Another Tire Question

[Richard M.]

Looking for some advice for my original '68

Spare tire appears to be original to the car, has been mounted at one time with about 50% of tread left. It's a Goodyear white stripe, which matches according to build sheet.
If I decode the serial # correctly it's a Nov/'67 built tire, which matches the Dec/'67 build date of the car.
At some point the original owner has painted the letters white (I remember buying tire paint from JC Whitney!)
Even though I'm far away from any judging, everything I do is with that in mind.
Questions:
1)Should I try to remove paint on the letters or leave alone, paint is brittle and should come off, but it may affect the appearance since it's been there many years.
2) Should I clean and paint wheel or leave as is? I'd have to mask tire since I have no desire to try to dismount.
3) I am going to replace four on the ground (currently Cooper Cobra's) and would like to go with original appearing radials. I would like to go with red stripe, since they'd look good with Corvette Bronze color. Would mis-match of redline on ground with white stripe in spare cause deduction?

And finally, advice on which brand tire to go with for replacement? again, it's a driver not a trailer queen.

Thanks for any opinions

[David H.]

Re: Another Tire Question

Richard,

Tire originality is scored using Standard Deduction Guideline #3, not C.D.C.I.F. Many of your issues are Condition.

Assess point loss for Condition before contemplating replacing tire. A new tire will likely have Originality points deductions.

Look at the overall scoring before trading Originality points for Condition points.

Many times worn original parts score better than new replacement parts.

Dave

[Ron G.]

[Michael J.]

Re: Another Tire Question

I would agree with David recommendations to look at condition points vs. originality before doing anything. As for driving tires, I think the 215X70R15 tires would be the close size replacement for your original tires. There are numerous tires to choose from in that size, in higher speed ratings too, but no red lines as far as I know. You can buy the more expensive Diamondback radials that come dressed as redlines, that is probably an option if you want redlines, unless Coker has some in an OEM brand, which they probably do.

[Terry B.]

Re: Another Tire Question

Hi Richard,

It has been a while since I judged exterior but I believe the spare tire is judged separate from the 4 on the ground and do not need to match. If you believe your spare rim is original, I would not paint it. Most of the time, no one can duplicate the original hues and color to the '68 rim. As Dave mentioned earlier, originality will go farther in getting more points in judging than having a nicely painted rim of an incorrect shade of color. When I purchased my red line tires for my '68 for judging about 10 years ago, Kelsey had a better match on correctness of the bias ply F-70-15 tires but I still had deductions. At that time, Coker did not have the correct number of ribs and Kelsey did which I thought was very important.

As for the paint on the letters of the tires, I would do some experimentation to remove it if I could.

Best of luck and enjoy the process.

[Russ S.]

Re: Another Tire Question

Like Terry says. Spare is judged completely separate from other tires and does not need to match them in any manner.

[Terry M.]

Re: Another Tire Question

It will be best for Richard to read the Standard Deduction portion of the Judging Reference Manual 8th Edition. If he doesn't have one - get one.

Terry and Russ are correct on the easy part. The spare does not have to match the road wheels and the purpose of that is the judges like to see original spares wherever possible. That said, there is a big kicker in the wheels and tires(window glass also) Standard Deduction in that if the condition of the tires constitute a safety hazard there is a full deduction. What I don't know since I don't have that book with me at the moment is if that safety rule applies only to road tires or if it also includes the spare tire. The picture you posted looks iffy as regards safety. Without seeing the rest of the tire it is a hard call to make. Check it out.

[Michael J.]

Re: Another Tire Question

That is always a difficult judgement call I think. Usually, if the tires hold air without a tube and do not have large chunks missing, you have to assume they are OK. And of course everyone knows no one drives a car on 50+ year old tires for very much further than on and off a trailer to the judging field. And a spare is not even under that much stress. I have had some original '63 and '64 tires that I took to get mounted on my spare wheels to use as a spare. The Discount Tire store, where I am a good customer for my modern cars, refused to mount them, saying they had a policy based on state law to not mount any tire that was not a DOT rated and inspected tire. So, I took them to a less persnickety tire store for mounting.........