6.50 to 7.50 tire

[osaltyone]

I currently have 6.50x16 on my stock height 49, but they are over 30yrs old and sidewalls are cracked. I found someone selling some new 7.50 x 16 bias ply Coker tires for a good price, but I wasn't sure if I'd have issues in the front with wider tires. Should I buy them? I think mine have tubes in them, so should I worry about the cracks?
This project is new to me, never dealt with something this old, learning as I go... I plan to use a drop axle later down the road to get it lower, but don't want to run into clearance issues then.

TIA

[fourspeedwagon]

7.50s will work fine.

[Wrenchbender Ret]

If you have stock wheels I believe the tires will be too wide. 6:50 are oversize.

[fourspeedwagon]

Brother ran 7.50s on his '54- there shouldn't be clearance problems. But, I should've asked the follow up question, what width rim do you have?

[osaltyone]

Thanks for the replies. The rims look to be 5" wide. I passed up on the deal. After getting my disc brakes installed looks like I have clearance issues with the calipers. They seem to be hitting and need about 1/4" clearance. I don't want to deal with another clearance issue, so I'll stick with the 6.50 for now.

[OrrieG]

73 and newer wheels will clear the calipers but have different hub cap mounting lugs (snap over vs. clips like 49). Don't have time to find the link but there are companies that make repop for disc clearance and vintage caps.