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Old 10-12-2005, 06:07 PM
mrrec mrrec is offline
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Default Re: Original Goodyear Poly glas tires

We've talked about this before. GENERALLY speaking, fiberglass belted WHITE LETTER tires were NOT available in model year 1969 on Camaros and Chevelles. There is much evidence to support this including lack of the option listed on order sheets, no known period or advertising photos of belted tires, etc. Also of interest is that the early 1970 Chevelle ads show non belted tires even though the belted tires were the only white letter tire available on the 70 Chevelle and Camaro. That supports the lack of belted tire use on 69 Chevelles and Camaros.

In my opinion, belted white letter tires should not be considered correct on any 69 Chevelle or Camaro unless you have documentation to prove otherwise for YOUR car. I've talked to Camaro judges who say that the Polyglas white letter without the size in white letter are judged as OK for 69 Camaros - an error, I believe. There are, however, several build sheets of COPO cars that list belted white letter tires and that is certainly believable by me, but that doesn't mean that these tires were generally available for 69 Camaros and Chevelles. They were not.

The preponderance of the incorrect application of Polyglas on 69 Camaros and Chevelles has snowballed by folks not doing the research and relying on the catalogs stating they are correct for 196X to 197X and looking at other RESTORED cars. It is one of my pet peeves to see a beautifully restored COPO with wrong Polyglas on it.

The small "Wide Oval" lettered Firestones were NOT belted and are not reproduced. They are correct for 1969. The larger "Wide Oval" lettered Firestones ARE belted and were available begining in the 1970 model year. They are reproduced but are NOT correct for 69. The tread pattern on these two tires is different.

The Uniroyals were not belted in 1969, but were in 1970. The white letters did not differ on the belted vs. non-belted tire, but there is black lettering on the tire to indicate it is belted.

Goodyear should read "Wide Tread" in white letters and not "Polyglas" (unless you have one of the couple of COPOs that indicate PL5 RPO). Don't confuse the "Custom Wide Tread" black lettering that is on the Polyglas tires with the "Wide Tread" white letted, non-belted tires. The tread pattern on these two tires is different.

Forget all of the above if you aren't talking WHITE LETTER for 69. Belted red stripe and white stripe were available and sold on Camaros and Chevelles.

Polyglas is Goodyears trademark of fiberglass belted. It is a contraction of Polyester (the cord material) and Fiberglass (the belt material). Other terms used interchangebly include "glass belted", "belted", "FG belted" and others.

Even the car magazines got it wrong (often) in 69 describing "those great Polyglas Goodyears" when the photos clearly showed Wide Treads!!

Finally, Chevy was one of the last to offer WHITE LETTER belted tires for the muscle cars. Polyglas was launched by Goodyear in mid 68 and the other makers followed very quickly. Most everyone - even AMC - offered belted white letter tires on muscle and pony cars in model year 1969.

Dave
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Dave

www.Z16Chevelle.com
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