Who To Trust
 

Last year the wife was lookin at the car and said "We need more meat on the rears". So I went from Uniroyal 225/70R/15 to BF Goodrich 255/70R/15. Had em on for 2 days..........again, NOPE, more meat !! So I went with Primewell's (offshoot of Firestone) 275/60R/15. This kinda satisfied her (almost). We ended up with a vibration and had them rebalanced by the owner of the tire store. The vibration was gone for a while but came back. The owner (been doing tires for 45 years) re balanced all 4 of our tires for free. It ran kinda smooth but not 100% perfect.

This year, 2 weeks ago on the way out to Bakers show we were on the expressway doin around 70mph and the steering wheel started shaking pretty bad. Slowed down to 60 and it wasn't too bad.

Two days ago on Saturday I told the wife I was gonna take the wheels off and take them to Discount Tire which is only a 1/2 mile from the house and have them check the tires for balance, out of roundness or what ever. Guy looked at the tires and said they were 14 years old and were starting to get ply separations on both tires. We ended getting Goodyear Touring 215/70R/15. Took it for a ride and now its smooth as silk.

Now she's saying the tires look too small in the opening and maybe we need shorter springs (I just put HD springs on the front last year) and we still need bigger meat on the back. I told her that I would have to get wider Cragars (I have 15x7 on there) for the rear if we went any larger. She replied (almost blew me outa my shoes) I don't care, I want this car to look BAD ASSSS !!

What they look like.

I think it looks plenty BAD ASS .I like it .

Don't argue with the Mrs.. Tell her I said so !

14 year old tires?.....I would be having a talk with the guy that sold them.
That is downright dangerous

Actually the tires looked good, no dry rot, lots of tread, nothing bad until just lately. That day on the expressway was the first time this year we took it over 65mph. Glad we found the problem before we had a tire blow.

I had that happen to my 74 Monte, front left tire decided to have the tread come off on the expressway at 85mph. My inner fenderwell exploded, the tread was flappin all over, took off my wheel opening trim, bottom mldg on the fender and dented the fender real bad.

That's crazy if they actually were 14 years old, lucky nothing happened on the freeway. IMO think the car looks pretty sweet as it sits now, but you could have her look at several car so she could show you the look she likes and start from there to help you decide on a tire/wheel size.

Mrs Hayes is right.
Chevelle deserves at least 245 or 255 rear tires, on 8" wheels.

Stormer, it does have 275/60/15 on the rear now but they are on 7" rims. I will take a couple more pics closer up.

8" rims would be better, 7" is too narrow for a 275/60 tire. If you go any wider on the tires you may run into problems. Rubbing the fender or wheel well. You can always roll the fender lip, make sure you get the correct back set if you go with a wider wheel. You may not have a problem but I think 275 is widest tire that is pretty much guaranteed to fit.

215 on the front. I'm not a fan of skinny front tires, I know some people like them. I'm running 245/60/14s all the way around, stock rims, and they fill up the opening pretty good. My car is a big block though and I think the front my sit a little lower than yours. I also have a set 275/60/15s for the rear on 8" rims. Personally I wouldn't want anything bigger than that but that's just my preference.

We were at a show yesterday and sitting about 30' away facing the passenger side. We both were looking the car over and I said, ya know the stance right now doesn't look that bad. She said the rear looks ok with rear fender covering about 1 1/2" of the tire but the top of the front tire is about even with fender opening...........can we get it lower?? When we got home I ordered a set of Eibach 1 1/2" lowering springs from Summit and they will be here tomorrow.

Hank, with the 275/60R/15 on my 7" rim there isn't any side blow-out of the tire. I agree, anything wider will require a wider wheel. The 215/70R/15 on the front has about 7 1/8" tread width. Its a Goodyear Assurance Touring tire.

Ok, here it is with the Eibach 1 1/2" lowering springs in the front all settled in now. Still thinkin about wider Cragars and bigger tires on the rear.

I think it looks awesome. The stance is what I personally would consider perfect.

I really like your car in that soft yellow. The car looks nice with the Cragars with the 3 bar spinners. When I ran Cragars on my cars I had the same setup. I'm one for tucked tires too. After going into your profile and looking under "About Me" we have something in common also were both retired Toolmakers.

Well I ordered my 15x8 direct drill Cragars for the rear that should be here on Monday. I have a friend that wants my 7" Cragars that will give me what I paid for my new ones. That will put us both with 7's on the front and 8's on the rear.

His car (70 Chevelle) had 14" Cragars all the way around and he liked my 275/60's I had on the rear but nobody sells that size in 14" so he got them in 15" with 15x8 Cragar rims. So now he had 14" on the front and 15" on the rear. I told him I really liked the way the 275's looked on the wider rims, so he says, "if you get wider rims, I'll buy your 7's" and put them on the front so then I would have 15's all the way around....sounds like a deal to me. Will post another pic when I put them on.

Thanks hkalin, man we haven't talked in quite a while. Love the retired life.

That sounds like a win ,win situation .

It will make the look a lot better. Should get a few more thumbs up with that look.

Well John, so far the win, win situation hasn't panned out. At our last local show this year on Oct 29th he said he still hasn't talked to his wife yet. I told him, well you got my phone #. I didn't tell him I also put an ad on Craigslist.

Here is a pic from Oct 29th. with new rims on the rear. I'm maybe thinkin about 1 1/2" lowering springs for the rear..........we'll see.

BMR 2" lowering springs would be prefect..

Jacking them up like that might look cool but it screws with handling and over all feel...

The car is not jacked up at all. It has 2" lowering springs on the front and stock rears at the time pic was taken. Now it is 2" lowered all the way around and handles like a dream.

The car as it sits today.

Looks good.

Looks nice!!

I got a slow leak on my Camaro tire and I took it up to Belle Tire and they said the tires are 20 years old and by law they cant do anything to them older than 10 years so I get to order new tires for the front with no one has them in stock. The ones on my Chevelle have to be at least 15 years old so I get to think about getting them.

Ric, check with the jerk salesman that you bought that Camaro from. The tires should be covered under the warranty, shouldn't they?