QuestionWhat would be the correct wire wheel for a '54 Chrysler New Yorker (not New Yorker Deluxe)? I am looking at buying a'54 which needs new tires, and would like to put wire wheels on it. Please advise.
AnswerWire wheels were offered by Chrysler corp that fit these cars, if you watch eBay, you'll see a set come up from time to time. I sold a set on eBay a few years ago. They were VERY rare when the cars were new, usually seen only on a few convertibles.
There are also reproduction wire wheels sold, they are not exact replicas of the originals (regardless of what the vendor will tell you), but they are close enough that only an expert will spot the difference. These sell for around $1200 a set, last I knew. One source for these is Kanter Brothers in New Jersey. I'm sure you can find them with a Google search. They will know which bolt pattern, wheel width and offset is right for your car.
If you want authentic looking tires, you need to contact Coker, Universal Tire, Wallace Wade, or another of the collector car tire dealers and find out exactly what is correct for your car, both in tire size and whitewall width. You'll have to decide if you want Radial tires or the original bias ply tires. There are pluses and minuses to each choice.
I doubt there is any difference in wheel or tire specs between the NYr deluxe and the plain NYr. The difference comes in for the Imperial, probably, and for the cheaper Chrysler products. This is a guess on my part, but as a long time Imperial collectors, I think I'm probably right.
The 54 New Yorker is one of the best engineered cars on the road, a well maintained one is fully capable of keeping up with modern traffic, and is rock solid reliable - these are one of the best made cars of that era. Congratulations on finding a great car!
Good Luck with it.
Dick
