Hot Rods Tire Shaving/Trueing

I’ve done considerable research, at least as much as an older gentleman with very limited computer skills can do, And I keep coming up empty handed. I have 4 basically new bias ply tires that I would like to have shaved or trued.
I am located in northwestern Ohio and was looking for a shop that provided that service in the northern Ohio or lower Michigan area. Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!

 

Maybe try checking with any truck tire vendors in your area. Are there still any retread or recap tire builders nearby? They may do shaving or truing as well.

 

Shaving tires for sports car racing and road courses is a pretty common practice. Especially in classes that uses a spec street tire. It provides a true round tread plus improved traction and less heat build up. You might try calling Tire Rack as they provide shaving service or may be able to provide someone in your area that does it.

https://www.tirerack.com/upgrade-garage/do-all-4-tires-need-to-match-on-an-allwheel-drive-or-fourwheel-drive-vehicle#:~:text=Tire Rack has offered a,competition tires for racetrack use.

You might also inquire at large truck stops as truing/shaving over the road semis is a fairly common practice don’t know if they can accommodate your wheels.

 

Yep the semi truck tire installers usually do it. I run the service department for a Chevy/caddy dealership and that's who we use.

 

I always tried a pair of tires the hillbilly way. Throw them on the back and do a mild burnout. If doing four repeat on the second pair lol

 

Thanks so much for the responses, greatly appreciated. In my searches many places were listed as offering shaving/truing service but when I called it was not offered. Called several recap shops in the area but no longer offer the service or have the equipment.
Tire Rack in the Toledo, lower Michigan, Cleveland area does not offer it, at least the several Tire Racks that I called did not. The semi truck places around here will not bother with automotive sizes !!!!!

 

Can’t help with locating a truer, but FWIW, from my 30 years in the tire biz, before you get the truing done.

1. Check the BARE wheels on the hub for out of round first, mark the high and low spots in decimal ==.
2. Mount the tires and check for out of round again.
3. Mark the high and low on the tire in decimal ==.
4. Rotate the tire on the wheel to achieve the least amount of radial runout. Match high on tire to low on wheel.
5. Inflate and verify that the bead has seated completely out. The GG ring will be concentric to the flange.
6. Have them trued on the hub they will run on. A short run on the car before will allow the bias tire to warm up and prevent a flat spot from sitting and cooling off.
7. Index the wheel on the hub with a center punch, wheel stud to hole, so it will always go back in the same location.
8. Balance the tire/wheel assembly. On the hub is best, to balance the entire rotating assembly, otherwise off the hub on a spin balancer, road force balancer is best.

 

That Road Force balancer has the capability to tell you where to mount the tire on the rim for least out of round and radial and lateral runout. It can also tell you which tire to put on which rim for least out of round and radial and lateral runout for the set of tires and wheels you have. A third thing a Road Force balancer can do is locate any stiff section of the tire carcass. Even if a tire is round, a stiff section in the carcass acts like a static imbalance because it will not give as much as the rest of the tire.

 

John Worden in Green Mountain Iowa can do it for you. Make a road trip.

 

I'd go to the oldest been in the same building since the 1930's family owned tire store in the county and ask if they had a tire truing machine.

 

Is there a local chapter of the SCCA operating in your area? One of their members may be able to point you in the right direction.

 

I think there was a discussion a couple years ago where people were compiling the names and locations of shops that could do tire truing. You could do a search to see if you can find it.

 

not only does tire shaving make the daily drivers smoother everyday, at the drags, it rolls better and therefore: quicker times, etc.

Hello,

Look up “Tire shaving” and you should find one close to where you live. The find a good tire and wheel alignment/balance shop to finalize the adjustments.

Balancing is what we all think of for the first thing. But, when we went to a recommended tire and wheel alignment guy in Culver City, he knew what to do. He sent us to a tire shaver. That guy’s job was to shave the rubber off until the tire was perfectly round. Once that was done, the tire guy now could do a good wheel balance and set up his alignment.

Don’t be sad that there was a ton of rubber on the tire shaving shop work place. Tires are supposed to be round, but for the most part, they are. But, everyone is not perfectly round. So, the tire shaver is necessary. Just a wheel balance won’t fix the problem. Matching wheels and tires help. Now, at least the tires are round and the guy started on his wheel alignment and balancing.

After the whole process was done, it ran like a cotton towel sliding over a waxed hood as if it was in a car show display set up process. No hinderances, bumps, shakes or pulling to one side or the other. It became a “no hands” straight line driving on a flat coastal highway, or freeway.

Thanks to @themoose

On the other hand, when new Buick Skylark Wire Wheels were added, modifications took place and again, the new tires got the shaving process, THEN, a complete wheel balance and alignment for perfect running on all sorts of highways. It was not just a wheel alignment place. The guy was an expert and did all of our family cars from Buick sedans to the Impala to the 40 Ford Sedan Delivery and finally the 65 El Camino. All got the tire shaving process first before any other work was done on the front end of any of our cars.

Note:

No one likes seeing shaved rubber on the floor coming from your tires. But, it will work best if the tires are round. With the now “round” tires, it got better wear, no shimmy or shakes at any speed and lasted longer than our old tires. There must be a place like the ones we used out here on the west coast somewhere in your area.

All of our cars, the Flathead 40 Ford Sedan Delivery, the 65 El Camino (two sets of tires,) and our 327 powered 40 Ford Sedan Delivery all had the tire shaving done and then a great balancing + wheel alignment. Out of the 4 cars, the 327 powered sedan delivery was a project car and needed more extensive front end work and safety protocols. The El Camino had new wider tires and it too had the shakes, so a pile of rubber later, our front end specialist took the balance and alignment to a total of 50k miles before another set was done.

Jnaki

Here is a story thread about tire shaving and places.

Tire shaving, if that is your last step, can be done at Nate Jones Tire in the Signal Hill portion of Long Beach. The shop and Nate Jones have a long history in the area.

1896 Redondo Avenue Signal Hill, CA 90755

But, for a lot of people, it can be hard to find. The GPS drives you crazy and the dreaded Traffic Circle is just down the hill on PCH and that in itself is very crazy. I made a route for you that I would take coming off of the 405 freeway from L.A. area.

This story below is from a Nate Jones article I wrote:

Nate Jones Tire Long Beach call them for necessary help or information...

We used to drive on Redondo Ave. from Willow Street or Spring Street all the way down to the oceanfront at Ocean Blvd. It was a faster way to go when not wanting to take the freeway or the usual main thoroughfare, crowded PCH. Redondo Ave. goes from the Long Beach Airport property West to the ocean.

But, for those that are not familiar with that portion of Long Beach near Signal Hill, this place is hard to find. The driveway is not on Redondo Ave. It is on the curve turning into Resevoir Drive. They used to be across Redondo Avenue, but this corner spot provided a better facility for the services provided.

If you are coming from Los Angeles area, get on the 405 Freeway South. Get off on the Lakewood Blvd South. Turn right on Willow St. Go to Redondo Ave. Then turn left. Stay on Redondo Avenue and continue uphill to PCH.

Just before you get to PCH, you will see some big white steel tanks behind a chain link fence on your left. Keep going towards PCH. When you are near the end of the big tanks, there is a funky side street on your left. Turn into that lane and street.

It is on that corner you see up ahead on your left. A triangle property that looks like a scrapyard. Park on that side street.

The old school balancing the tire on the car is still used, as well as tire truing and shaping. There have been plenty of stories about how much better the real “trued” tires are for normal driving and for racing.

The history of Nate Jones's involvement with sport car racing and local hot rod folks is inspiring. The stories are pretty spectacular.

The place is a classic shop. There was a Nate Jones in the graduating class 1961, one class ahead of us during high school at Long Beach Poly H.S. In Long Beach circles, he is well known in automotives and history.

Since you are in Ohio, there must be places that shave tires in this day and age. In Long Beach, Nate Jones Tire Shop is the best around. Race cars in the Long Beach Gran Prix and others use the shops skills. He graduated one class ahead of me at Long Beach Polytechnic H.S. In the coming weeks, the Long beach Gran Prix races along the shoreline will be a happening thing. Nate Jones has had a great history with the development of the local So Cal race and festivities.
https://www.natejonestire.com/

But, there should be a similar tire shaving place in most communities. There still is a need for such services. You can balance to yours or shop’s skills, but unless the tire is round, it is all for naught.

We have used a tire shaving place all the way back to our teenage, Flathead sedan delivery days through all of our hot rods and sedans. With new technology in tires and construction, it has gotten better with new tires for our current crop of station wagons. But there is always an odd ball tire set or sets of tires out of round.

Some cities will have a small shop that has been around for many years and can get the right tire for your old hot rod. The Nate Jones Tire shop has been around since the 60s and has quite the reputation for all things tires/alignment/shaving/balancing. They have competed with other big box stores and still have a better rep for all things tire. It is a small shop on a hard to find corner lot, but the service/knowledge is wonderful. Perhaps, they would know of someone in your area or can do the tires after shipping, etc. YRMV

 

Thank You alchemy, been bangin' my head trying to think of his name.

 

This is maybe a long shot but this is a web site of a tire shaving machine manufacturer. You might try contacting them and asking if they sold any of their machines to someone in your area. Or they may know people not using their machines that can do it.
https://store.repquip.com/products/...BlgpNVr5ML3TjdcZsUEMSzW2yEIZn_XmrLG_s2-5LngVU

 

I don’t know this will be any help. My tire guy has a truing machine, left over from the old days, and the days they sold a lot of racing tires. Drag and road race. Bill tells me today it gets used more to replace one bad tire (road hazard) on an all wheel drive vehicle. Seems you don’t need 4 new tires like the dealer told you, you can buy 1 and trim it to match the remaining 3. At least one awd manufacturer has a spec for that. So if you can find an independent shop that does a lot of that work (out here that would be Audi and Subaru) he might know. The new car dealer just wants to sell 4 new ones, and I’ve seen that happen.

 

My old-school front-end guy (unfortunately no longer on the green side of the grass) would never true or balance brand new tires. He always insisted that they have 200-500 miles on them (so they could 'stress relieve' and stretch to their final shape) before he would touch them. When he was through with truing and aligning, a mover and shaker would ride and drive like butter!!