tire aging

[dardal@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

When I bought my 68 Lebaron, I drove a rental car to pick it up from Wiggins
Missisippi from Austin TX.  The seller assured me the car was sitting on brand
new 235/75 tires.  When we drove the car around, there was a lot of vibration
at highway speeds.  The seller was an old mechanic, and he assured me that the
tires had flat spots from sitting, and they would improve after a few hundred
of miles.  As I left for Austin around 6:30 PM (after a 12 hour drive from
Austin and a 3-4 hour negotiations and checking).  As I was cruising at 75-80
the vibrations got worse, but I could find speeds at which the shaking was sort
of acceptable.  But it got worse and worse, to the point I had to drive down to
60.  Then, the rear tire gave, separated and way out of round.  Then I realized
the spare was a tiny tire (like a 215 or so) which also gave up quickly. 
Finding a used tire on I10 in Luisiana at 11:00 at night was not exactly easy. 
I was back on the road at around 3AM and back to Austin at 9AM.  One or two
days later, I bought for new tires.  The tires with the flat spots never
improved as the old timer mechanic promissed me.

I have had more cases of tire separation in the other imperial, but these were
mostly related to high speed (well over the speed rating of the tires).

D^2, 2x68

Quoting Kenyon Wills <imperialist1960@xxxxxxxxx>:

> I bought a 1971 car.  It had tires that were probably not original.  The car
> had sat (how did your buddy's car stay at 37k for 20 years? It sat too).  I
> eperienced "tread seperation" where the rubber blistered off of the metal
> inside the tire, flinging rubber everywhere as the tire disintegrated, not
> unlike those big rig treads that you see on the side of the road, but I
> didn't have 7 or 9 other tires to rely on.
>  
> I was driving the car and it caused me to focus my attention most acutely, as
> the car was going about 60 mph.
>  
> It destroyed the metal inside the fender and although not dangerous at the
> time (I was going straight), scared me quite a bit.
>  
> I do not trust any tires or brake systems on old cars unless I see a receipt
> in the manila file folder that comes with the car.
>  
> I suggest that the money on tires and new soft brake lines is worth every
> part of the inconvenience of installing them.  Life's short.  Don't be cheap
> about it.
>  
> -Kenyon
>