Hi Terry, you are a bold/brave man - good for you! Regarding bias versus radials, I think it mostly depends on what you want to do with your car. I like to keep mine as original and authentic as possible so I go with bias on them. The problem is, they last about 15,000 - 20,000 miles. I only drive my cars in the summer so that's a long time, in fact, the ones I put on my '53 J were put on in 1992 and and have about 18,000 miles on them. They need to be replaced. The problem is if you go with the 5.90, which the Henry J originally had, you can't get the correct width whitewall and the ones produced and sold by Coker, turn yellow right away anyway. If you go with a 6.40, which some early '51 Js had, you can get the correct width whitewall and the ones on my '53 J have not yellowed like the 5.90s on my '52 have. Bias ply also squeal loudly when you go around corners on a warm day, or in some cases, just slowing down on a hot day.
Radials definitely give a better ride and will last longer. I have a friend here who just installed a set of radials on his '51 J and he loves the difference it's made. The whitewall width is closer to the original too and they really do look good. He said he needed to get a front end alignment once he installed them, but that's typical.
When it comes to collector car tires, radials don't cost that much more than bias if you're going for the original look.
Here's a picture of the car with the radials -
One thing to keep in mind is the spare tire well in the trunk of a Henry J was designed to fit the 5.90 and that's really the only tire that fits it so if you buy 5 radials, the spare may not fit where its supposed to. If your car has stationary rear seat back with a package shelf. then the only tire that fits the well is a 5.90. If it has a folding rear seat which doesn't have a package shelf, a 6.40 will fit the spare well. I'm not sure on the radials. My friend who just got them has a Continental tire kit on his car so it didn't matter.
I drove my '53 J from Minneapolis to Auburn, Indiana in 2004 with no problems but my arms were pretty shakey when I got home since I wasn't used to driving it that far and that much in one day (I left Auburn at 7:30a on the last day of the meet and arrived home at 8:45p).
Anyway, a J will get you there - I also drove a different '51 J from Minneapolis to Springfield, IL in 1977 and then came back through Saint Louis, MO and then home. Of course the speed limit at that time was 55 mph so that was no big deal and I was 17 at that time so I really didn't care as much about my personal comfort! I should add that I made both of those trips, in totally stock Henry Js, and had no problems of any kind. I won't be driving one to San Diego but I'm confident I could do it if I wanted to.
