1955 Cj5 Questions

I will be getting my new 1955 CJ5 delivered shortly. I have a few questions about some details. Are the wheels painted the same as the body color? What type of tires would it have had when it was new?

 

A "new" 1955? That sounds pretty good! Where can I get one?

Tires? My one-owner 1956 still has a military type NDT as a spare.

 

Wheels are black or white. There are lots of threads about tires that have a vintage look, here's just one: Old School Mud & Snow Tires And Vintage-look Radials

 

They can be, but all the cool kids run black wheels

 

That's what I was thinking. Thanks

 

The NDTs are pretty awful as street tires, from what I understand. Slide all over the road in wet weather. Don't know about 1955 specifically, but I expect Jeep would have offered a "Suburbanite type" all-weather traction tire as well as the NDTs ... Jeep Tires on CJ3B.info Search old posts and you'll find lots of discussion of suitable factory-style tires. Certainly I would choose a narrow tire with all-weather tread before the NDT, if it were for me.

I don't know specifically, but certainly by the 60s Jeep was using the white or cream colored steel wheels as factory equipment. Lots of owners paint their wheels black, but the cream color looks original to me. Some flat fender Jeeps got body colored wheels with a tasteful pin stripe as I recall, but I don't know if that made it to the CJ-5.