Hi,

I finally took possession of a 1982 Mirada. Obviously, being a 30 year old car, it needs a lot of work. There is some rust on the car, a bit of mechanical work to do, and the front seats need to be recovered. However, even with all of that, its a pretty cool looking car. I will post pictures a little bit later, my first attempt using the iPhone camera resulted in blurry pictures. This is not the black Mirada I was asking about before, but a blue exterior/blue interior car with a split bench seat.

The car is a 318 2BBL, power windows, locks, and air conditioning. It has the factory alloy wheels, which is partly the reason this is being posted. The manual for the car says that they are 15 X7JJ in size. It further goes on to recommend P215/75-15 or P205/70-15 tires. The current owner has P225/75-15 tires on it. Questions are:

1. Is the P225/75-15 too wide a tire for a 7" wide rim? Is there a safety issue? Will it make the speedometer inaccurate, and if so, by how much?

2. The P225/75-15 seems tall/skinny to me. Would a P225/60-15 or 225/65-15 fit (if those tire sizes exist)? Factory recommendations are above, but they are recommendations, is there any room for a wider tire?

Car, when straightened out some, will be a second car for now. Eventual plan is to get a mild big block/A727 (or A518) to replace the 318/A904.

Kostas

P.S. I have added pictures below,

 

205 and 215 seem pretty skinny for a 7" wide rim to me. I would think that the 225 or even a 235 would be better. A lot of that has to do with how much sidewall there is. The lower the aspect ratio (2nd number) the less sidewall there is which makes it harder to get a tire to fit properly that isn't the right size for that rim.

have you removed any of the wheels to see if you can see a size or size code on teh inside part of it?

 

I haven't removed any of the wheels yet. This is in the lot at work, and its been raining pretty steady for the last week or so, so the ground is pretty soft. I will be doing that when it stops raining, and the ground firms up. All the wheel/tire size information I posted before is from the owner's manual directly, or from the tire sidewall. I am assuming that the information is correct as far as Chrysler mimimizing warranty/legalities is concerned, but this may nor be oprtimal for the car in terms of performance.

Thanks for the information on checking the inside of the wheels. I never knew there was anything there about tire sizes.

Kostas

 

That is a cool body style. My neighbour bought one after he sold me his '70 Coronet.

 

Nice looking car

A 245/60 is about as large as you would want to go on a 7" wheel and would be a smaller overall diameter than the original 'specified' tire.
But, a 235/70 may be close to giving you the width, the correct diameter and would fit on a 7" wheel nice....
Just an opinion...

 

No, it is a marginally(less than a 1/4")wider tire than the "recommended" tires. The width of the 75 series tires are all basically the same if in the same area of sizes (IE: an old 195//75-15 will be narrower than the 205 and up 'family' area of sizes) and fits on a 7" wheel just fine. The 235/75-15 will work also, but their is enough difference in the hight that the speedo will be off ( appx 7-10mph). The 225's on the car may have an error of 5mph or so. A gps unit can verify this if you have one.Yes there is room for a lot wider tire, but the limiting factor you have are the 7" wheels. It is a tall skinny tire, and the 235/75-15 will be taller still, and look even skinnier on your 7" wheels. the 225/60-15 WILL fit altho a 7" wheel is a bit on the slim side for a 60 series tire and the 65 is a hair wider still... On a 7" wheel as you have I would use the 225/70-15, for a little taller than stock tire but also wider, and closer to the hight of a 215-75-15. I am unsure why they state the 70 series tire a size DOWN from the standard 75 series, I have seen it usually the other way around... ( IE a 205/75-15 or a 215/70-15 as those tires are virtually the same hight but the 70 being about 1/2"-1" wider.) I am not saying that its wrong, just strange...Using any 60 series on a 7" wheel will usually look kind of odd... 60 series are better suited to an 8" wide wheel.Hope I helped and didnt muddy the water to bad... Welcome to the site, and Good looking car...

 

Thanks for the information, much appreciated. I did do some checking on the Tire Rack website, and according to them, the BF Goodrick Radial T/A in size 245/60-15 is usable on a 7" rim (the minimum recommenede time width is 7", so I should be OK, I hope). Tire diameter for the 245/60-15 comes in within 1% of the diameter of the recommended tires (according to 10-10 tire comparison tool). I may hold off on that tire change for now, though, as I need to find a windsheild for the car first (current one is cracked, badly, and it won't pass insurance inspection with a cracked windhield, and I can't register the car without insurance). Can anybody recommend a source for a windshield (preferrably tinted like th factory windsheild)?

Kostas

 

Nice car man! Lets see some interior shots....

 

boy i would love to have a set of rims like that for my 5th ave, nice car lucky you.

 

nice ride

 

I will try to get pictures of the interior up this weekend. Fair warning, the drivers side is pretty bad (trainwreck would be more accurate). Passenger side and back seat are in pretty good shape. As an addition to the original post, it has the "semi-automatic" climate control (description from the owner's manual); it has a temperature setting slide that is used to set the temperature (I've only seen digital ones). It also has power seats. The windshield will also have a lot of cracks in it, which is typical for this part of the world; I will be replacing that as soon as I can locate a replacement.

Kostas

 

Interior shots, as per request. There's a lot more pictures, but this should give an idea of what the interior looks like, and the amount of work that needs to be done to get the car back into good shape. In taking these shots, noticed the car has a tilt wheel and cruise control as well. I think the steering column must have been changed, as it is brown, instead of the blue like the rest of the interior.

Has anybody ever tried to install a tach into the dash of a Mirada? Seems like the hole for the fuel gauge would have been better used for a tach, and the fuel gauge moved to one of the smaller gauge positons. Its probably impossible to do now, as the transmission indicator is at the bottom of the fuel gauge. Sort of too bad.

Kostas

 

Steering wheel looks like it came out of an M Body

 

Not to bad for 30+ yrs of use.... Try these guys.. I dont know where you are located but you can enter your zip location... Price was around 200 bux for just the glass. (not installed) Windshields

I did the quote based on my zip.. That was the first listing in my search, there were many others listed, IE: Safelite, etc...

 

Thanks for the link. I have been in touch with the windshield.net people, and they will get back to me regarding shipment of the windshield. I live in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

Kostas

 

I think the whole steering column was replaced at some point in the past (not by me). It is all brown, while the rest of the interior is blue. It may have been done to get the tilt sterring wheel in. I haven't been able to decode all of the codes in the fender tag yet, but so far, haven't seen any indication of a tilt wheel being factory installed.

I would eventually like to have an original column back in the car, or something like Tuff wheel, and repaint/recolor the column. Sort of back burnered right now, as there are more important things to attend to.

Kostas

 

Hey, what did the windshield end up costing you. I need to do one as well and live in Okotoks.

 

Never did find one to buy. I ended up buying two other cars from Northern Alberta (Stormy Lake, and Thorhild) in an effort to get a windshield. Problem is, both are in better shape than the blue Mirada (one is a 1981 Red with White Vinyl roof (the one that is supposed to look like a Convertible) Mirada CMX, and a 1980 Heather Grey/White half vinyl roof Cordoba Crown). Both are 318-4BBL, and both are pretty close to fully loaded. They also have intact windshields. Plan going forward is to work on the two newer cars, and eventually return to the blue car. I am still on the lookout for a windshield for the blue car, but I have called 63 places so far (both in the US and Canada), and they either don't have one, or won't ship to Canada. My hope is to find a windshield for the blue car while working on the other two, or that the aftermarket starts producing windshields for our cars at some point. Last resort will be a custom cut windshield, but that seem to be an extremely expensive way to go.

Kostas/kkritsilas

 

If you are looking for a windshield or other parts, the Cordoba and Imperial are pretty much exactly the same except for the nose of the car. I wonder if a 5th Ave windshield would fit?