Original Goodyear Poly glas tires

[JoeG]

--There was an article 12/68 in Hi Performance Cars mag covering the test of a New'69 Baldwin Motion Chevelle wearing Goodyears--They said the tires were part of the RPO-F41 Suspension package-----------

[Mr70]

Just looking through the 1969 Chevrolet Press kits & Communication kits/filmstrips.
They mention the Polyglas tire and Fiberglass belted Wider tires,but no Goodyear Polyglas white lettered pix or reference.
Only the Goodyear Wide Tread reference & pix as stated earlier on SS cars.

[JoeG]

---Checked the article photos Rick--The tires are Goodyear wide treads----- --%$#&^(*Wisea$$)

[mrrec]

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

[camarojoe]

Great post Dave...

[YENKO DEUCE REGISTRY]

This is an idiot question, but what is the difference between a belted and non-belted tire? What is the significance of fiberglass vs. other materials used in the tires?

[GaryH]

[ QUOTE ]
This is an idiot question, but what is the difference between a belted and non-belted tire? What is the significance of fiberglass vs. other materials used in the tires?

[/ QUOTE ]
Not an idiot question at all as I was wondering the same thing.
I've been looking for some 15" polyglass white letter repops but all I see listed are 14"s. Are they making them in 15?

[mrrec]

Thanks, Joe.
Marlin, Gary: Bias ply tires have "plies" or cords running from bead to bead on an angle or bias (not at a right angle to the bead as in a radial). Belted tires have a "belt" (picture a wide, flat belt running radially around the tread of the tire) over the cord plies and under the tread. Do a Google search for "tire construction" and see what pops up.

Belted tires first used fiberglass belts, then steel belts became prevelant in the mid 70's on radials. There is a real mix out there nowadays. Incidentally, to the best of my knowledge, there has never been a steel belted bias ply!

Kelsey, the distributor of vintage Goodyears, has F70x15 Polyglas and Wide Tread and F60x15 Polyglas (and E70x15 for the Z - the E70s for the Z28 weather Goodyear or Firestone, were not belted. Hard to figure, I know). In the Firestone brand, add G70x15.

And Gary, the Vette guys say the Polyglas is wrong for ANY Vette through 72. You need Wide Teads to be correct. But if you must have Polyglas, and you don't want repros, I have a set of original 1972 (I think) dated F70-15 Polyglas that are very good to mint.

That's enough, I'm tired (couldn't resist).
Dave

[ohhawk]

Agree, very informative summary from mmrec. I worked for Goodyear for a couple of years during the early 70s when the Polyglas tires were making their entrance (during the time when Goodyear stores were selling everything including appliances). Most Polyglas tires at the early stage of release were certainly not RWL versions but primarily were black or W/S.

There is alot of misinformation out there as mmrec points out very well. Polyglas became a key ingredient on many Goodyear tires even though they weren't the RWL version that said Polyglas.

As I recall the benefit of fiberglas was in layman's terms to give you more miles from your tire. The two fiberglas belts along with the two polyester (some later used Rayon) gave the tire more stability/rigidity allowing the tread less squirm on the road = more miles per tire. Most mfg's at this stage used a 2/2 design of 2 ply fiberglas and 2 ply polyester. The polyester still gave the tire some give for purposes of riding comfort. An all polyester tire would give an even better ride but less miles per tire. I do remember that the fiberglas belted tires had ongoing problems with "cupping". You had to keep them balanced. Many drivers would come back after owning the tire for awhile and would have the cupping problem and would expect an adjustment for a new tire.....no adjustment would be given for this issue.

Believe you can still get the 15" Polyglas repro tires from Kelsey Tire.

[William]

FG belted RWL tires are on the April rev of 1969 Camaro Dealer ordering info. That means from about May until the end of production those tires were available.

That spans about 70,000 cars and you know how everyone of them was built. Amazing!!