PSU1985

I bought my ‘72 last July. Since then I’ve been working on the car repairing and replacing things that the PO did not take care of. Rebuilt carb, new timing chain, water pump, rag joint, rebuilt steering box, power steering control valve and slave cylinder……

Its February 1 and it won’t be long before I’ll be able to get it out of the garage. Plan on replacing the weather stripping and doing a headlight upgrade in the spring. One other thing that I’ve been looking at is the tires.

PO replaced the tires in 2003. Less than 6,000 miles on them. Car is always garage kept. Tread is fine. There is no cracking in the sidewalls but they have more of a plastic feel instead of rubber. No idea what PO may have used on them when detailing. A couple of pictures for reference. I know they have some years on them. Should I replace them?

Mr D.

PO replaced the tires in 2003, it's now 2022. Those tires are 19 years old get them off the car.

DWAVette

Yep.
Change them.
No doubt.

RedsFan

Everything I’ve read agrees with changing them. I had a set of brand new looking, 18-year old BFG white letters on my ‘Vette when I bought it. I replaced them with Cooper Cobras. The guy at the tire shop asked me if I wanted to keep my old tires because they looked like new. Nope, you keep them. I don’t want the temptation of running old tires. Too much downside in that scenario.

pltmgr

Either take the rims to a tire store or drive to one that is VERY close.

panther-19

tire manufacturers have recommended life span of their tires when the tread life is not used up. I have read some say 5-7 years. Years ago I worked at a Pep Boys service center and the tire reps all said 6 years. I use that as my life span term if the tread is not wore out.

stingr69

Old tires hold air and they can still have tread on them but the rubber can get hard even if still intact. Hard tires are not safe as they have no traction. Cold or wet days are still very dangerous even if the tires do stay intact. I went on a scary "spin" with old tires once......once. Lucky for me, no damage but it could have been a disaster. Plenty of tread but it was a cool and rainy day. Ripped those off and got new ones.

The risk is HUGE if they do fall apart. Tears up the fender and maybe cause an accident with injuries. MUCH more expensive than a new set of tires. $500 well spent.

debueller

My '74 has all new F & R suspension, brakes, shocks, recent alignment and 25 y/o tires with probably the same miles as yours. They "look" great. Previous owner kept the car garaged and hardly drove it.

I've driven it carefully for about 250 miles and it rides/drives/handles like crap. They are really noisy too.

I'm 99% sure my car will drive/ride/handle much better and will not be a road hazard when I get new tires this week.

Unsafe, poor riding and bad handling. Not worth it.

I just made a appointment at Costco for new T/A's. Cant wait for the benefit of proper tires..........

Richard Daugird

Don't even drive it to the tire store, pull the wheels and carry them there,

REELAV8R

Performance vehicle, if driven that way 6 years max for me. Daily driver type, not driven at high speeds, maybe twice that long.

wwiiavfan

The tires on my ‘71 are exactly like the OP’s, except for being one year newer. They will be replaced before the car comes out in spring.

doorgunner

The tires look great!

It's the adhesive you cannot see that will let go and kill you.

Almost been there

68hemi

Lots of advice to get rid of your tires but very little about WHY. The reason you want to get these tires off is that regardless of how good they still look anything older than 7 years have a tendency to blow with large chucks of tire flying off that will very often do body damage. Most tires on classic cars “age out” rather than wear out. For this reason also make sure you get fresh tires when you buy and make the tire store show you how to read the date codes.

Stev-o

Yes, get new T/A's, they look great on C3's

Cmurray79

Yes they will explode without warning and take everything you love

Stev-o

Let's not get silly now. I've driven many a car on 10-12 yr old tires with no issue, but I dont recommend it.

When was the last time you personally had or knew someone that had a tire explode?

panther-19

Explode/blow out would qualify as the same thing in my world. Yes, it did happen to me. Class A motor home had 6 Michelins on it with date codes all within a few months of each other but were close to 5 years old. We were camped, sitting with on board levelers down so full weight of RV was not on just the tires. 10:30 at night and had just retired to the sack when....BOOM! Went outside to see what happened and campers next to us came out for same reason. One of the rear tires blew. Just sitting there. Needless to say, 6 new tires went on shortly thereafter.

PSU1985

Thanks for all the comments. I guess I'll be investing in some new rubber in the spring.
I don't want to dig up old threads but I was leaning toward Cooper Cobras due to the browning of the RWL. There was a fairly recent thread on that and it seems that BFG hasn't resolved the issue.
BFG a few bucks more than Cooper but not enough to disqualify them. Just figured I'd avoid the browning if I could.

Just discovered this on the BFG site. Nothing to see here, thank you for your business....The brownish color on the sidewall of your tires is not a defect. The source of this discoloration can be varied. One possibility is that the tires contain an anti-ozone agent in their rubber compounds to slow down the ill effects of exposure to ozone in the air. This anti-ozone ingredient will migrate to the surface of the rubber and leavethe appearance of a brownish dust. This is completely normal and technically is no cause for concern. In time, depending on usage, it will disappear.

Other possibilities for discoloration can be simply dust that is picked up from normal driving or brake dust which is generated by the abrasion of the brake pads against the brake rotor. This latter condition is more prevalent when the brakes are new or have recently been relined. In all cases, we recommend that you continue to clean your tires with a mild soap and water.

REELAV8R

Get the Cobra's. They are cheaper will run the same and the white letters won't turn brown.

What ever BFG has to say about it is a marketing ploy, it's called....lying. Often used in marketing.

L-46man

Mostly Steve-O and I agree,,,, Not this time. (even tho he say he doesn't recommend it...acknowledged!

I am constantly looking at C-3s....whether on line or jumping on a plane for a bargain.

I CAN"T TELL YOU how many C-3's I've seen with the entire fender/rear deck/hood RIPPED OFF the car by a blown tire. Okay, you survived, the car now has $20,000 worth of damage, including repainting the entire car. I recently bought new BFG's for the SA....they were $135 each. $540 set.

I see this all the time.....there are cars that pop up on Craigs....entire rear half of the car GONE....now I go look at these, because your basic $20,000 C-3 is now on Craigs for $6000! I'm good with fiberglas, and I can paint.....do you REALLY want to go that route?

The decision is ELEMENTARY.

Have a Chevy C-10?...go ahead run old tires....when a tire shred's on a C-3....almost every time ,there is THOUSANDS of dollars worth of damage.

Be safe out there guys....nobody dies on my watch!

Unbkahal