Spare tire

[Roald P.]

Hello

Im a new member from Denmark, Europe.

I working on a 1968 roadster, which I found in a garage last year (stored/not driven since the 1980's)



Just out of curiosity, how old is this spare tire?



The text on it says "Dayton Thorobred Blue Ribbon 70"

/Roald

[Tom H.]

Re: Spare tire

I bet there are some codes on it somewhere that might help us date this one. Looks like a classic 70's tire !

[Roald P.]

Re: Spare tire

I bet there are some codes on it somewhere that might help us date this one. Looks like a classic 70's tire !

I found some more pictures. Is it some of these codes? sorry about the bad picture quality.

[Bruce B.]

Re: Spare tire

Roald,
Somewhere on the tire is a date code which is sort of put on the tire with a hot stamp tool. The pictures you posted are all text which has been molded on the tire. You can see it is sharp and easy to read, the date code is usually pressed into the tire.
Look closely and you should find a date code of some sort. If you find it post it and someone will be able to tell you the date.
I think tires were dated in the 1970s.
Bruce B.

[Roald P.]

Re: Spare tire

Roald,
Somewhere on the tire is a date code which is sort of put on the tire with a hot stamp tool. The pictures you posted are all text which has been molded on the tire. You can see it is sharp and easy to read, the date code is usually pressed into the tire.
Look closely and you should find a date code of some sort. If you find it post it and someone will be able to tell you the date.
I think tires were dated in the 1970s.
Bruce B.

Thanks, I'll take a closer look.

[Mike M.]

Re: Spare tire

Roald,
Look on the other side (inboard side)
HaND

[Joe L.]

Re: Spare tire

I found some more pictures. Is it some of these codes? sorry about the bad picture quality.

Roald-----


I can tell you a few things about it but not its date of manufacture. First, it's quite old. Tires in F-70-15 tire size have not been generally available for a long while. Second, in case you're wondering, this brand and configuration tire was NEVER originally installed on a Corvette of any year, let alone 1968.

Lastly, on a different subject, I can tell you that the license plates on this car are very likely the original plates installed on the car when new. Plates with the alpha character prefix seen in your photo would have been originally issued by the California DMV sometime in late 1967 to early 1968.

[Tom H.]

Re: Spare tire

Roald-----


Lastly, on a different subject, I can tell you that the license plates on this car are very likely the original plates installed on the car when new. Plates with the alpha character prefix seen in your photo would have been originally issued by the California DMV sometime in late 1967 to early 1968.

I wondered about that.

[Doug J.]

Re: Spare tire

It looks as though one sticker say's AUG (August) and the other say's 68 (1968). If Calif. worked the same way as New York back then, wouldnt that make the registration expire in August of 1968, a year after the car was originally registered ? That would make the car a VERY early 1968 purchased and registered in August of 1967, the first month of production.

[Oliver B.]

Re: Spare tire

Roald, where in DK are you from? I live in Northern Germany (a little north of Hamburg), so maybe (if not too far away) one might meet for a cruise as soon as your "ship" is ready!?

Med venlig hilsen (we have a couple of Danish colleagues )
Oliver

[Roald P.]

Re: Spare tire

Roald-----


I can tell you a few things about it but not its date of manufacture. First, it's quite old. Tires in F-70-15 tire size have not been generally available for a long while. Second, in case you're wondering, this brand and configuration tire was NEVER originally installed on a Corvette of any year, let alone 1968.

Lastly, on a different subject, I can tell you that the license plates on this car are very likely the original plates installed on the car when new. Plates with the alpha character prefix seen in your photo would have been originally issued by the California DMV sometime in late 1967 to early 1968.

I did know that it was not original, but it is in very good shape, alot better than the tires it had on when bought. I'm just asking out of curiosity. Im going through the car, trying to identify what age the different parts on the car have.

About the plates, thanks that is nice to know, that is such details Im looking after

I found some other numbers on the tire.





How about the age on the spare wheel, I think the code says "29 AG"?

[Roald P.]

Re: Spare tire

It looks as though one sticker say's AUG (August) and the other say's 68 (1968). If Calif. worked the same way as New York back then, wouldnt that make the registration expire in August of 1968, a year after the car was originally registered ? That would make the car a VERY early 1968 purchased and registered in August of 1967, the first month of production.

Its a bit difficult to see in the picture but it actually says "AUG 88", which was around the time the car was exported to Denmark and then sat in a garage until last summer (probably due to a 180% import tax you have to pay here before it may drive on the roads) But that is probably what saved it. People did some wierd things to these cars here in the eighties.

The car is #13900, thats sometime around the first quarter of 1968, right?

[Roald P.]

Re: Spare tire

Roald, where in DK are you from? I live in Northern Germany (a little north of Hamburg), so maybe (if not too far away) one might meet for a cruise as soon as your "ship" is ready!?

Med venlig hilsen (we have a couple of Danish colleagues )
Oliver

I live close to Horsens, which is about 187 miles north of Hamburg. But I do know that we a few times a year have some meetings in CCD (Club Corvette Denmark) around the country, some may be close to the German border? 50-70% percent of the 700 members have c3's.

The car is fully driveable now, even the vacuum systems works. It needed a radiator recore, rebuilded the generator, distributor and carb + more. But I should be able to hit the road when the weather gets better.

To my surprise, there was no rot in the car and it was in generelly good condition although it had been stored so long. It must be due to its life in CA and a very dry garage here in Denmark





I have a another (NOM) '68 roadster, which I unfortunately was not so lucky with.

EDIT: I didnt even notice you wrote the last in Danish

[Jack H.]

Re: Spare tire

The sequence that's indented (appears to read 'U 00186 RW') looks like the mfgr's original identity code. That would place its mfgr prior to 1/1/68 when the DOT mandated identification sequences...

After 1/1/68 the sequences would read 'DOT xxxxxxxx' where the sequence was made up by each manufacturer but embodied the information required by DOT. It wasn't until roughly March of 1971 that DOT standardized the sequences into an 11-character code.

Prior to DOT rule making, most tire mfgr's had their own identity sequence for internal purposes (source traceability) but those sequences may not have provided the information DOT would later require (mfgr ID code, plant location, date of mfgr, Etc.).

[Terry M.]

Re: Spare tire

How about the age on the spare wheel, I think the code says "29 AG"?

On the left of the valve stem will be, maybe, K 1 8 1 ?
K = Kelsey Haynes
1 = plant of manufacture Romulus, Michigan
8 = 1968
1 = I can see in your picture = January

29 = 29 day of the month
AG = 15x7 size of wheel

So this wheel was made January 29 -- probably 1968.