The New, Newer Project: Part Tres...

[KevinW]

Hey Steve, the forecast for NJ in March is everyday in the 40s and 50s, yea! Time for some garage work!

[njsteve]

Took the SD out for a cruise night on Saturday. Still runs great!

Of course no good deed goes unpunished. While walking around the garage after getting back, I noticed that one of my original NOS Firestone 500 tires that I have stacked up in storage decided to let go during the winter.

This is what awaited me when I walked around the back of my garage.



BTW, the photo is not at an angle, this is parallel to what was originally the tread surface. This was one of the two NOS GR70x15 Firestone Radial 500's I found for the car. The three original tires are still doing OK (fingers crossed).

These tires have been known to explode on their own even while unmounted. Like a ball of rubber bands snapping, only it's steel cord instead of rubber band. Here's a link to a Corvette forum where one let go inside the fiberglass spare tire tub, under the car: http://www.corvetteforum.com/forums/...-recalled.html

Anyone got another 1973 500 out there?

[earntaz]

Looks like its fixin' to have kittens ...

[njsteve]

Interesting experiment, watching the internal destruction of the infamous Firestone 500.

Here is how the internal failure looks two months after the prior photo:



And a close up with the steel belt clearly showing now.




Luckily I have one of the original tires from this car to put back on (on the left). And I figured that the NOS tire would have been safer, that's why I installed it to begin with.

Silly me. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/rolleyes.gif[/img]

[PxTx]

Does the NOS wheel still have air in it?

[Day2_69Z]

Ahhhhh....
Put a tube in it and a patch kit...
Use it for a burnout contest assuming its an open drive !!!
[img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/burnout.gif[/img]
[img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/burnout.gif[/img]
[img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/burnout.gif[/img]

[njsteve]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: pxtx</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Does the NOS wheel still have air in it? </div></div>

Yes it is still holding some air. I'm gonna let the air out tomorrow. These tires were known to fail without ever being mounted on rims. They are basically donut shaped hand grenades.

[68l30]

Wow, scary stuff there Steve..I'd be very hesitant to use them on a static display. When they blow, look out. FWIW, that's a damn cool tire to own. I tried to buy a set last fall off a Vette..... [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/worship.gif[/img]


BIG

[njsteve]

I mounted the original tire back on the rim and took the NOS tire off. Once all the air was out, it reverted back to round and I cant even find where the failure points are any more. That is truly scary!

[njsteve]

Took the SD out for a cruise night last night. She ran kind of crappy on the way home. After a lot of searching, I discovered the end of one of the original vacuum lines had split and was really leaning the car out at idle. I had to clip about a 1/2&quot; of the line off to get past the damaged part. Runs fine now. This morning I put four gallons of 100 octane low-lead and filled the rest of the tank with premium. Took her for a ride and she runs nice!

Couldn't help but stop and snap a picture of today's mileage on the odometer: