New rubber

Hi folks - happy Labor Day Weekend! Are you sick of hearing about my truck? I suppose we could change the blog to "Mike's Old Truck Project" versus Our Seattle Adventure, as I could be doing this in whatever city. Well, when I bought the truck, my goals in the short term were to:
1) Fix the brakes - done
2) Change the tires - done (this post)
3) Install seat belts

Well , there were some bumps along the way!

Anyway, the tire thing proved more work than it should have - the rims on the wheels were 16", but designed to be used with inner tubes. The four tires were bias ply - front 6.50-16 and back 7.00-16. They were all terrible. Bald. The back ones were retreads, and it looked like the tread was peeling off. The thing bumped and glided all over the road, tracking in every road imperfection. The date branded on the tires was 1975 - so older than me!

I could find replacement bias tires on the internet from Jim Carter, but who to install? Most of the tire shops around here have young kids (with strong backs) that don't know how to work on these. My 35 yo neighbor saved the day - he found 4 16" radial tires (10 ply) off a duallie. Two were near perfect, two were somewhat worn, but still plenty of tread. $50 apiece for the good ones, $15 apiece for the worn ones. Bigger than the original tires, but would work. I found new tubes on E-bay. Plus a spare tire - it was a weird size - 6.70-15 - so no radial conversion. But I found a new old stock bias tire on E-bay that was perfect!

Jeremy (my neighbor) came home on Sat evening after work (his tire shop) - we ripped off all the tires and mounted the new ones in the yard! I have to emphasize Jeremy -- I'm not skilled with tire irons. But now they're on!

Now I just need to get the truck running again - but I figured out the problem... the wire between coil and distributor is shot! So I'm not getting a spark! More to come... Awaiting parts in the mail (story of the year).

Anyway, I took some pics of the tires - front left (radial) and spare (bias, new old stock or NOS).

Now I just need to work on those seatbelts...

Mike