Hot Rods A failed attempt to get away from the all the BS going on...

So this whole COVID-19 thing has left us pretty much home after work everyday, and the weather has pretty much been $hit also. After a fairly mild winter, we got snow and rain Friday night and then rain for the major part of the day Saturday. Not a bad day, I spent it working on my buddies '57 Bel Air, but not an outside day.

So, you can imagine how happy my wife and I were to hear that Sunday was going to be a bright, sunny day, in the low 50's. We figured we finally had a nice enough day that we could get out of the house for a while and go on a decent ride with the '39. Up until yesterday, we has only been able to go on short little trips with it.

We ended up going through town, out into Acushnet, Rochester, Freetown, Lakeville, Middleboro, Raynham and Carver. I nice long trip all on the backroads ending up in Plymouth with a nice ride along the harbor. Well, about two hours into our trip, I started to hear a light thunk, thunk, thunk, coming from the right front. I turned the car off and coasted to see if it was in the engine/drivetrain as my wife asked me what I was doing. (I guess she couldn't hear it since it was so faint) Realizing it wasn't the engine, I re-started the car and turned the wheel slightly right & left and could hear the sound change and explained to her that I think there is something wrong with the right front wheel/tire and we need to find a place to pull over, not an easy task on Tremont Street in Carver. I found a spot clear enough by Dunham Pond and just as I pulled off to the sandy shoulder, I felt the right front tire come apart. I got out expecting to see the rim scraped up and destroyed as well as the fender beat to to death. Fortunately, I was lucky and caught it in time, I was off the pavement before it could get ugly. The tires are B.F Goodrich Silvertown bias plies and they look to be fairly new so I was never concerned about them.

The car appears to have been finished in 2005-7 but has less than a thousand miles on the odometer. Not really sure what happened, are the tires past their shelf life, did I run something over and cause the tire to slowly leak until it lost enough air pressure for it to overheat and come apart?

I have these same ties on my '57 and I drive it hard and drive it everywhere without an issue. Now I am wondering, do I replace one tire, do I replace them all? If I replace all four, do I stay Bias-Ply or go to radials??

The good part is I called Haggerty and they had a ramp truck there in less than a hour; bad part is, no riders because of the virus. Now i needed to find a ride home from Carver, in the end, I lucked out as a friend was able to come and get us.

Okay rant over....thanks for listening.



The aforementioned tire:



The Haggerty ride (well, for the car anyways):



....anyways, rant over. Truthfully, with all the shit going on, it was still nice to get out, expensive, but nice.

 

I looked for a tire manufacture date yesterday while I was waiting for the ramp truck but couldn't find one. I crawled under the car when I got home last night, but I couldn't make out the last two numbers of the code below:

Jacked up the rear this morning and was able to read this code on right rear tire, looks to 2006, well past the recommended 5-7 year life.


So I called Coker Tire in Tennessee this morning to order some vintage 6.00-16 tires. (Hey, if they are good enough to make my whisky, they're good enough to make my tires) They asked me a ton of questions about my car, driving habits, etc... In the end they told me to go with the bias ply wide whites again. They were more than willing to up sell me radials, but explained to me that my tire failure was more because of the fact that it had been a show car. Even though the tires only had 300 miles on them, they had exceeded their life expectancy of 8-10 years. (they were actually 14+ years old) Now keep in mind, I run a 239 cu. in. flathead with a three speed and 3:78 gears, so I won't really be doing any high speed driving. Also, you can not get 3.25 wide whites in a radial.

I really don't feel this car wander like my '57 Ford and they are the same exact brand tire.

That said, I will check the manufacture date on the '57 and if they need replacing, I will go with radials.

 

Get yourself one of these Wheel Wizards from Bob Drake.

 

I would say you are very lucky that the tire didn't let go at speed and destroy a fender and damage that beautiful car. HRP

 

I always thought tires had a 10 year shelf life ...

Hey at least you got out ! I took the mustang for a quick burn today, the GTO is gonna wait.

Regards, be safe

Sent from my SM-T590 using Tapatalk

 

Throw a few of those plastic, tapered, trim removal tools in you tool kit, they will allow removal of the hubcap with out damage. I also use the plastic shim's that are used by carpenters to install windows and doors they work great.

 

Silver lining ..... it could have been way worse . Glad you both are safe . Oh .... the car as well.

 

So far interior trim tools work fine on our off topic truck. I learned about out of date tire when I bought a car from my father-in-law years ago with very low miles. I lost a tire in less that 2 weeks that only 5000 miles. I only drive 2000 miles a year in our 56 but I’ll be looking at tires after 5 years as we do like some freeways at 70 mph.

 

That’s what I use and agree they work very well.

 

Thanks guys, just ordered an extra set off of Amazon, this way I can keep a set in the car and not have to take my good set out of the shop.

 

About five years said the tire shop owner with glee! I 've got a couple of project cars with new tires from ten years ago, I would not drive them fast or far.

 

Bla bla bla, old tires tires bla bla bla, toe who gives a rat's ass?

 

have had recent purchased name brand tires that came apart inside - no true guarantee when stuff might fail

 

Diamond Back will make any size whitewall you want. Not any more than Coker.

 

I carry a small plastic window scraper to remove the hub caps on my painted wheels. However I would have wrapped a rag around the tool and put the spare on before I called a tow truck. But that's just me!

 

Good you got out , it was nice here sunday. Other than the tire hows she run?

 

She runs really good, no complaints at all. Really enjoying the car but I think my wife loves it more than i do.
Thanks for asking.

 

Get up on the wrong side of the bed again?

 

I would just leave the spare at home,,,,,it will never get used anyway.
At least you have plenty of money,,,,LoL.

Tommy

 

I haven't got over that part yet where you had a spare, but didn't use it and called a tow truck and a friend. Life might be a little different here in the Ozarks.

 

The way we're going , the manufacturers will tell you that the new tyres will last you about 15 minutes!

 

I'd say you got off as easy as a man could hope for. Great car, btw.

 

My wife would have beat me with tire iron for calling tow truck.

 

I quit caring spare tires years ago. The few times I needed one, they were always flat too.
Its entirely possible the tire was low on air pressure to begin with and that was what caused the problem. With the severe changes in outside temps we have been having lately, I have one tire on my truck that will hold consistent air pressure for weeks, then with a change in temp, it will loose 20 lbs in a day. Fill it back up, and it may hold consistent pressure another month then loose 20 lbs again. Very frustrating.

We have Hagerty towing insurance with the 39, and AAA towing with everything else. I'll call for the tow. Gene

 

that was about 20 or 30 years ago........it's what got Paul......

 

Trust me, I can change a tire, didn't really want to phuck up the center caps, but if i had to, I would have. Also, jacking a car up in the soft sand wasn't a wise choice. Haggerty offers free roadside assistance with their coverage, I've had them for years and never used it once.Car was delivered to my garage without a scratch.

 

Some folks just need to take that spare tire and jack and throw it in the trash. 14 year old cooker tires, yep thats recipe for failure for sure. Then going back with that same junk tire on the car, not the brightest moves to be made here.

Glad you didnt trash the car with this mistake, good luck on ever finding a good set of cooker tires, every set I have had were complete trash, overpriced trash. If I wanted egg shaped tires I would buy some tires from China at wal mart.

 

Had a tire do that on my 37 coupe.
Found the rim had small manufacture holes along the bead of the rim.
If the tire was parked in a certain rotation it would leak out of that hole.
I ran my cokers without tubes.
Installed a tube and it fixed it.

 

...............That would be Coker, not cooker.

 

Glad things turned out okay for ya. You got some freash air, and made some memories. I've noticed the only time my old Hot Rods act up is when the wife's along! I've only had to call for a rollback once. Stupid electronic ignition. I also don't have room for a spare tire. So I had to call a friend to bring me one once also. Hay that what freinds are for. lol I've still been taking some short cruises lately. It helps to keep me, and the Rods going. Stay safe. Ron......