Tires Tires,

[Dads 64 Valiant]

Hello, I just got back to Toronto to work on the 64 Valiant , it has original factory steel rims and pristine hub caps, the tires are sears radials approx.40 years old, look great no miles on them but I'm sure hard as a rock, they only have two numbers on them 175-13, no aspect ratio, Before I run out and buy new tires , I was wondering if any of you have any suggestions, like a size change etc.
Thank You

 

[Dana67Dart]

My sister had my mom's 65 mustang with 13" wheels

13" are few and far between but still to be had.

14" are a bit long on the tooth but more options.

15" are still readily available

 

[toolmanmike]

My sister had my mom's 65 mustang with 13" wheels

13" are few and far between but still to be had.

14" are a bit long on the tooth but more options.

15" are still readily available

And early A's look great with 15's. Just sayin'

 

[RustyRatRod]

I put 185 70 13s on my 64 and I like um a lot.

 

[33IMP]

I'm gonna assume you wanna keep the 13" wheels, and the 5 on 4" pattern (personally , I would move to 15s, but wheel selection is almost non-existent)
Go to TIRESIZE.com and hunt up the tire size calculator chart for 13"wheels. It will tell you every size 13 available give dimensions and height, if you want to go bigger/taller.. (ranked by height 21,22,23,24 inches tall.)
If you can use a 24" tall tire, I'd go a 175 or 185 80 13. If that's too tall, a 185 70 13 is an inch shorter.
Any size you want, Walmart can get.

 

[Cuda Mike]

I like these in 13 inch...

 

[D/Dart man]

Make sure you are not looking at trailer tires. That is most of the 13" tires sold today. Look carefully at descriptions.

 

[D/Dart man]

I too am staying with the 13" wheels on my 1964 Dart V8. It is very frustrating to find the right size tires for this car but after many days of searching and finding dead ends I finally found the tires that are as correct as you can find and aren't trailer tires.

The challenge is not what is an equivalent tire size from a conversion chart but rather what tires are still made and sold right now! That is the challenge.

There were two sizes originally for these early A bodies:
6.50-13 (23.4" dia.) for 6 cylinder cars
7.00-13 (24.7" dia.) for V8 cars

The 3 sizes you can still find are:
185/70-13 (23.2" dia.) Closest to 6.50-13
175/80-13 (24" dia.) In-between 6.50 and 7.00-13
185/80-13 (24.7" dia.) Same as 7.00-13

My choice was between 175/80 and 185/80 for my v8 car (and these sizes are white walls!).
175/80-13 is $300/set
185/80-13 is $790/set

I went with the 175/80-13 at $300/set since the size splits the difference between 6.50-13 and 7.00-13 (sort of 6.75-13).
I just couldn't justify $790/set for only a little size difference.

Here are those tires compared to 1964 ad: