Mounting an original Polyglas

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340wedge

340wedge

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I was lucky to come across a date coded Polyglas for my Duster that looks like it's never been on a car. There are no signs of dry rot or cracking and I want to mount it on my date coded rim. This tire is for my spare. SHOW ONLY and will never be on the car. My question is, when I go to get it mounted should I tell them to just fill enough air to seal the bead? Bottom line I don't want a 50 year old tire blowing up on anyone. Does anyone have any experience with this? Thank you.
 
I had a vintage set of M&H slicks that I wanted on some rims for a photo shoot and maybe a burnout or 2. They were 60's old but were not rotted from what I could see. The guy told me no guarantees and as soon as he put it on the tire machine to mount it, the bead ripped in a cloud of dust. He got the other one on and I took the shot anyway from one side but we were standing back when he aired it up to seat the bead. you can mount these pretty easily on a standard rim with some tire irons, just make sure you got the bead in the deepest part of the rim when you work it around the other side. It should almost mount with your hands. Good luck and stay safe airing it up.
 
pishta said:
I had a vintage set of M&H slicks that I wanted on some rims for a photo shoot and maybe a burnout or 2. They were 60's old but were not rotted from what I could see. The guy told me no guarantees and as soon as he put it on the tire machine to mount it, the bead ripped in a cloud of dust. He got the other one on and I took the shot anyway from one side but we were standing back when he aired it up to seat the bead. you can mount these pretty easily on a standard rim with some tire irons, just make sure you got the bead in the deepest part of the rim when you work it around the other side. It should almost mount with your hands. Good luck and stay safe airing it up.
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And don't look over the top of the tire when airing it up. A old customer had a bead break and blew up in his face. It wasn't pretty. Have the installer lube the crap out of it and just inflate it enough to seat the bead. A tube might be a good option.
 
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Like Pishta said, easy to mount with tire irons. Back when I was in high school I would swap my summer and winter tires myself. The trick I used for seating the bead was a rope around the tire with a stick which you twist to make it tight.. These days a ratchet strap will do the same.
 
Make sure that the old slow guy gets the job. Not the dipstick kid with airpods pulling this maneuver

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I’ve mounted dozens of old tires like this on a machine. It works fine, never a problem yet. They go on fast with a machine, mounting by hand is slow and you could be pulling the tire too far to get it on.

I air them to set the beads , then let the air out so it cant explode inside the trunk.
 
340wedge said:
I was lucky to come across a date coded Polyglas for my Duster that looks like it's never been on a car. There are no signs of dry rot or cracking and I want to mount it on my date coded rim. This tire is for my spare. SHOW ONLY and will never be on the car. My question is, when I go to get it mounted should I tell them to just fill enough air to seal the bead? Bottom line I don't want a 50 year old tire blowing up on anyone. Does anyone have any experience with this? Thank you.
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I would mount it by hand. It's very easy. If you're local to middle Georgia, bring it by and I'll put it on for you. Mount it, seat the bead and leave about 10-15 PSI in it.
 
We have a hunter tire machine where the rim spins and the plastic mount tooling is stationary. We mount all kinds of vintage tires with no issues. There is a wax style lube used so the bead goes on and seats when aired up easily. You need to find the correct tire machine for the job. The machine we have is a Hunter TC3500 it does most any size tire and rim. All parts that touch the tire and rim are plastic or rubber. No metal to mount a tire. We also have an old hand machine for special mounting of some tires.

Find a place that knows how to use what they have .

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Thank you for all the replies. Some excellent advise here!!!!
 
Long tire irons from Harbor Freight, soapy water and pop that thing on yourself. But if you’d rather have a shop do it just find a rink-dink rat-hole garage (junk everywhere, grease an inch thick on the floor) on the outskirts of town to do it for you. They’re used to mounting old tires and saving guys money. Whatever you do don’t waste your time and spend stupid money by going to any franchise type tire superstore (like Discount Tire etc) :rolleyes: :realcrazy:
 
jos51700 said:
Funny, that's what I would've said about buying tire irons at Harbor Freight
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Haha, whatever. :rolleyes: Pick some up at Walmart or from Amazon then:lol:
 
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12many said:
Haha, whatever. :rolleyes: Pick some up at Walmart or from Amazon then:lol:
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The irony (get it?!??!?) of my statement is that I say that because I don't buy Chinese stuff, but I'll wager that there's not any USA-made ones available anywhere any more.
So I was just :poke:you a little bit :rofl:
 
I ended up going to the local Firestone. They had no problem with the tire being so old, mounted it and didn't even charge me!
 
jos51700 said:
The irony (get it?!??!?) of my statement is that I say that because I don't buy Chinese stuff, but I'll wager that there's not any USA-made ones available anywhere any more.
So I was just :poke:you a little bit :rofl:
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I know where you were coming from. I felt the same way years ago and tried to avoid succumbing but the grooming :eek: eventually succeeded.
Try and buy 100% USA made brake rotors, drums, master cylinder, wheel cylinders, etc anymore or even the components to rebuild. Refused that stuff years ago but next to impossible like much. Anyway, Op got it mounted for free. Can’t beat that:thumbsup:
 
I just had a NOS bias ply mounted and all went well . Like you it is for display only .
 
I have an old 1966 used Goodyear Bluestreak with tube as a spare. Id use it if needed to get to a shop
 
It blows my mind how many of these old tires are even still out there.
The Coopers on my Neon are getting small cracks in them, and they're date coded 2019.
 
340wedge said:
I ended up going to the local Firestone. They had no problem with the tire being so old, mounted it and didn't even charge me!
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Plausible deniability .

No record of them mounting the tire in case something goes south.

Hope you tipped the guy in the shop.
 
Big_John said:
Plausible deniability .

No record of them mounting the tire in case something goes south.

Hope you tipped the guy in the shop.
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I did tip him which is why I believe they didn't charge me. They also printed me a receipt for the work done.
 
jos51700 said:
It blows my mind how many of these old tires are even still out there.
The Coopers on my Neon are getting small cracks in them, and they're date coded 2019.
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The Coopers on my Duster are rock-hard, and they're from 2020 and 2021. :soapbox::soapbox:
 
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