Radial tires on a Early V8

[blucar]

I was recently talking to my brother about tires for his '37 Ford 4dr sdn. The tires he has on the car is a set of Firestone WW that I gave him in 1981/82. Since the car is always garaged and is only driven less than 1k per year the tires have held up well.
My brother has decided that he wants to drive the car to a car show, 250 miles away from his home on Fathers Day weekend, June 20,21.
Checking with the local tire dealers in Idaho Falls, ID produced varying opinions as to what tires he could use on his car. As most of us know, when you talk old car tires to dealers and or "your best friend" you will get as many opinions as there are days in a month. Most of this hype is based on cost and/or availability opinions. The forums are generally awash with threads about tire options for old cars.
My brothers car is dead stock, (almost)... It has a 59AB engine, hydraulic brakes and '37 Ford 16x4 wheels.
My brother has always had bias ply tires on the '37, however, he thought he would like to switch to radials. Brother was getting the impression that the tire salesmen were giving him conflicting info, he called me for my input.
I asked my brother if the subject of wheel size had come up? He knew he had 16" wheels, I told him that they were most likely 16 x 4, however, they could be 16 x 3.5 if someone had slipped a V8 60 wheel onto the car some time in the past.
I got out my 2015 Coker Tire Catalog, looking through the catalog for 600 x 16 bias ply tires designed to fit a 4- 4.5" wheel, I found that Coker only has one tire, the Coker Classic. I then looked for radial tires, Coker only has one 600R16 tire designed to fit a 4-5" wheel, the 16" Bias Profile Radial.
I called Coker Tire Customer Service, inquiring if the info I had gleamed from their catalog was correct, it was... The cost for four radial tires and tubes including s/h $1,200.
OK what does all of this tire mumbo jumbo mean, simple... If you use a tire that is not designed for the vehicles wheel size, you are on your own, if and when it fails, the results will be on your back, if you use tires that are designed for your application, you could have some recourse on the supplier/manufacture.
The basic rule.. "Don't let the directions on the can outsmart you" is something to keep in mind.