires on my Cougar. P235-60-15 up front, P295-50-15 in the rear. They are really close to the factory diameter. I'm not sure if they are avaliable in your neck of the woods though.
 
#24 ·
I just checked for 235/60/15 and found some General Grabbers locally that are fairly good prices. The 295's sound a bit wide to me!

What do people think of General Grabbers?

BTW vat is a sales tax, and adds an additional 20%.
 
#21 ·
Looking at pricing, it looks like everything there is our price, plus $60, plus VAT, Whatever that is. :)

If you go by the rotations per mile, you can gauge tires VS tranny gear availability for the speedo.

IIRC, 205/55-15 was out of range, lol.

And they look funny. :)
 
#25 ·
Yeah I know, I was just thinking of the price and getting the speedo right without any additional work. :smile2:
 
#23 ·
That link threw me to a page that showed tire chains, lol.
 
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#27 ·
Thanks, I hadn't heard of that site before.
 
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