Retro Vehicle Styling Gaining Speed While Savvy Dealers Profit
It’s the middle of summer, and everywhere you turn, there’s a car show or cruise happening that attracts owners of hotrods, streetrods and classics. The baby boomers are pouring untold millions into this market segment. Earlier this year, several 1969 Camaros went ‘on the block’ at Barrett-Jackson and sold for $70,000 to $80,000 each.
So, what does an exorbitant price for a four-decade-old car have to do with you? The tires and wheels can affect selling price tremendously.
There are two trends that most people will follow when restoring or building a muscle car or streetrod. One is to go all original, possibly using ‘numbers matching,’ which means the VIN matches the serial numbers and options on the vehicle. This requires some research in many cases to get the correct tire and wheel.
Fortunately for us, companies offer guides to getting the correct combination. First, Coker Tire (cokertire.com) in Chattanooga, Tenn., has a product line that dates back nearly a century. So, if your customer is restoring a 1926 Ford Model T and needs tires, Coker offers several options, like the Firestone Whitewall in 440/450-21.
If your customers are looking for well made, high-end wire wheels to complement the look of their rides, Coker also distributes Dayton wire wheels. You are probably familiar with these wheels on cars such as the 1963 Impala. But, what you may not know is that Dayton builds wheels for everything from British roadsters and vintage Ferraris to streetrods.
Dayton wheels are custom built and can be painted, chrome plated or gold plated in almost any combination you can imagine.
There are three components to a wire wheel that you need to know – spokes, nipples and outers (meaning the outer rim or hoop). An assortment of widths and offsets are available to meet your specific requirements. And, various styles, including bolt-ons and knock-offs, are also available. Bolt-on styles can be installed using lug nuts, while knock-off styles require a spindle adaptor that bolts to the vehicle’s hub. The centerbore of the wheel is installed on the spindle, and the knock-off is threaded and hammered on to keep the wheel from backing off.
Another recent trend is to take a car or truck that has been updated with new technology – suspension, brakes, drivetrain, etc. – and make it look old and weathered. In some cases, the paint job is purposefully made to look old, faded and rusty. It doesn’t make sense to mount original-type tires on this type of vehicle. For this application, you may want to check out Diamondback Classic (dbtires.com) in Conway, S.C. Diamondback Classic offers a complete line of tires that look like original bias-ply, except they are radials. This will ensure the vehicle handles well, while looking period correct.
Some of these tire packages list for more than $150 per tire. With the spare-tire kit, you have five tires, totaling $1,000 for the set, with mounting and balancing. Let’s see you try to get that for your 205/75R15 broadline tire.
You say your customer has a vintage 1930s Mercedes-Benz? Diamondback has a complete line of radials in tire sizes to match the originals. Not only do they offer wide whites, they build red lines and blue lines to order. These styles were OE on Mustangs, Camaros and Corvettes back in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s.
If customers want a little more performance in their ‘rods, Hoosier (hoosiertire.com) has a Pro-Street radial available in several matching front/rear staggered sizes.
These are offered in a wide range of sizes from 24×7.50R15 up to 33×21.50R15 LT, which needs at least 15 inches of rim width to sit on!
This tire also solves another problem. Many big brake systems need large-diameter wheels to clear them. The Pro-Street is offered in a 26×7.50R-17 and matched up with 31×16.50R-17 rears allows for large calipers and a really nice rake toward the nose.
I’m also seeing a lot of ‘steelies’ becoming popular again. These are powdercoated steel wheels with chrome beauty rings and caps. Wheel Vintiques makes a wide assortment of steelies, along with some unique wire wheels and large-diameter billet replica wheels of early styles like the Magnum and Smoothie. The steel wheels are much more inexpensive and can be built within a minimum and maximum backside setting to allow for a custom fit.
By the way, the gross profit on this package is very attractive, due to the fact that the cap and beauty ring are considered accessories. Expect 30% to 40% gross margin on this assembly.
If you have an opportunity to install one of these tire/wheel packages, take a picture of the vehicle and run it in the local car-club newsletter. It’s cheap advertising that can lead to work on the owner’s daily driver and other vehicles, as well.
Before the summer is over, do your business a favor and get out to some hotrod and classic car shows. Not only will you see some hot cars, you’ll get a better sense of how you can serve this market.
