Reply To: Tires for My '60 Park Lane

[John L. & Geralyn Clemente]

Oh, you are correct about that! If I didn’t have a couple of mechanics for neighbors (who are eager to see the Merc on the road) I’d have already made a few mistakes. I want to switch back to 14″ because that was the original spec for the car and I want to make sure that my period correct ’60 wheel covers fit. The car came with 15″ tires (all almost bald), 235/75 R15s and wheel covers for a ’67 Merc. Another mechanic friend said that’s because the 14″ ’60 hub caps wouldn’t have fit on those rims. The two rims I’m looking at are both 14×6, but seem to have slightly different lug spacings (4.5 vs 4.75) I did read up on the bolt pattern measurement and now know that for 5-lugs, one must measure with one bolt in between the two measured for the correct measurement. Supposedly, one must measure from the edge of the first bolt to the center of the second. If that’s the case, there’s a 5.5 spacing from my measurement, which doesn’t seem to fit for 14″. Confusing? You bet! Shouldn’t my mechanic know?