[SCG] Good news about 1966-9 concours tires

[Duanne]

Guys,

The more I look into this tire situation the more I am convinced Coker should reproduced the correct tire.  Here is what I know so far.  Coker has obtained the original Firestone drawings for the 700X13 tire.  A mold would have to be made which is a good thing speaking with other tire companies.  Six months out.  Using old molds is not a wise decision to save money.  The reason tire manufacturers destroyed or got rid of their molds were they were used up after making 1000's of tires.  It it our individual safety and the safety of the Corvair.  With having the correct tire specs for the Corvair 25.3 inch diameter and the right whitewall width should all be safe now with new rubber, new mold being made.  I also found out that the Dodge Dart used the same tire from 1963-1966 exclusively on their wagons and two years on their V-8's.  We need to investigate the avenues to see if they are interested in helping out with tire purchases.   If someone has ideas for this please respond.  250 tires will be manufactured in one batch.  That is selling 50 sets of tires to individuals assuming they buy a spare to match.  Spending $625.00 on tires with shipping, mounting and balancing still needed before the car is ready to go.  I am not finding any alternatives in the marketplace.  NOT interested in overseas production or their (foreign) time frame to save $.  Comments?  

One other comment on pricing.  Coker tells me pricing should be the same as the 6.50-13 ($125.00)  which is less than producing a radial look alike.  Projecting a $175.00 radial seems too expensive to me, if a cheaper radial substitute is still available for $45.00 like the Kumho or Firestone FR 380.  P185/80 R13 which has a diameter of 24.65 and really is an substitute for the 6.50 X 13 tire.  

Does anyone know tire brands by years used on the Corvairs or percentages?  US Royal, Firestone, Goodyear seem to be the big three used during the Corvair era.  If Firestones were manufactured with their name by Coker, would you guys be satisfied?  Comments?  

Duanne Luckow
Corsa Concours chairman

 

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 7/7/2008 at 11:54 PM Stan East wrote:

>For purposes of the information to others on 66 to 69 Corvair tires I'll
>relate my story and experiences. In 2005 I purchased 5 "new" 185-13R
>Michelin XAS true 82 cross section tires from Coker through my friendly
>local tire dealer It was the best price possible when importing into Canada
>with an 80 cent dollar. Yes Mark much closer to your original 7.00-13 size
>due to the non cross section sizing.
>
>I installed these tires on my 66 Corsa for Buffalo in 2006 and put the car
>in the car display and the first ASCE. When the Michelins arrived the tire
>store called me and asked if I wanted them as the manufacturing date was
>several years old. Well I went ahead anyway and by 2007 the sidewalls have
>enough cracks in them that I'd loose points on concours and in a safety
>inspection get rejected. There's probably less than 2000 miles on the
>tires.
>
>For those that don't know my car the only thing restored on the car are
>the:
>-wheels $1200 worth of sandblasting, cleaning, epoxy primer, filler primer
>and sanding and then the correct shades of black paint to concours
>standards,
>-Michelins $1500 landed in Canada with taxes and duty
>-and 4 NOS mag style wheel covers (a lucky $450 investment) everything else
>has a 40 plus year patina. Total investment $3150 or more than the factory
>air conditioned coupe cost me to buy more than 10 years ago!
>
>So we need a source of fresh rubber with good properties to resist
>cracking.
>As further information my 95 Safari van had Michelin summer tires all its
>life and they never wore out the tread, I had to replace them each time due
>to the extent of the sidewall cracking causing safety concerns. I did use
>winter tires for 4 months each year when the summers were in dry dark cold
>storage. After 12 years I finally traded in the Safari last October and
>bought a new van which has come with...Michelins! Given my experiences with
>Michelins of late I would ask questions about rubber compounds regarding
>sidewall and tread cracking resistance. I have 16 year old Goodyear Eagle
>winters for the Saturn which have not cracked the sidewalls but now have no
>tread.
>
>I used to be a fan of Michelins but have lost interest in recommending them
>or buying them given the experiences.
>
>Stan East
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: scg-list-bounces at tiger.skiblack.com
>[mailto:scg-list-bounces at tiger.skiblack.com] On Behalf Of Kent Sullivan
>Sent: Monday, July 07, 2008 12:21 PM
>To: airvair at earthlink.net; scg-list at tiger.skiblack.com; 'Duanne Luckow';
>'Bruce Schug'
>Cc: 'Robert Landers'
>Subject: Re: [SCG] Good news about 1966-9 concours tires
>
>Mark--don't make assumptions! Nothing has been committed to at this point.
>And your feedback is similar to other feedback Duanne received after I sent
>this email. Seems like there are different considerations to balance and
>that may take some time to sort out.
>
>For example, the VCCA, an organization that some people would like to show
>their cars in, does not allow anything but factory stock type tires. So,
>that would mandate bias ply construction... But I know too little about
>tires to say whether a radial tire can be made to look like a bias ply.
>
>And yes, I have a car too that I like to keep as stock as possible (my
>yellow convertible) but drive it regularly, so I want radial tires for that
>car. But it's not clear whether we have to go to Coker for them... For
>example, Larry Claypool has apparently found a source again for 185/80 13s
>with a 5/8" whitewall, which is just after we had almost concluded they
>weren't available anywhere now.
>
>--Kent