1971 Super Bee Wheel and Tire Dilemma

[64fury74charger]

I don’t want my car sitting as high up off the ground as yours is. Currently mine is sitting about a half inch lower to the ground than stock. I am looking just to bring it up to approximately stock ride height which means running a tire that is 26.4 to 27 inches diameter. My current tires are 25.5 inches.

I can’t see how you could possibly be getting full lock to lock turning out of your steering box with those 15x8 wheels and 255/70 tires on the front. Your tires have to be hitting your frame rails before the steering box reaches full travel.

My current 14x6 with 245/60/14 hit the frame rails up front.

The front tires are close at full lock but not touching. That’s part of the reason for 70 series not 60 . The ride height on my cars is where I prefer it and the car’s handle and brake really good for my wife and I.
The Charger was even higher in the front with the 318 in it. Each of us has an opinion or preference on how they want their car to look and feel on the road and that’s part of the fun.

 

[fc7_plumcrazy]

The Firestone Wide Oval radials look more like a bias ply tire than the lone FR70 Polyglas radial does. Cooper Cobra and BFGoodrich were never available originally on the cars either.

I have to say I’d rather have a tire that looks kind of like OEM except it has the wrong brand name on the side wall, than a tire that looks absolutely nothing like OEM and has the wrong brand name on it. I’m talking radial tire here..

The available tire selection for these cars today is the worst it’s ever been in the past 40 years. If you want to have a resto mod car with a totally modified suspension with Hellcat wheels, I guess you’re selection is wonderful. If you have a factory muscle car with matching drivetrain and you want stock diameter wheels it’s lousy as in crapola.

When old man Kelsey dies I won’t be surprised if reproduction Goodyear Polyglas production ends. Then you’ll have these cars at auctions with 30 and 40-year-old reproduction Polyglas tires on them. The cars will probably be illegal to drive on public roads by then, so I guess it won’t matter much.

Maybe in the future there will be Polysnake oil that you can rub into your ancient tires to keep the rubber from hardening and drying out. In 30 years from now, your Polysnake oil treated old Polyglas reproduction tires will be worth $30K for a set of four to the serious Mopar collector.

I hear you and know what you mean.

Driving a Cooper or BFG is of course not original. But everyone knows.
Driving a radial Firestone bias ply lookalike feels to me like: major detail mistake

I agree the radial Polyglas tire looks shitty and not like a bias ply.

I would choose the original type Polyglas bias ply reproduction.

You live in the heat the chance of getting caught in the rain is slim.
You wrote you only want to drive a few hundred miles a year.
Try it and give it the back in the day look.


Carsten

 

[gtx6970]

A buddy of mines 71.
G60-15s all the way around.

 

[gtx6970]

again

 

[Under Pressure]

Clearly Carsten I understand you have your opinions on Firestone, other tire brands, but about making a “detail mistake”, I do not share your your point of view, the collector car world is full of originals, Resto-mods, Rat Rods, and what tires gets put on these is pure owner preference.
Bill

 

[MoparGuy68]

I would not put Firestone tires on my lawnmower, let alone any vehicle I owned. Just my opinion after a tire fire many years ago in 1977! Yes 1977....

I guess maybe there is a reason why the word Fire is in the name. Question is would a Coke reproduction Firestone tire be made in the exact same manner as your fire tire was made over 43 years ago?

 

[MoparGuy68]

A buddy of mines 71.
G60-15s all the way around.

View attachment 1070245

I’d like to have 15x7 Rallye wheels on my car if I could find a decent set. I could get US Wheel reproductions now, but I’m not gonna buy wheels made in China, the same country that has caused the other repro made in US Rallye to be unavailable.

 

[MoparGuy68]

Last weekend I had the rear Rallye wheels off my car for the first time and found additional damage on the inside of my passenger rear wheel. You can see the waviness/denting around the inner lip of the rim. This wheel also has 3 damaged center holes looking like somebody bent them with a pry bar. There is break fluid on the inside probably from a leaky wheel cylinder too, which I need to replace.

 

[MoparGuy68]

Due to finding this additional damage, I decided to go revisit a junkyard I was at this past July. I had remembered seeing a car there with two Rallye wheels on it in the yard.

I found the car, it was a 73 Charger. The wheels turned out to be 1973 vintage 14x5.5. Two on the rear of the car with destroyed 245/60/14 tires on them. One of these wheels has a small dent on the inside outer edge of the rim, but I don’t think it will affect the tire bead seal.

After buying these two wheels and loading them up in the trunk of the car, I decided to go back in the yard to search for any more Rallye wheels. This time thoroughly scanning through the A Body section, as I had only been in the B Body / E Body section. I found a single 14x6 wheel, With the same part number as the four existing wheels on my car, 3580068. I bought this wheel too.

So I brought home the following:
2 - 14x5.5 dated 1/5/1973
1 - 14x6 dated 10/23/1972

The four wheels currently on my car are 14x6 dated 11/5/1972. The lone 14x6 that I bought today, was manufactured 13 days before the ones currently on my car, at the same plant. Is that kind of crazy or what?

The two 5.5 were made a month after those on my car, again at the same plant M1.

This is what happens when you are fixated on Rallye wheels, can’t obtain 15” repro, and have 21 year old tires that need replacing and pry bar damage on what you have.. Now I have a total of seven 14” Rallye wheels!

 

[MoparGuy68]

Here is the dent on the inside edge on one of the 5.5. Have you guys ever fixed a small dent like this?

I had called a shop that advertised they did wheel repair last week and they told me they only fix dents on aluminum/alloy wheels, not steel wheels. Their response to me telling them I had a dent on my steel wheel was to replace it with another wheel..

The 6” has a strange gouge at one small spot on the inside edge. I’m wondering if this was some sort of a sloppy weld, when they assembled the hoop at the factory. It looks like something I could file or Dremel down.

All 10 of the center holes are undamaged on each of these three wheels I bought today. One of the reasons why I chose to get them.

I need to decide whether I want to run all 14x6, or run 14x5.5 on front with 14x6 on rear.

I can’t wait 3 or 4+ months for good repro 15 x 7 (with trim rings) so I have to do something now, at least temporarily. Got to get those 21 year old tires off the car.

 

[64fury74charger]

Just my experience and others maybe, dents in a steel wheel “generally speaking “ are going to cause balancing issues with the wheel. I still really like the magnum 500 wheel but too much imitation for me. Again this is just my opinion and that’s all.

 

[MoparGuy68]

Just my experience and others maybe, dents in a steel wheel “generally speaking “ are going to cause balancing issues with the wheel.

I did notice that the 5.5 wheel, with the small sharp dent in it, has more balancing weight on it than the other two wheels. I knew getting these wheels would be a gamble, but I’m kind of desperate to temporarily solve my Rallye wheel problem.

I inquired about buying some vintage “390” 15 x 7 Rallye wheels. They had some dents in them also. The asking price was 8 times as expensive (per wheel) as what I paid for these 14” wheels at the junkyard. These wheels were like “free” in comparison.

i’ve read articles on the Internet that claim you can straighten small dents by heating the steel with a torch and manipulating it.

 

[69 Sleeper Bee]

I agree that there is a lot of wheel well to fill. I recently installed 15x8 Steelies all around. 275 in rear and 245 in front. These aren’t the best pics, but all I have on my phone at this time.

View attachment 1048558 View attachment 1048559

I have always loved that NASCAR look !
Nice Ride !!

 

[MoparGuy68]

I made one last inquiry on 15x7 repro Rallye with both Coker and Wheel Vintiques. Same old story, they don't know when they'll have them and back orders will need to be filled first. No 15" polished or brushed trim rings either. I even contacted a local Cragar reseller about direct fit S/S 15x7 and 15x8. Was told they could not get either of those sizes until at least 2 to 3 months from now.. So, looks like I'm staying with 14" Rallye for a while..

I've decided to use the one 14x6 junkyard Rallye to replace my most damaged wheel that is currently on the car. So I will stay with 14x6 all around.

I'm now trying to decide between 225/70/14 Milestar Streetsteel and Cooper Cobra..

Specs are a little different. I wonder if Streetsteel really is the larger diameter of the two?
Streetsteel section width = 9.1", overall diameter = 26.5"
Cobra section width = 8.9", overall diameter = 26.26"
Both tires were measured while mounted on a 6.5" wide wheel according to the two manufacturers. I suppose inflation pressure can cause variances in measurements. If the Streetsteel truly is the larger diameter I'd be inclined to go with that.

My biggest dislikes about these tires are the word COBRA (and the font they are now using) and the race flag pattern on the Streetsteel sidewall. Streetsteel has an OEM bias ply vibe/look going on, when looking at photos of cars running them. Cobra looks like a modern radial.

I've even considered Hercules H/P 4000 (don't know where they are made, they cost almost as much as BF Radial T/A and their white lettering is really in your face BOLD).. Checked Vitour Galaxy R1 (made in CHINA and cheapest tire I've inquire about..), and they won't be available until maybe sometime in April.

I should start my own tire company, with an all NEW RWL tire!
Available initially in 225/70/14 and 245/60/15!
MUSCLEYEAR RADIALGLAS GT
- smooth side wall
- OEM vintage Polyester Fiberglass style font and letter size
- bias ply like tread pattern
- letters that actually stay white and don't turn brown
- quality radial construction
"If it doesn't say RADIALGLAS it can't be MUSCLEYEAR. Tires made for the cars of the classic muscle years."

 

[MoparGuy68]

The die is cast.. I took all the wheels off the car and had the old tires removed from the three I’m going to use. Will be dropping them and the junkyard replacement wheel off Monday morning to be media blasted.

I ordered a set of Milestar Streetsteel 225/70/14 that should arrive here by next Friday. This will probably be the first, and only, 71 Super Bee to have Streetsteel tires mounted on it.

I have the rear axle housing supported by the US Jack stands. The front is supported by a combination of the Daytona floor jack and Harbor Freight jack stands (yes the deemed unsafe ones).

I have the HF stands under the lower control arms. The jaws aren’t wide enough to fit under the full width of the control arm. Please take a look at where I put them. I’m wondering if I should move them under the front frame rails.. The floor jack is supporting most of the weight. The stands are slightly supporting the load.

The car is is going to have to stay supported with no wheels for two weeks. Because of my short garage I had to roll the floor jack in from the side to get under the K-frame. I am fine with the rear end the way it is but the front end I am concerned about.

When I was doing the steering gearbox swap I had the good red stands under the front frame rails and left the floor jack under the K-frame so there was support at those three places. The car held up like that for three months.. With the front suspension hanging down which maybe isn’t so good for a long period of time like that.

What do you think would be better to leave it like I have it or to relocate the stands under the front frame rails?

 

[ming]

Poly F70-14

255/15

Love the factory stock looking but radios make the car handling much better on highway

 

[MoparGuy68]

The refinishing of the Rallye wheels is done.. Garnet media blasting, epoxy primer, PPG 8568 Argent Silver acrylic urethane. All shot with an Iwata HVLP spray gun, using two different compressors. Photos show start to end result.

Tires will be mounted on wheels tomorrow. Saturday, the front end will be aligned.

 

[MoparGuy68]

Primer shot with a totally inadequate compressor, the orange 6 gallon pancake. Paint was shot with the red 27 gallon Coleman that I rented for one day.

Drama galore, overspray galore, lots of cursing, and plastic covering placed EVERYWHERE! Plastic on car got so much paint on it you would think I was painting the car, not the wheels.. I think if I had sprayed the paint on the car I would’ve gotten more coverage on my wheels..

I should have taken a photo after placing plastic all over the car and garage, but I didn’t.. Lesson learned a home garage is NOT a spray booth facility..

 

[MoparGuy68]

Wheels are finished and back on the Super Bee. Milestar Streetsteel “horse leg” tires all around.. Took the Bee for a spin to stretch its new skinny *** legs today.

Big, ugly, GM pickup truck, with donut tires wanted to race. Horse Leg equipped Super B showed the truck who’s BOSS! GM truck got nice view of sexy Super Bee ***..

 

[Thrashingcows]

Looking Snazzy!