VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND NEWER 1946-1948 Tires for 47 Chev Stylemaster Business Coupe

I am getting my grandfathers 47 Stylemaster business coupe out of a 45 year storage and the first thing I need to do is get new tires so it can be moved. It has 600-16 on it now. The price of this tire (both radial and bias) is very high. Is there a more modern size tire that would be much cheaper that would fit on the wheels? Also would new tires require the use of tubes, which I assume may have been used? Thanks for the help, and as I proceed with getting the car running I am sure I will be asking many more questions of the members of this forum.

About the only size radial tire that is narrow enough and tall enough to replace a 6.00-16 is 195/75R16. Almost anything you find is that size is a truck tire or maybe a trailer tire. I would not use a trailer tire due to the sidewall construction difference.

We did install a set of truck tires on my friend's '49 3100 pickup. We installed them with no tubes on the 16x4 rims. The installer was a little concerned because the tires really do bulge a lot due to the narrow rim. You do need to get the right size valve stem.

So far there are no indications of problems but the truck has less than 500 miles on it since we got it back on the road. They ride a little rough but it is pick-up anyway. Plus the radials are harder to steer at low speed.

Are you looking for the tires that will become your driving tires once you have this on the road or just ones to roll it around until it is ready to drive? How long do you plan to be working on this project before it hits the road? I used the set of old dry rotted tires it had when it was pulled from a barn and had decent tubes in them until it was nearly ready to drive (use the proper tubes when it goes on the road with good tires). This way I did not have to worry about overspray on the rims, tires etc. when painting the car. If you have junk tires just get any tube from a farm store that fits in the tire for the use during your restoration.

Cooker has some good options on their web site.

Also to help things I bought a set of dollies to put under the tires to move it in the garage. It is surprising how helpful it is to be able to push a care a few feet sideways when more room is required where you are working. We used the ones that come in sets of two from Harbor Freight. Other advantage is that they give enough extra clearance to crawl under the car for many repairs.

I found a set of 15 inch wheels for my 48. The 15's were an option in 48. I have radial tires with out any tubes. Have never lost any air since 2010. If you are just looking for roll around tires. You might want to check out an older junk year for wheels and tires. The 1/2 pickup wheels should fit your hubs. But I am not sure what years. Should be 39-54.

Thanks to everyone for their comments. The car is 450 miles from where I live and last weekend I went and got the wheels/tires. The car was not on blocks when it was stored and 2 tires were completely flat and 2 were about 30% filled. After getting them home and filling them with air I am surprised they are holding pressure, so my plan is to use the old tires when I bring the car home and use them over the next months while I work on the car and get new ones close to the time it is ready to go on the road. Hopefully they will hold air with the wait of the car on them.

That sounds like a great plan. The old tires should be able to support the car while you get things operating properly and safely.

I encourage you to wait until you are very confident that it will only be a very short time until you are driving the car. I made the mistake of buying tires and tubes way too early in the timeline to get my car going again. So when I started driving the car I already had “old” tires and tubes.

So for the next vehicle project we actually waited until tires were the reason we could not drive the car except slowly up and down the street.