How do you preserve tires?

Has anyone worked out a good way to preserve tires?

A friend of mine is restoring a 1966 Canadian Standard VW beetle, a very rare car and possibly the only one of this model that still has its original 1200 engine, upholstery, etc (it has 23000 miles on the clock, and this is documented correct).

He also has a complete set of VW of Canada Golden Miler tires. These were replacement tires sold by VW of Canada in the sixties and seventies. They never came stock on any car, and were available only from VW dealers. They have a distinct sidewall design with VWVWVWVWVW all the way around.

He wants to preserve these tires as long as possible, and install them for car shows. In other words he will have a set of new tires on the car to drive around, and will keep a second complete set of wheels and tires to use only for display.

The question is, how do you keep these old tires looking nice and preserve them as long as possible? I know there are some products that would make them look great for a short time, but cause cracking and ruin them after a few months.

Has anyone run into this before, and what is the best way to preserve old tires?

Slightly off topic but I'm curious about what's different about a Canadian Standard model as opposed to a Standard or any other 66 US model?

If you are a real gone VW fan you would know that there was no 1200 beetle in 1966 - that is the year the new 1300 debuted.

But there was. I bought the car 25 years ago and was surprised to see a 1200 emblem on the engine cover, in place of the familiar 1300.

The mystery was solved when I tracked down an original 1966 Canadian VW brochure. It was a 10 page number laying out all the great features of the new 1966 Beetle, of which 1 page was devoted to the Canadian standard.

This was a low priced model made specifically for Canada and sold nowhere else in the world. Other than the 1200 emblem it was put together from the parts bins. The 1200 40HP motor as used in previous years, a small license plate light from the early sixties, no chrome around the windows, 3 spoke steering wheel in place of the ivory 2 spoke job, no fuel gauge, single position rear view mirror instead of day/night. No chrome on the running boards. Possibly other differences that I don't remember.

But it had all the other features of a 66 beetle. The new 5 bolt wheels with flat hubcaps and oval holes (1966-67 only) salt and pepper upholstery ( 1966 only) etc.

66-67 were the last years with the old style bumpers, glass dome headlights, plain steel dashboard, and other old fashioned features. 68 was the big redesign.

Needless to say, most of them were improved over the years with newer motors, the nice steering wheel, etc. I only know of 5 or 6 1966 Canadian Standard beetles left, and none of them are as original as this one.

I know its whole history. For the first 17 or 18 years of its life it belonged to a gentleman in Peterborough Ontario who seldom drove it and babied it within an inch of its life. He then traded it in on a new car with less than 20,000 miles on it. A friend of mine bought it off the car dealer's lot and drove it for about a year. He needed some quick cash to get married so I bought it even though I did not need another car. So I put it into inside storage for 25 years. I sold it to a friend last year, and he is in the process of restoring it.

Over many years of VW collecting I saved up all the VW of Canada Golden Miler and Silver Miler tires off old VWs I junked. So, I had a complete set of Golden Milers that I gave to my friend.

He is a bodyman, and a VW and Porsche 914 guy from way back. He is doing a real nice restoration, and we are planning to show the car locally when it is done. Complete with the Golden Miler tires, the original brochure, his restoration photos, and a few other goodies.

If that isn't enough, I also have a 1966 Hazet Traveller hubcap toolkit. Not the familiar VW hubcap toolkit, but an identical kit made by the company that supplied VW, the Hazet tool company of Germany, but sold by Hazet tool dealers with the Hazet Traveller name stamped on them.

But I would really like to save those Golden Milers as long as possible.

Here is a page from the 1966 Canadian VW brochure. I tried to upload it but got an error message.

http://www.google.ca/url?sa=i&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&docid=3qmP2VeyfIx7TM&tbnid=IBK6skSogMJfyM:&ved=0CAgQjRw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thesamba.com%2Fvw%2Fforum%2Fviewtopic.php%3Fp%3D4846903&ei=DiqVU77YLqipsATe34CYAQ&psig=AFQjCNHq3SBF-mNDJSUf3W8sxSo2oJI3Dg&ust=1402370958884103

Note lack of chrome trim on the running boards and around the windows and the small license plate light. They call it the custom model which I suppose is more correct.

Here is the dash of a European beetle. The Canadian custom model used the same cheap looking steering wheel, dash etc but the speedo was in miles not kilometers.

http://images.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/520412.jpg

For comparison here is the 1966 export or deluxe beetle.

http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2013/12/23/hemmings-find-of-the-day-1966-volkswagen-beetle/

Note the chrome around the windows, the wide license plate light, gas gauge in dash, chrome molding and grab handle on dash, chrome on running boards etc.

Also the 1300 emblem on the deck lid.

In spite of the high dollar restoration there are a couple of things on this car I find questionable. The wheels should be white and semi gloss black, the white is too gray on this car. It should be almost a putty color, with a hint of green in it. And, I have never seen a VW with black steering wheel and white dash knobs. I believe the wheel should be white in this car.

Keep the tires out of the sun (exposre to UV rays)

Do not let them touch one another while in storage

(Best to hang the tire/wheel on a wall and not touching one another or the wall itself)

- Will let others opine on whether to keep inflated or to deflate

I keep a set of cheap vinyl covers on all of my trailer tires when not in use as I have to store them outside. The sun will kill tires faster than I will use them.

You can order these by size from J C Whitney or the likes.

Thanks for the info on the bug. While I would probably never own a VW, I still find them interesting, especially the models that are relatively unique.

I second the notion of preventing any UV exposure. I've seen OEM spare tires that lived in closed trunks for 40+ years that looked almost new.

Has anyone worked out a good way to preserve tires?

Have you asked the internet? I found this in under a minute:

http://www.303products.com/product-uses/tire-tech-facts

Anybody ever used, or for that matter even heard of the 303 product mentioned in the linked article?

It sounds like a miracle product that you have to use every 20 to 30 days. Maybe I could buy a set of tires every ten years figuring the price of the stuff and the labor time involved.

It seems there are several messages you can take from the linked site.

1. Do not use silicon on them, which is what tire and car dealers do, or at least did put on tires.

2. Protect the tires from UV exposure. You can buy or make a cover for each tire.

3. Store in a cool place.

4. Perhaps use a protective and rejuvenating "paint". Again, the internet will show you lots of types. For my money, I would look for something with good technical information available before I bought it. Most container labels are useless. The 303 stuff looks OK and you can find lots of such products on Amazon, for example.

From experience, always store tires vertical, not stacked.

A friend turned me on to Glycerin many years ago, you can buy small bottles of it at the drug store. He actually brought back tires that were so hard they would have broken if you tried to remove them. The really bad ones require soaking but watching close because they will turn to mush if soaked too long. for just preservation or small cracks just rub it on generously. It will actually fuse cracks back together. This doesn't make them safe to run down the road, just to keep them looking nice for show. I use it on some older tractor tires to keep them in good health, reapply about once per year, been doing it for about 20 years and they still look good. Also works good on old door seals.

I had an uncle that raced cars he told me to put tires in a plastic bags, store them out of the uv light, don't let them freeze but keep them cool. I have one set of tires over 20 years now, they still look and drive like brand new, use them on my 911 Porsche every few years. I use the thickest black "lawn and leaf" bags I can find. The best part is you don't get ditry from the tires when you move them, I just roll them into the bags.

A few suggestions:

1. Fill them with nitrogen instead of just compressed air - and keep them properly inflated

2. either remove tires/wheels from the car, or jack the car off the floor - this can help avoid flat-spotting

3. store in a cool, dry, no-sunlight location

4. do not use silicone or tire-dressings

5. do not lean against other tires, especially true for whitewalls

or

move south and drive all year long, like us

In the tires of my daily drivers I use 70% nitrogen.

All my tires contain 78% nitrogen. It is called air. For most of us there is no benefit in using all nitrogen. Formula one cars use nitrogen coz there is no water vapour in it so the pressure stays more constant (I think).

Levity aside, the use of nitrogen does help the tires to run cooler - but that is less important if you don't do much driving. We like to drive our old cars, and frequently drive cross-country. The more moderncars , those built since the mid-1930s, generally run at highway speeds (50-55) on State Highways. The '54 and newer models will run long distances at 70 mph all day long and their tires benefit from the cooler-running nitrogen.

Another benefit of nitrogen is that the tires tend not to leak-down as quickly as without the addition of nitrogen.

I feel that, for the extra few bucks, it can't hurt, and likely helps - kinda' like fuel stabilizers, lead substitute, waxing painted surfaces which are exposed to ozone and birds, etc.

All my tires contain 78% nitrogen. It is called air. For most of us there is no benefit in using all nitrogen. Formula one cars use nitrogen coz there is no water vapour in it so the pressure stays more constant (I think).

I agree. If you are concerned with the amount of possible water in the air use a moisture removing device on the air hose or fill up the tires at a temperature less than 0 deg F. There is little to no moisture at that temp. I personally think having pure moisture is a sales add on.

As for race cars using nitrogen my bet is that the nitrogen tank is portable and can be moved to any place needed with just a regulator. No need for a plug for a compressor. Just IMHO