Wheel and tire recommendations?

I was thinking I'd order a new set of wheels and tires this weekend so I felt I needed some help trying to decide what to get
First of all; what's the best place to order from? Been checking out summit, as a guy over here said they were pretty cheap and good..
I was thinking of ordering something like Cragar SS, AR Hopsters, Magnum 500's or Wheel Vintiques Comet Wheels.. Something with that "old school" look Anyone you'd recommend?
For tires I was thinking BFG radial T/A's or something else with white print, again with the old school look I love.. I do want the car to handle well though, now it wanders all over the place and it's no way it'll pass the "EU-approval" needed to get it on the road.
I basically have no idea what sizes etc. that fit, so I'm looking for pointers from you guys
My car is a '71 five lug and for now it still has the original drum brakes.
Feel free to come with any proposal at all

 

i run the "old school" cooper cobra tires. they have a nogastalgia look and handle great. no wandering all over the road. they are also very reasonable on price. i have 14" x 6"rims on the front with 225/60/14 tires and 15" x 8" rims on the rear with 275/60/15 tires. to fit a 275 you will have to roll the fender lip. if you want to be safe stick with 255 as the widest width with no mods. pics available under my images.

 

Guess I forgot to say what I'm running now
Weld Wheels: FRONT 3.5" REAR 10"
Front tires – 165 R15
Rear tires – 26 11.50 15 (M/T Street slicks)

I do like the look of the cooper cobra's, have been looking mainly at those and the BFG's.

 

are you wanting to stay skinny in the front?

 

Not really, like I said; it wanders all over the place, it's scary to drive it on highways as you have sit and adjust with the steering wheel constantly
Also I can move the steering wheel like 45 degrees+ each way before anything happens, this of course doesn't help much either
Was thinking I'd stay pretty close between the front and rear width, but not too close of course

 

http://www.newstalgiawheel.com/wheels.asp
Here are some nice rims to choose from. I have bought from them in the past. And they are a really good company.
Very Vintage!
Hope that helps.

Mine, I have Smoothies on my Mav. Cause I still have the drums also. Don't want to show the drum through the wheel.

Good luck,
Nic

 

idea for tires...

I'm saving up my pennies for a set of Firestone Firehawk Indy 500's.

They are apparently great tires for our style of vehicle (front engine, rear drive, wonky suspension, etc) and have bold, white raised letters. Talk to Firestone - 195-60/14's and others ARE still available although Tire Rack claims they aren't.

They are a nice alternative to BFG Comp T/A's since that's what "all the musclecars" seem to run these days.

My front tires are 1" undersized and it throws the whole front end around on uneven roads. Yours must be gawd-awful. I'll be doing suspension work after I get the tires. I have $25.00 saved up so far... only $500 to go...

Whisky

 

I am running 15x7 front and 15x8.5 rear Magnums. The rears are repops made by Wheel Vintiques. Going to a 15 inch wheel in the front is better if you later swap to disc brakes. I had 14x7s at one point and they were very close to the calipers. A bad weld was actually rubbing.

I am running 195/60/15s front tires and think they are a bit too short. Might go to 195/70/15s or 205/70/15s next.

I have 265/50/15 Coopers on the back. They are close inboard and still have some room away from the fender. I am running a 1/4" spacer, too. A wheel with a bit more offset would help with the stock axle.

Tire size varies a good bit between brands for the same quoted size. Cooper tend to run small. BFGs tend to run large. I think it has a lot to do with the required load rating that size is supposed to carry. A friend measured his 245/60/15s BFGs and my 265s and mine were only 1/4" wider.

Use the actual tire sizing charts from the tire dealer to be sure.

 

Thanks, I'll check them out

 

Indy 500 tires look pretty nice as well, now it's even harder to decide
195's will be a bit skinny for me though, I like 'em wide
My car's just a scary ride as it is now, stepped a bit on it when I was driving it home and it headed straight for the other lane.. Had to sit and turn the steering wheel the entire time just to keep it on the road
I've been thinking about putting adjustable Koni's or something like that on it myself, want it to handle as good as possible

 

Always liked the way your Comet looked like, nice stance IMO.
Oh, and the bolt pattern is 5x4.5 inches right? And what about backspacing? All of this is pretty new to me

 

Do you have power steering or manual steering? The Reason I am asking is it sounds like your steering box is worn out and or needs to be adjusted or replaced.

 

It's originally a p/s car but at some point the previous owner decided to remove it, found out why when I tried to put it back on; there were clear marks from the slave unit on the headers and also it was missing brackets and bolts, they might have gone bad or something.. I have ordered a lowering bracket from summit as well as brackets and bolts for the p/s pump from a fellow member on here.
I'm pretty sure this will fix the wandering, but I still need new wheels and tires.. They're pretty strict about everything over here, no way you'd be able to register a car with bike tires in front and tractor tires in the back

 

Thanks for the compliment on the stance.

5 by 4.5 inches is the bolt pattern, or 5x114.3mm in metric.

My wheels are stock Ford in the front and the Wheel Vintiques out back were very close in backspacing. Not going to quote what that is because it was so long ago, I don't want to give you bad info. The rear tires would fit better if they were a bit further away from the spring.

If your car was power steering and the original center link is still in there, that is probably your wandering problem. There is slack in the unit on the end of a PS link. If I remember right, the valve there tell the ram which way to assist.

 

Might be, only things removed are the pump and slave unit. There is some kind of steer-assist unit on it right now (that's the best word I had for it )