I think we had discussed this earlier Marlin. I did pretty much the same as you on the 7" Americans I have on my Nova.
I started with Wet/Dry 400 grit and went through the finer, finer, finer grits. Even used some white scotchbite pads (very fine) for some tough areas. The final stages were 0000 Steel Wool with polishing compound and then Mothers Mag Polish on some old sweatshirts. They're not perfect, but I drive the car so I wasn't after perfection. They clean up easy and take very little attention a couple of times a year.
Re: your thoughts for the 60 series tires, ...... talk to the Mayor first. I wanted to run my American TTs (7" x 14" with a 1½" positive offset) and ProTrac 275-60s on the rear. He told me they wouldn't fit unless I jacked the car a LOT, ..... or cut the fender lip, ..... or stretched the fenders. As usual, he was dead-on. Even with the F70 14s I had to install air shocks for clearance, especially on the right rear. IIRC he told me Novas typically have less clearance on the right rear than on the left.
BTW, the wheel/tire combo looks GREAT on my FAVORITE DEUCE!! [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/biggthumpup.gif[/img] [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/biggthumpup.gif[/img]