When I was loading up my truck for the move, I loaded up my stock wheels and tires for it and noticed a big screw in the tread. It has been in there for quite some time, I think I did the lift kit in 2016. I pulled it out and there was still a lot of air in it, the stockers have been sitting in a shed for over 7 years. Crazy. Never had that issue on the hot rod thankfully but I did wear a hole in one tube after 15 years. I got back from the Sea Bowl farewell car show, parked it in the garage and the right rear was flat the next day.
Hold up.... So, you aired up the flat, borrowed a car, rode the city bus for days on end, and the whole time you had a full size spare!!!
Regardless of vehicle.......I have a tire plug kit in each vehicle. Remove screw......clean hole with awl.....put dab glue on hole.....thread plug into T handle installer......push firmly into hole.....briskly pull tool out.....trim plug excess.....add air......never even have to remove tire/wheel. Just taught our computer geek son in law how to do it before holidays. Lifesaver Just to clarify......plug kit works on tubeless tires only......tubes......find the spare !!
A week ago a friend had a flat on his twenty year old Econobox. I recalled I had put a tube in it a couple years ago - so I removed the tire with a manual bead breaker and tire s****s, took the tube out, applied Elmer's rubber cement and put on a bicycle patch. I was thinking about how they used to "Vulcanize" patches with a special gadget and flame, so I thought why not just press it down hard on the woodstove until it's too hot to hold. Worked great!
Joey, been there, done that. Welcome to life. Look at it another way, it could have happened when you were far from home. Fix the problem, and just go on as we expect you to do. In the meantime, Happy New Year to you.
MY SCREW-Y FLAT STORY: I had a side hustle, teaching auto shop night school cl***es at the local high school. Oft times I'd stay after my cl*** and work in the shop. One night around 11:00 PM I got ready to leave and realized my van had a flat tire. I pulled it into the shop, put it up on the lift and discovered a nail in the rear tire. I just wanted to get the van home - 7 miles - and deal with changing the flat the next morning, so I found a suitable sheet metal screw, dipped it in rubber cement, and screwed it into the tire, inflated it and made it home! TWO YEARS LATER! I went to replace my tires and found the screw in the tire, still holding air. I had forgtten all about the hasty plug I'd done two years earlier.
Hey Joey... Happy New Year. Been there, done that, but luckily not in our '36. And not in our '56 F-100. Whenever I'm out with the '36 I light candles to the road gods so I can avoid the dreaded screw. Plus, taking the skirts off on the side of I-5 is not my idea of a good time. Hope to run into you again at the GNRS this year. Stay well.
@J.Ukrop Hello, I was just a kid helping the best way I could on my brother’s 51 Oldsmobile sedan. 1956-57 I did not have a license, but, if I wanted a ride to where I needed to be, it was not a free service from my brother. My mom did not drive, so I did not want to spend money riding the bus. So, I was the “go-fer” for my brother. Our mom told him to take me here and there. But, he knew he could figure out a way for me to do some simple jobs on his Oldsmobile sedan in return for a “free ride” to the desired location. (despite what our mom told me and him, specifically…) So, I did car washing, detailing, learned to do oil changes, tire rotations, and I was even the “hubcap” guy to exchange different hubcaps from my brother’s friends when they came over to see what the “other” car looked like with different hubcaps. There were single versions of all of the popular hubcaps of the day on the teenage cars, dodge lancer 4 prong, Oldsmobile three prong flipper units, small moon dish hubcaps and even several small Ford hubcaps. But, no one had spun aluminum Moon Discs. When my brother’s Oldsmobile was pale yellow, we decided to get some Moon discs to install them on his sedan. I was told how to do it and got the drill ready. He stepped inside the house, thinking I was skilled enough to drill simple shallow holes and hand screw in the spun discs with the provided screws in the kit. I had the back ones on in record time. But, as I got to the front wheels/rims, I lost a couple of those screws provided in a bag. So, I drilled the holes and went to find other replacement screws. Our tool/parts drawer had a ton of different screws. So I selected two similar ones and screwed them in place with the Moon Discs. The 51 Oldsmobile sedan looked so cool, lowered, moon discs and it was a cool teenage cruiser. Jnaki But a week later, I got a phone call from my brother telling me to ask our neighbor to come and get him home. His Oldsmobile was on the side of the road with some flat tires. What? a single flat was understandable, but two? in the front? What was happening? He only had one spare which was fine, but there were two flats. So, he needed a ride home to get the flat tire fixed. When he got home, he told me in so many words to roll the flat tires to the neighborhood gas station and have our friend fix the flat. So, here I was, a little kid struggling to keep both tires rolling a couple of blocks to the gas station. But, I made it. the attendant told me that where I had drilled the holes for the moon discs were fine. But the screws I used were sheet metal sharp tip screws, not the Flathead ones required for a no puncture situation. Ahh,,, now I knew the difference. So, he as able to put on some kind of patch and both tires were as good as new. He kindly drove me back to the stopped Oldsmobile sedan and changed the two flat units for the flat tire and took off the spare. Now, it was a full 4 wheel Moon Disc cruiser again. Lessons learned. A sharp tipped screw will cause problems in air leakage. YRMV
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