16 inch wheels

[harmony]

I'm working on a project with our local car club and we're fixing up a 1947 Chrysler Royal Coupe.  It has a set of wheels on it that are 16 inch x 600.  It's my understanding that the '47 Royals came with a 6.50 x 15 x 4.5 wheel.  Is it possible that the wheels on this car now are truck wheels? 

[1949 Wraith]

Rims and tires could have been from an earlier car as well. My '41 Chrysler Windsor has 16" stock wheels.

 

On your car, a previous owner might have found a set of good tires on 16" rims, it was an easy swap. On my '38 Dodge I am running 15" rims from a late 40's Mopar to accommodate radial tires.

[Doug&Deb]

Mopar switched from 16 to 15 inch wheels late in the 47 model year. The 16s may be original.

[harmony]

Thanks for the info folks. As a side note 3 of the original moon shaped hubcaps are 10 inches in diameter and one is 11 inches.  They have the painted black Chrysler script on the smaller ones and red painted script on the larger hub cap.  But I think the red script may have been hand painted some time down the road. You can't really see the ribs in the script like you can in the factory painted black script.  Meaning the red paint seems a bit thicker.   They all fit the rims snugly.  Was there a time frame for when the size of these hub caps changed diameter?