Better Beaters - Building Cars and Daily Drivers

I'm looking for some new ( to me) used wheels for my 1951 Jaguar Mark VII.

A set of OEM steel rims from a 1960 Buick.
Even these old things aren't cheap anymore.

The Mark VII came equipped with steel wheels holding 6.70 x16 inch bias ply tube tires. At one time these were very scarce and owners would use whatever comparable truck tire was available and would fit. Now there are some very nice authentic radial tires available that retain the original look. These are pretty pricey and I wonder how performance would compare to a modern low profile radial.

I have priced a replacement bias ply tire from Blockley tires that were priced at 182.50 pounds British. This translates to 239.68 American dollars and doesn't include the price of the inner tube. I would estimate that a set would run well over a thousand dollars! That's not an expense that I can handle right now.

A handsome vintage replacement tire
that is suitable for vintage racing.

I have had a few old cars that I equipped with radials and found that handling was improved. This was on my 1956 Cadillac and on a couple of my mid Sixties Rivieras.

As it turns out the wheel lug pattern of the Mark VII is 5 on 5 inch. This is the same as a Cadillac or large Buick.  A 15 inch wheel from an American car was included with the Mark as a possible spare.

It fit the hub and drum and cleared the steering arms.

The idea is to replace the original wheels with a standard set of rims from a Buick that I found on sale on CL Even though the selection of tire options is somewhat limited, there are still plenty of brand new radial tires that will replace these early rollers.

I have contacted a seller on CL who wants 275.00 for a set with some roller tires on them. He describes them as being from a 1960 Buick Electra.

Thses wheels were designed to work with drum brakes and they will be narrower than a later set used on a post 1965 model. This is important to me because I need to use a tire narrow enough to fit under that large rear skirt.


According to the Standard Catalog of Buick, the 1959 through 1965 big Buick came equipped with either 7.60 or 8.00 x 15 inch tubeless tire. My guess is that both sizes of tire used the same rim size.


Checking the tire size interchange chart, these sizes translate to a modern metric size of 235/70R15.

Now, you are not going to punch this vehicle info into a tire locator table and find the right size tire on a manufacturer's website. Especially of a car of this year and model.

This is Hankook's bread and butter passenger car tire.

I looked first on the Hankook website and found only one series that had comparable 15 inch tires. There were no performance type tires available in that size. There isn't a lot of choice in the fifteen inch sizes. The only things that might fit are the Optimo H724 series.  I would have loved to use the DynaPro HT tires that are used on my truck but was out of luck. I am constantly impressed by the performance of those tires.

Kumho provides this standard sedan tire.

Kuhmo has a reputation as a builder of performance tires, but they also only offered up a single series. The Solus TA1. This series also offered up a few different sizing options. This seems to be a bread and butter tire that can be used on a wide range of vehicles. One suggested vehicle usage was the Lincoln Town Car! I think that if the tire can be used on a heavy, softly sprung, luxury car then it should be okay for the Mark.

I figure that either of these tires had to be head and shoulders above anything that was available in 1951. Even so, I confined my search to "T" rated tires. These are rated at 118 mph. S rating is 112 mph. While the Mark could never achieve these speeds,  the higher rated tire usually delivers better overall traction and handling.

It looks like I will have a few choices in tire replacements.

These Korean tire manufacturer's names carry a bit more prestige, than some of the better known manufacturers. And quite a bit more than those  unknown Chinese based manufacturers.

The wheels that are pictured at the head of the post are offered locally. They include a set of rollers, probably pretty old.

In an attempt at due diligence I contacted a Buick Riviera parts dealer located in Sacramento. They informed me that a bare wheel was priced at 50.00 per wheel. I was trying to get a comparative pricing level on this item.

Well those old roller tires are worth something to me. The existing tires on the Mark are very weathered. It's incredible that they inflated and hold air. I would hesitate to do anything more than roll the car up and down the driveway. Slowly.


Besides the wheel lug pattern the back spacing (wheel off set ) must also be kept in mind. There is a simple inexpensive template that can be easily used to determine the lug pattern.

Redline bolt pattern template.

Another consideration is the wheel backspacing (wheel offset). This is important because of clearance issues with tie rods, suspension arms, and fender clearance. All you need to check this is a ruler and a tape measure. Just lay the ruler or straight edge across the inner flange of the rim and measure down to the hub contact surface.

Wheels with the same width rim can vary greatly in offset. 

One other consideration can be the size of the center hub opening, Obviously, It has to be big enough. Often there is plenty of clearance and it's not a critical measurement. Sometimes the fit of the hub can be essential to locating the wheel on the hub. This is referred to as a "hub centric" wheel design.

The trend now is to keep a car as original as possible and the use of inauthentic wheels can be frowned upon. Anything else could be refereed to as a "resto mod." Updating the wheels and tires is probably the simplest way to improve handling and braking. Those old "muscle and Pony" cars came with terrible under sized bias ply tires. On my 1970 Mustang I upgraded the the narrow 14 inch wheels to a 15 X 7" wheel with radial tires.  A major improvement.

Now I'm waiting for the CL seller to contact me with more info. about the wheels, especially the size of the tires mounted on them. I need the info to make my purchasing decision. Of course he's dragging his feet at getting back to me. Somethings never change.