Bias Ply Tire Dating?

[Carr C.]

I have an EXTREMELY nice Firestone 500 7.75x15 whitewall tire from the spare tub of a 65 coupe I bought. The car has 40,000 miles on it. The tire has no DOT stamp on it, and still has a little cloth tape piece on it which I'm guessing is some type of manufacturers indentification like the ink stamps they use tody.

How can I tell what date the tire was made, and what to look for to tell if this tire is something special?

Thanks!

[Richard M.]

Re: Bias Ply Tire Dating?

Carr, I had a non DOT spare in our 63. BFG Silvertown. I couldn't decipher the date either. I looked all over the internet and only found dating for DOT tires after it began. The non DOT tires maybe used different codes based on the manufacturer.

Rich

[John H.]

Re: Bias Ply Tire Dating?

How can I tell what date the tire was made, and what to look for to tell if this tire is something special?

Thanks!

Prior to DOT coding, manufacturer ID was whatever they wanted to use; DOT didn't mandate the standard DOT format with the last three digits being the date code until May, 1971.