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Ok, it might not be the coolest thing, but I thought it was neat enough to share.
I bought several Ford 8 lug wheels and one of them had an original Firestone still mounted. It is a 700-16, just like the Coker Firestone tires that I put on my F-2. I cleaned it up and it is in pretty good shape. I’m not sure how many original tires survived, but I imagine they can’t be too common. I've been trying to decipher the date code, but no luck so far since it is so old. DK119448 makes me want to think 1948, but it's just a guess.
I think I’m going to break it down and restore the rim and then remount for a cool display piece. I think I’ll try to find an original hub cup to throw on it too.
To my understanding there is no way to decipher the old codes. I’d suspect you’ll have trouble breaking down and remounting the tire after you clean up the wheel. It’ll be so brittle it will probably come apart. Maybe just wire wheel the rim and paint. Stu
Several of us MH guys spend time in the quest for NOS traction tires because newly produced bias ply tires aren’t made in our sizes, or in my case because I think the currently available ones are ugly. I’m sure I’ve got a couple sets of NOS Courser Traction LTs that are forty plus years old and still look great. Stu
Cool find! I still find myself looking for wheels and tires even though I satisfied the needs, for my truck, almost 5 years ago. LOL Kind of like a scavenger hunt. Some day I'll hit the lotto😊 Thanks again Stu?
I like your plan to retire retired tires...You'll never get tired of it.. .
Ha, it’s a tired ole tire, it deserves a restful retirement.
I had a Firestone tire shop break the bead on it with the intent of cleaning up the wheel and then just re-inflating the tire. However, there was a good bit of rusty watery gunk inside so I had them remove the tire. It took two guys to get it off, they both said it was the oldest and stiffest tire they’d ever messed with.
Yup, I commonly resort to the Sawzall on them. Like your Firestone, I’ve held onto this old set of Wards Riverside Deluxe Hi-Tracs wishing I could find a way to rejuvenate them. Unlikely in the extreme. Stu
A couple friends of mine, brothers, have lots of Model Ts, including TT trucks. A lot of their TT truck tires are old. One of the trucks has a rear tire from WW2 on the rear, and the brothers keep running it. The old tire is hard as a rock, but the truck only goes ~20 mph and never far from the farm. Not worth changing until it disintegrates.
I'm not sure if these are as cool as your finds, but last summer I found a pair of NOS General tube type 7.50x16's at a yard sale which I'm dating back to the 60's. I grabbed them mostly for garage art, but if someone wanted them to complete a restoration they could be had. Seem to be in real good shape and stored indoors.
In the process of buying tires for my 100% stock restoration (as much as possible) of my 54 F100. I found the Firestone "tread design B" 650x16 are the original tire from the factory, but I cannot find that specific trend design in the reproduced line of tires made today by Cooker, University, Miller etc. The B tread was a little more beefy on the sidewalls and were 6 ply, as opposed to the reproduced Firestones that are 4 ply with fairly standard sidewall design. Oh well - I guess this fits into my "as much as possible" stock restoration.
Rezvani's Latest Post-Apocalyptic Monster Is a Ford F-150 Raptor Underneath
Slideshow: Called the Fortress, the 850-horsepower pickup combines Raptor underpinnings with military-inspired features, survival equipment, and a starting price of $285,000.
