The original owner seems to have driven the car until it needed the original E78-14 tires replaced, then replaced the factory 14x6" rally rims with American Racing wheels. I don't see any size marking on the back of them, but they don't appear to be 14x7". I got these loose without the mag lug nuts, as the dealership put a set of 14x7" rally wheels on it (without any trim) that were painted gray and had P215/75R14 blackwall tires on them. There was a Monte Carlo next to it on the lot in the same gray with aftermarket wheels which was likely the donor of these, since the Monte Carlos used that size tire as standard while the standard metric radial for the Camaro was P205/75R14.
In the trunk was a 14x6" rally wheel with the bezel trim still on it, but also sporting what appears to be the original bias ply white wall E78-14. And it still holds air. It is a different tire brand from what was on the American Racing wheels which leads me to believe it is the original. I have lined up the wheels in the pic below with the original spare on the right to represent the original tires, the replacement tire on American Racing wheel in the middle, and the final restored wheel with my current tires.
The E78-14 tire is 26" in diameter on the nose, which is what the specs for this size usually are. I replaced the factory skinnies with a much beefier P225/70R14 with is supposed to be a diameter spec of 26.28" and seems to be about right. I know most people would put on P215/70R14 which are shorter than the stock tire, but I opted for a little more width.
I left the gray wheels at first, but I got a can of color matching red to make them the correct factory appearance and it did a very good job. Really looks like the factory paint instead of a spray can finish. And of course the wheels had no trim, so I had to invest in reproduction rings, center caps, and lug nuts. I wasn't sure on the bezels, but looking at the spare wheel it looked sharp with them, so it was a sizable investment to replace them all. But it not has the factory white letter radial tires with rally wheel options on it.
The factory air pressure for the bias ply tires was 24psi all around. I don't know what the factory recommendation was for the standard radial tires? Max pressure on the new radials is 44psi. So I'm keeping the front tires at 5psi above the rear for better handling, and playing around with pressure level until I find something I am happy with for braking, handling, acceleration, and comfort.
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