Chema Blasco

Thanks a lot. I will join the club. Chema

I am restoring a 1941 Cadillac two door convertible (VIN 8359640) and I will appreciate receiving pictures or diagrams (exterior and interior) on how the rear trunk lid latch should be installed in the car, as well as general pictures of the inner view of the rear trunk. I will appreciate also receiving information on a suitable source for technical manuals of this car. If you prefer, you can contact me directly by e mail: jblasco@unizar.es Thanks

Thanks for your clear and helpful responses. And yes, I was informed by the Universal Vintage staff that the Lester’s, Coker’s and Firestone’s are produced by the same manufacturing company. However, I have to say that in the last few years we have purchased nor less than 10 tire sets of 4.75 -5.00 x 19 (or 21) for several model A Ford club member cars, and we had never experienced the problem. At least 5 sets of BF Goodrich tires have been also purchased in the club and no problems occured. However, the problem has been recurrent with the last 6 sets of Lester tires purchased in the last five years or so to Universal. The aspect of our problem Lester tires is identical to that clearly evidenced in the posted pictures of the nice 1918 Kissel. We are unable to recover minimally the tires to our shows, and the only solution is turning back the tires placing the white wall directed to the inner part of the cars…..really frustrating. I wonder if given the extended nature of the problem we should take altogether some legal (or at least a serious protest) action against Universal (or the manufacturing company). Unfortunately, I am living far away from you (Europe; Spain), and apart of the many e-mails or phone queries submitted to Universal, my level of potential legal actions is quite limited if any. Obviously, I have decided neither to purchase nor recommend purchasing Lester tires anymore.

Hello I would like to comment the serious problems we have had repeatedly with several recent batches of Lester White Wall tires purchased to Universal Vintage Tires. As you can see in the pictures attached as example (corresponding to 5.25-5.50 x 19” WW tires -purchased for my 1931 Chrysler CM-) only one of the four new tires purchased started to become with a dirty and very poor aspect without any use only few weeks after being installed in the wheels and after a gentle cleaning (see below) of the blue protective coat sprayed by the manufacturer. Sometimes the problem is generalized affecting all the tires purchased. However, in other batches, only few of the new tires are affected. Old Lester batches (even purchased by me more than 10 years ago) were never showing this problem. I have commented these problems to Universal Vintage company, and even sending samples of the affected tires (that were destroyed for such purpose). The company was returning new ones to us free of costs (we had to pay shipping costs again) but I never received any explanation on the research conducted to investigate the problem. I have contacted this company again since we have had exactly the same problem with the new replacement tires provided. They replied that they have not identified the source of the problem, and that the only thing they can do is offering us a discount (not the real value) on a new batch. They think, moreover, that the problem is produced by the cleaning procedure used by us. However, we have been using always the same cleaning procedure when purchasing new tires. We use common dish or hand-wash detergents (Ajax or Palmolive) diluted in tap water cleaning gently the protective blue coat with heavy duty sponges (Scotch- Brite). The problems appear very soon after cleaning (in a few weeks) even without using the cars. Once the problem appears, we are not able to fully recover the clean and bright aspect of the new tires. We have repeated this cleaning procedure for years in many BF Goodrich and Firestone WW tires (and even in many Lester batches of the same manufacturer) having never experienced this problem. Once cleaned, the new tires are protected from direct sunlight (we have even maintained the new tires covered without any significant improvement), and the cars are maintained in the same garage and environment with many other cars installed also with white wall tires, and that never have been showing the problem. I will appreciate any comment. Yours sincerely JM Blasco Spain