1970 Original Spare Tire

[Terry L.]

Here are a few pictures of my spare tire from my 70 March built car , The tire has never been mounted and its been in California its entire life until 3 years ago, so I think the color hasn't faded much. You can see the poor coverage and quality. Notice the puddling / runs of paint at the low point. You can still see the letter 3 marked on the side of the tire and top tread. I dont no what this signifies.

I have had no luck in finding someone to color match this for the rest of my rims.

[Michael F.]

Re: 1970 Original Spare Tire

I "had" the original spare in my car until one day few years back I noticed something sticking out of carrier...upon further inspection it was part of the tire....it had blown out while in the garage, also never been down so to the trash heap it went

[Joe L.]

Re: 1970 Original Spare Tire

Here are a few pictures of my spare tire from my 70 March built car , The tire has never been mounted and its been in California its entire life until 3 years ago, so I think the color hasn't faded much. You can see the poor coverage and quality. Notice the puddling / runs of paint at the low point. You can still see the letter 3 marked on the side of the tire and top tread. I dont no what this signifies.

I have had no luck in finding someone to color match this for the rest of my rims.

Terry------


The quality of the paint finish on your wheel is VERY typical of Corvette rally wheels. These wheels were painted at St. Louis and, apparently, the quality of the finish was not a priority. Plus, St. Louis Corvette was an ancient assembly plant that was "cramped" for space. The wheels were probably painted under primitive conditions.

[Alan S.]

Re: 1970 Original Spare Tire

Hi Terry,
Good pictures of something that's asked about often!
It's interesting to notice how clear the stamped information is... I guess the result of very thin layers of primer and paint.
Do you happen to have a picture of the rear side of the wheel you can post?
Thanks very much.
Regards,
Alan

[Terry L.]

Re: 1970 Original Spare Tire

Alan,
Here are some pics of the back side. Not much, if any at all, of the silver blow by on the back side,

[George C.]

Re: 1970 Original Spare Tire

Terry------


The quality of the paint finish on your wheel is VERY typical of Corvette rally wheels. These wheels were painted at St. Louis and, apparently, the quality of the finish was not a priority. Plus, St. Louis Corvette was an ancient assembly plant that was "cramped" for space. The wheels were probably painted under primitive conditions.

While selling Corvettes at Palmyra Motors back in the 70's a St Louis worker was visiting relatives and happened to stop by our dealership. I question him about the seams and poor quaility.......he looked me straight in the eye and told me you'd be able to do a better job painting your Corvette in your garage at home. Those folks at St Louis did one heck of a job building Corvettes. They really did work in primitive conditions.
That plant was old, The first Chevrolet was build there back on Feb 20, 1920. Assembly of passenger cars and trucks continue all those years with Corvettes being added to St Louis on Dec 28, 1953. I couldn't even imagion how cramped that plant must have been. But thank God (and Duntov) Corvette survived. Save the Wave.>George

[Joe L.]

Re: 1970 Original Spare Tire

Alan,
Here are some pics of the back side. Not much, if any at all, of the silver blow by on the back side,

This wheel is unusual in that I see little or no argent silver "overspray" on the rear of the wheel. Usually, when the front of the wheel was painted, quite a bit of paint went through the slots on the wheel and deposited itself on the inner rim surface.

[Joe L.]

Re: 1970 Original Spare Tire

While selling Corvettes at Palmyra Motors back in the 70's a St Louis worker was visiting relatives and happened to stop by our dealership. I question him about the seams and poor quaility.......he looked me straight in the eye and told me you'd be able to do a better job painting your Corvette in your garage at home. Those folks at St Louis did one heck of a job building Corvettes. They really did work in primitive conditions.
That plant was old, The first Chevrolet was build there back on Feb 20, 1920. Assembly of passenger cars and trucks continue all those years with Corvettes being added to St Louis on Dec 28, 1953. I couldn't even imagion how cramped that plant must have been. But thank God (and Duntov) Corvette survived. Save the Wave.>George

George------


I believe the plant building was actually constructed not long after the turn of the 20th century and initially manufactured wooden components for Chevrolet trucks.

I'd guess that if the "Corvette promoters" within GM at the time had insisted on a shiny new assembly plant for their new sports car, GM executive management would probably have killed the car right then-and-there. By using an existing (and paid for) but otherwise idle facility they were able to "scrape by". They probably figured that they'd improve the "dungeon" over time, a few bucks at a time.

[John H.]

Re: 1970 Original Spare Tire

The building which later became the Corvette plant was built in 1919, to cut, mill, and shape oak and ash wood body framing parts for the Fisher Body plant that built the bodies for the adjacent Chevrolet assembly plant; that's how it came to be known as "the Mill Building", and was still referred to by the old-timers as "the Mill" during Corvette production.

The "3" scrawled on that spare tire is the last digit of the assembly sequence number for the car; that's how they kept track of the sets of five tires and kept them in line sequence before they ever got to the installation point.

[Terry M.]

Re: 1970 Original Spare Tire

Beautiful wheel and tire.

You didn't ask but the tire is dated the 6th week or 1970. Around the beginning of February. Made in the Akron II plant.

[Terry L.]

Re: 1970 Original Spare Tire

Beautiful wheel and tire.

You didn't ask but the tire is dated the 6th week or 1970. Around the beginning of February. Made in the Akron II plant.

Terry,

Thanks for the info again, You responded to my PM I asked you on August 31 regarding the date code

Terry

[Alan S.]

Re: 1970 Original Spare Tire

Hi Terry,
Thanks AGAIN for the additional pictures.
The close-up of the balance weight appears to show an even, fine, 'mist' of silver on that area as though the front of the wheel was getting one swipe of paint and that's all.
Regards,
Alan