Darn it! Another thing to worry about. My '55 Chevy wagon has 15" rims but the tires are too fat to fit the rear compartment. Back around 1990 or earlier I bought a doughnut spare and modern jack at the local salvage yard. Same diameter as the wheels and tires. They fit the hole perfect along with oil, water, etc. I haven't checked that spare since about 1990! Since there's snow on the ground, salt on the roads, and it's colder than heck I won't be needing it this week.
But now would be a good time to haul it and everything else out, make sure everything's in good condition, the jack's properly lubed and working, no cracking or rust on it, etc.
Mine came with a full size spare, and when I bought new tires, I bought one for the spare. I have top of the line Michelin's as my regular driving tires, but for the spare, I got one of the cheaper ones. It's still a decent quality tire, but not as expensive.
The skinny kind, right? Not the one that needs to be inflated. Why not use it? These are perfect for their INTENDED use. They save space, duh, and are perfectly fine for temporary use at low speed. Just like it says in giant letters on the tire. The problems occur when they like any other tire they are underinflated, or worse the morons that press them into regular service and go flying down the freeway at 75. When the tire blows guess what they blame? Idiots. I've seen things done to these in the name of fooling around that tells me they are a bunch sturdier than people give them credit for. The drawback of course is being forced into making a quick repair or replacement of the flat tire. But hey, at least you aren't lulled into a sense of security and forget to repair the flat in the trunk only to be reminded when you need it. Knock on wood I haven't had a flat in a very long time. Given the choice of the space or a full size spare for a big car I'll take the extra space. $.02
I will most likely have the same issue with the '57 as it will be using 15" rallys. I picked up a temp tire and rim that is drilled for both 5x5 and 5x4.75, kind of neat as it will fit both the '57 and the Astro. I need to hone my carpenter skills to redo the wood floor in the cargo area, maybe this year... PS to all: Next auto flea at least one vendor will be selling plastic bolt circle templets for a couple bucks, worth their weight in gold when trying to find the right one at the junkyard. unc
When I bought the '55 Chevy wagon there was black fuzzy carpet over 3/4" plywood screwed to the original rear floor. I had no idea how the spare tire hole looked until I removed that. Still have no idea why it was like that. They could have just laid the fuzzy carpet over the floor and wooden door. The original plywood floor wasn't perfect but all clips were there minus that little finger hole trim. With luck I found two of those trim pieces over the years. Since we moved I have no idea where the extra trim piece is. The tire space was in very good shape. I just painted it white when I did the rear of the wagon white. Even the tail lite inner parts are white. Did you know that most '55 Chevy wagons didn't have back up lights. Mine had little metal plugs with finger retainers in the holes. I added tail light sockets so have double lights on each side. Using a skinny spare I have room for a modern jack, flairs, oil, tools, etc.
No reverse lights on my '57 either. Far as I can tell the only options on my car were a deluxe heater, a right side visor, and a cigarette lighter.
It's amazing what didn't come unless ordered on a car or truck years back. I don't know how we ever survived without all those beepers and warning lights to tell us our DOOR IS AJAR and the left rear tire has only 32# of air. I do notice that way back all cars had ash trays and cigarette lighters. I don't believe any do now. Back up lights eventually became mandatory on cars made in USA. At the Mall they are basically useless. It's just another reason to speed up and honk the horn when seeing back up lights. My Impala doesn't even have a spare but it has back up lights.