Tires: 1959 Tires & New, passenger car tire, pickup 4x4

Question
Help!!!!
Looking at buying a 1959 International Pickup 4x4. Runs good, minimum rust, but I'm not sure about the tires, they are dry rotted Kelly Springfield Explorer Trac C 7.00-16LT.
What could I replace them with and where to get them?
I've looked over the net for a few days and can find nothing on what to do about replacing the old tires with new ones. I would like to keep it "looking" as close to original as possible.
Any thoughts or help would be greatly appreciated.
God Bless! Kent

Answer
Kent,

You probably should do a bit of research to make sure of the exact tire size that came originally on the truck.  What is on there now may or may not be the right tire size - and tire size has to do with load carrying capacity and spring rates, it would be good to get that part right.

For example, I have a book that lists the original tire sizes, but for the International it only goes back to 1972.  But it is obvious that there were different models and the tires are quite different.  The 1010 takes a passenger car tire and the 1210 takes a light truck tire.

Assuming that the "7.00-16LT" is correct (and back then, they wouldn't have used the letters "LT"), then an LT215/85R16 is the modern equivalent.

But if you want it to look authentic, then I suggest you contact Coker Tire.  I notice on their web site that they have a 7.00-16 Military Non Directional, and if memory serves me right, this is exactly the type of tire that was used on these things.