1958 Cadillac rims and tires

[Chad Oolman]

I have two questions pertaining to my 1958 Cadillac Fleetwood Sixty Special.

First off, the original steel rims are painted red, including the spare.  Is this a factory paint or did someone paint them in the past?  If it's not factory, what color should they be?

Secondly, I want to switch to radial tires.  Does anyone have some suggestions or experience that are willing to share?  I hope to maintain the original "look" of the car with wide white walls.  What is the correct orignal WWW width?

[Jon S]

Red rims are repaints.  1958 rims were a grey/beige color across the board.  There are many Radial WW threads on this Board.  I believe the factory WW width was 2 1/4".

[Chad Oolman]

Thanks for your reply.  I was guessing the red was a repaint.

[Ron Paz]

Hi Chad,
Which tires did you put on eventually?
I have the same car, same model and use 235/75R15. Now need to change them and they are hard to find with WWW. I do have access to a nice set of 225/75R15 WWW Coker - do you or anyone can say if this slightly smaller tire has safetly issues? I learned that the speedometer will show about 10% higher speed than it should with the 235's, but other than that what's to consider?
Thanks
Ron

[Jon S]

Ron -

Coker still produces the B. F. Goodrich Silvertowns in 235 75R 15.  I have them on my car and they look fantastic!

[TJ Hopland]

Weight capacity wise there tends not to be a huge difference between the 225 and 235 in regular passenger car tires plus 235 was never a real common size in a 75 15.  As you likely noticed looking a 75 series tire is getting harder to find even if you don't care about a whitewall these days.  Most cars tended to have a 205-225 when the 75 15 was popular.   If you go to a LT (light truck) tire you can get a higher rating and the 235 is still fairly common but they don't have the look and ride you want for a Caddy.   In the 80's a lot of the conversion vans ran on 225 passenger car tires.   Those things weighed significantly more than cars.    I think if you do the math the original tires sizes don't quite come out to match the metric sizes.   Several of the old sizes come out to a 230 which was never an option so you have to go up or down slightly if you are going with a metric tire.   

[Jon S]

230 x 15 was indeed an option and they came standard on my 1973 Lincoln.  Still have the original Michelin X tires on that car.

As to 235 75 15, they are the most popular size tire Radial replacement on 1950's and 1960's Cadillacs and Lincolns.