Tires

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All, I'm in need of new tires on my 71 340 Duster (I'm the original owner). I like the Goodrich radial TA's but after reading all the reviews about how the letters turn brown, I'm hesitant. Today I found a aftermarket website that sells the White-lettered Goodyear Polyglas tires, HOWEVER, they're "radial" tires made to "look like" the original polyglas!!. Does anyone out there have these now or know of anyone who has them and if so, what has been their experience with them. The polyglas (bias) tires came from the factory on my Duster and since I'm hesitant to pay for white letters that turn brown in short time, I'd like to go with the "original look". They're quite pricey though, $299.99 a piece, plus shipping. Sure would appreciate any comments, thanks !!!!!
 
All, I'm in need of new tires on my 71 340 Duster (I'm the original owner). I like the Goodrich radial TA's but after reading all the reviews about how the letters turn brown, I'm hesitant.

I bought mine, Goodrich radial TA's, a few years ago. My fronts are fine, but the rears (wider profile) are turning brown. Any attempt to clean or make them look better is temporary.

Not sure about the Goodyears, sorry.
 
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I have seen poor reviews of the Coker reproduction tires, but primarily the redlines. I have no personal experience (yet). I'm supposed to have Goodyear redlines on my car.
If it were me? I'd buy either Cooper cobras, or, more likely in your case, the mickey thompson version (same company)
M/T has been making hi performance tires since your Duster was new, sorta period correct.
Edit: how much do you drive your car? Will your $1200 set of repop tires "time out" before they are a quarter worn out?
 
All, I'm in need of new tires on my 71 340 Duster (I'm the original owner). I like the Goodrich radial TA's but after reading all the reviews about how the letters turn brown, I'm hesitant. Today I found a aftermarket website that sells the White-lettered Goodyear Polyglas tires, HOWEVER, they're "radial" tires made to "look like" the original polyglas!!. Does anyone out there have these now or know of anyone who has them and if so, what has been their experience with them. The polyglas (bias) tires came from the factory on my Duster and since I'm hesitant to pay for white letters that turn brown in short time, I'd like to go with the "original look". They're quite pricey though, $299.99 a piece, plus shipping. Sure would appreciate any comments, thanks !!!!!
I would taken lightly run a scouring pad over the white letters to get them white again. Another friend of mine would use white shoe polish over them.
Letters turning different colors would definitely not scare me from running a decent Tire.
 
I have a spray that cleans up the white letters really well. It appears to be basic or acidic so be sure to use a lot of water.

Also watch the surface you use it over.
It left a mark on my concrete driveway the only shows up when it rains. Weirdest thing.

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The Goodyear Ploy Glas Radial lettering is similar but has the FR70-14 in white lettering as well.
The original didn't have that. Also the tread pattern is nothing at all like the original.
So from a distance the lettering looks ok but the tires only come in one size and the tread pattern is completely different.
Another option is the Mickey Thompson rwl tire. They are made by Cooper " same tire as the cobra but with M T lettering. Mickey Thompson was the original low profile street tire from the 60''s. The T/A's actually are from the late 70's.
Sportsman S/T™
 
I was just in the same dilemma for my 71 Demon 340. Looked around and couldn't pull the trigger on the high $$ Goodyears. At about $350/tire installed, that's a lot of greenbacks! So after much reading, I went with the BFG Radial T/A's. We shall see on the lettering. They sure look nice now and are also pretty much period correct. Got these for a bit over $700 less a $100 rebate. So if they brown, I suppose I could buy another set and be about equal $$'s.

Good luck!!
 
I couldn't resist and bought the bias ply Polyglas RWL tires for my 70 340 Duster. when I was at Carlisle I talked to Russell who owns a company Rusted Tires he quoted me $235 a tire which was $40 off the asking price per tire I thought about it for a few days after I got home and I called and placed my order. Free shipping and $940 later The tires arrived, For the amount of road time the car gets its worth the sacrifice of feeling every bump and nook and cranny in the road. Nothing beats the look on my freshly painted rallye wheels.
 
Actually not exactly period correct. The original T/A tire was an all Rayon construction tire and came in HR60-15 size only for Greenwoods Corvette sponsored by BFG in 72.
Different tire all together. Actual street tires trickled out starting in the mid 70's and were never an OEM tire, unlike the Goodyear Poly-glas, and Firestone Wide-oval which were original equipment on many performance cars.
The tread design changed as did the lettering size starting in the late 70's with the change to Alpha Numeric sizing and then Metric sizing.
BFG as well as Uniroyal were absorbed by Michelin in the late 80's and the tires change again, but this time on the inside. The current T/A is built on a Uniroyal steel belted carcass using a BFG T/A tire mold. The original T/A's were NOT steel belted radials and that was the trick to there high performance success. Early steel belted radials were prone to broken belts, belt seperations. The T/A was built in on Factory by a special team of tire builders to control quality. They used a 2 ply Rayon carcass and 2 xtra-wide rayon belts folded to make 2 layers for each ply. The tire ended up with 6 plies under the tread and no belt edge at the tires edges. Very good tire. No common radial separation problems. That tires was made before 1988.
How do I know this ? I started in the tire business P/T in 1968 working for Uni-Royal and then full time in 1973 for the west coast BFG tire distributor.
Anybody selling BFG tires in the Western US, bought them from us.
We each had to be T/A certified by BFG to sell the T/A line of tires.
 
I haven't heard about ta's turning brown but we always just took an SOS pad and hit them lightly to bring them back to Bright White but then again I haven't bought any etas in about 6 or 7 years.
Actually not exactly period correct. The original T/A tire was an all Rayon construction tire and came in HR60-15 size only for Greenwoods Corvette sponsored by BFG in 72.
Different tire all together. Actual street tires trickled out starting in the mid 70's and were never an OEM tire, unlike the Goodyear Poly-glas, and Firestone Wide-oval which were original equipment on many performance cars.
The tread design changed as did the lettering size starting in the late 70's with the change to Alpha Numeric sizing and then Metric sizing.
BFG as well as Uniroyal were absorbed by Michelin in the late 80's and the tires change again, but this time on the inside. The current T/A is built on a Uniroyal steel belted carcass using a BFG T/A tire mold. The original T/A's were NOT steel belted radials and that was the trick to there high performance success. Early steel belted radials were prone to broken belts, belt seperations. The T/A was built in on Factory by a special team of tire builders to control quality. They used a 2 ply Rayon carcass and 2 xtra-wide rayon belts folded to make 2 layers for each ply. The tire ended up with 6 plies under the tread and no belt edge at the tires edges. Very good tire. No common radial separation problems. That tires was made before 1988.
How do I know this ? I started in the tire business P/T in 1968 working for Uni-Royal and then full time in 1973 for the west coast BFG tire distributor.
Anybody selling BFG tires in the Western US, bought them from us.
We each had to be T/A certified by BFG to sell the T/A line of tires.
Very interesting and a great post. I remember my first set of TA radials they were like no other tire I'd ever had driven noticeable improvement over the bias plies that I had been running for years. They were the old tread pattern. The year was 1979 and I believe they were still almost $90 a piece. 265 50 14s if I remember right. I had them for a few months and then they met their fate with a knife in the sidewall one night .man I was sad and pissed.
 
If you're wanting white lettered 15 inch radials have you looked at Cooper Cobra's? When I used 15 inch tires (now using 17 inch) I liked Cooper's more than BFG's.
I also used Mastercraft in the past as well, they were ok but have poor tread life.
Then there's Mickey Thompson's (Both Mastercraft and Mickey Thompson is owned by Cooper), never had any experience with MT's so I can't say.
Hankook Kinergy is another one with white lettering I've never used this particular tire, but I've used their other tires before and they're ok.
 
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Here's an easy fix for those with the Goodrich TA's. I think I must have gotten a mix of old and new stock. My front tires are fine but the rears are browning. The new runs are problematic.

 
Are the polyglas radials in stock? They were on backorder with no production date.

So I gave up and bought cooper cobra. MUCH MUCH better tire that a BFG TA (BFG=basically frighten garbage) Plus they are more money now that they have been bought out.
 
I ain't running NASCAR, so I don't need the strobe effect of words spinning around my wheels as I drive, I'll run them black out and not worry about them turning brown.
 
Are the polyglas radials in stock? They were on backorder with no production date.

So I gave up and bought cooper cobra. MUCH MUCH better tire that a BFG TA (BFG=basically frighten garbage) Plus they are more money now that they have been bought out.
How are the CC's so much better? My issue with the BFG's are traction. There ain't much to be had!
 
How are the CC's so much better? My issue with the BFG's are traction. There ain't much to be had!
Exactly, traction sucks on the BFG. Guys buy 295-50’s and brag how they can litemup at any speed. Big deal they suck for traction.

coopers ride better, quieter, and the traction in every situation is better, wet or dry roads over the BFG. Ever try to go up a hill on wet grass with a TA?
 
Exactly, traction sucks on the BFG. Guys buy 295-50’s and brag how they can litemup at any speed. Big deal they suck for traction.

coopers ride better, quieter, and the traction in every situation is better, wet or dry roads over the BFG. Ever try to go up a hill on wet grass with a TA?

Bonus is Cooper and Hankook are cheaper.
Plus Cooper is still an all American tire company.
BFG is owned by the French Michelin company.
Hankook is S. Korean and will I buy them before BFG.
 
Those Cobras were the tire of choice on the dirt circle track here, for the Hobby Stock guys anyway. Had to be DOT tires don't ya know. :steering: They get good bite on clay :lol:
 
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