Firestone vs Lester

[31Buickroadster]

Just curious as to what everyone thinks about tires. I had Lester on my car that need replacement. I like the look of the Firestone, but Coker keeps delaying production and I have no shoes for my baby! Should I go back to Lester, or leave the Buick on stands until September..., or so?

 

Thanks

[JoelsBuicks]

Bought these 19" Firestones last November for my '31 8-67.  Look at the pics, that brown stuff doesn't come off.  They were immediately mounted upon arrival and have zero miles.  All five are like this and they are getting worse by the day.  Trying to get them returned.

 

 

 

[oldcarfudd]

You seem to be basing your choice on appearance.  So, which looks better to you at the height of driving/touring season: a '31 Buick on the road with new Lesters, or a '31 Buick in your garage indefinitely waiting for Firestones?

[Mark Shaw]

I run Lesters from Universal.  https://www.universaltire.com/

 

[Plyroadking]

I had a set of firestones on another car, the black base sidewall oil also leached through the whitewall rubber, plus they wore out very quickly. I think I got around 7k miles before they were bald, the BF Goodrichs that are on the car now have 12k miles and are about 70-75% worn

[31Buickroadster]

Thanks to all with your replies. I have Firestone WW on my Model A and on my 12 T, and have dealt with the yellowing problem. While on tour with MAFCA-WI I heard the comments about the whitewalls, and with mileage issues. Lesters it shall be!

Edited June 11, 2016 by 31Buickroadster (see edit history)

[michaelod]

2 hours ago, 31Buickroadster said:

Thanks to all with your replies. I have Firestone WW on my Model A and on my 12 T, and have dealt with the yellowing problem. While on tour with MAFCA-WI I heard the comments about the whitewalls, and with mileage issues. Lesters it shall be!

 

I would think twice.  I am having the same problem with a brand new set of Lesters from Universal.  These tires have never been on the road and have same problem with oil leaching through the sidewall which cannot be removed.  Needless to say I am extremely disappointed with the quality.  Is it possible the Lesters and Firestone tires are produced on the same line?

[Matt Harwood]

I've had the same problem on my '29 Cadillac which uses the Firestones and I'm so unhappy about it that I've pretty much stopped driving the car. Whenever I pull it out, the tires are brown and I need to spend an hour cleaning them before I feel that it's presentable to drive. I've given up. I'll buy blackwalls eventually and be done with it, but since I just spent about $3000 on the tires I have (these brown pieces of shiat) I guess I should use them up before I throw them away.

 

Almost all old car tires are made by the same large antique auto tire company that I'm no longer permitted to mention in regards to this issue, although it seems to have reached epidemic proportions. This large company has a familiar name and the mustachioed owner also owns Universal, Lester, and Lucas tire companies and has bought the molds for all the old car tires, including Firestone, BFGoodrich, and Goodyear. If it says Firestone on the side, it isn't made by Firestone, it's made by Mr. Mustache's company. You buy old car tires, they're all coming from the same place. If you buy anything larger than 17 inches in diameter for an antique car, it's going to turn brown, regardless of the name on the side. They are all made by the same company in one of two plants, one in PA and one in Vietnam, and regardless of where they're made, they WILL turn brown sooner or later. It's not just a "bad batch" no matter what they tell you. You can return them and they'll replace them, but the new tires you get will also turn brown, probably faster than the first set. They know about the problem, it's been extensively documented and I'm sure I can't be the only one who has complained long and loud about it, but this large antique tire maker simply doesn't care--they don't have to, where else will go you for tires? This is what a monopoly gets you, so unless you're willing to make your own tires, you're stuck with this crapola. My 20-inch Firestones are loud, but at least they turn brown quickly. Sigh.

 

Even cars at Pebble Beach exhibit this issue, and if those guys can't get it fixed by Mr. Mustache, I'm guessing there is no fix coming.

 

You can clean them with Simple Green and an SOS pad and they'll stay white for about a week. That's the best you can hope for. Good luck...

[Matt Harwood]

Got the '29 out today for the first time this season. Turn on the battery, hit the button, and the sucker started within 2 turns. What a fantastic car.

 

However, as it pulled out of the garage, my 7-year-old son says, "Hey, what's wrong with the tires?" They were very brown. So I pulled it out front, got the hose, some chemicals, a box of SOS pads, and got to work.

 

Left front clean, sidemount untouched. Note that the sidemount tire has never been on the ground and is less than a year old. Don't worry, Alice the dog isn't drinking chemicals or anything like that. She just likes to bite the hose water.

 

Sidemount tire before being cleaned. There's some somewhat heavy soiling due to the welled fender, but it did not affect the discoloration, which happens regardless of being in the sun.

 

Both tires "clean," sidemount reinstalled. You'll note that neither is totally white, but kind of creamy white with blotches of brown.

 

It took about two hours to do all six tires. I found that Simple Green and an SOS pad do the best job, staring with a dry tire, then rinsing, then going again. It still takes two passes per tire, sometimes three or four as in the case with the sidemounted tire, which still didn't come 100% clean. Bleche-White and a bristle brush are not as effective but are a good chaser because the SOS pad doesn't get between the lettering very well. So figure three or four passes on each tire to get it white again. We have our big show next Sunday (Father's Day) and I'm hopeful that they're still white. I may have to do it all over again next Saturday.

 

Also note how beat up my wheels are because I had to mount and dismount the tires twice--Mr. Mustache's company did replace the tires after the first set turned brown, but this set is even worse. Bear that in mind if you're thinking of taking them up on their offer of free replacement. Plus I still spent about $300 each time having them mounted and balanced, and next time I think I'll have to have the wheels repainted because of it.

Edited June 12, 2016 by Matt Harwood (see edit history)

[my31buick]

Ok guys my 31-50 needs new tires too. I love the big white wall look. can we buy all black tires and put the fake white walls on them or does this not work well?

[DonMicheletti]

Heck, a '31-50 is at the low end of the line and probably would not had had whitewalls in its life. Looking at period photos, whitewalls were not common.

Today most old car owners feel their cars should have every possible accessory  which, in my mind, may not be appropriately authentic.

Today you even see model "T"s that look like circus wagons, with bright shiny engines and drive trains. No where near how they looked driving out the factory doors.

In my opinion, a good restoration brings a car to how it looked as manufactured. And, an over restoration is almost as inappropriate as installing a 350 Chevy engine.

 

Avoid the problem completely with blackwalls.

 

Now I'll duck all the comments!

[DonMicheletti]

One other thing... I did have a '31-50 with blackwalls

[Terry Wiegand]

We have three Buicks ('16, '20, and '22) and they all have the BF Goodrich Silvertown Cord tires on them.  The '22 has 35 x 5 WhiteWalls and dual rear spares.  I bought this set of tires in late 2002 and they probably have around 250 miles on them.  They look as good as the day they were mounted on the rims.  As for any discoloration on the sidewalls, yes, there is some, but nowhere near what the tires on Matt's Cadillac looks like.  The next time I have the car out I will put the floor jack on the front axle and clean the fronts up first.  I am a huge fan of Westley's Bleche-White.  I have used this stuff for years and have had great luck with it.  I also use a very stiff bristled vegetable brush and give each tire two applications of the cleaner.  These tires come out almost snow white after that and we're good for quite a long time.  I do the same process on the BlackWalls and get a good result also.  I have tried using ScotchBrite pads on the tires and I honestly feel like that just wasn't cutting it.  I went back to the stiff vegetable brush and have no problems.  I have a good friend who uses a soft Brass wire brush on his Corvette wheels and he swears by the results.

Since we are talking about that famous tire company down Ten-O-See way, please let me relate what happened when I bought the new set of tires for the '20.  I have a friend out in California who bought a new set of the Silvertown Cords for his '18 Buick at just about the same time that I got mine.  I think we had had the tires about 5 or 6 months.  He calls me up one day and tells me that I had better get down on my hands and knees and take a good look at the insides of my tires.  I asked him what I was supposed to be looking for.  CRACKS MY FRIEND!  I grabbed the flashlight and HOLY SH#T!  There were cracks in all four tires on the ground AND the spare that were wide enough that I could stick my thumb nail into and not hit the bottom!  Keep in mind that these are high pressure tires and I run 70 pounds in all of the tires.  This was a dangerous situation in my way of thinking.  I called the famous tire company immediately and explained what was going on.  Their warranty person was out of the office for a few days.  I was asked to call back then.  Called back and got nothing but a bunch of back-peddling runaround.  I called back the next day and asked to speak with the owner (guy with the mustache) and was going to relate to him what was going on.  Could never get him on the phone to talk with him.  I changed my plan of action the next day.  The Chickasha Swap meet was coming up in a few weeks, I got the guy on the phone that had been giving me the line of crap and I simply explained to him how this deal was going to go down.  I told him that their company was going to bring me 5 new Silvertown Cord tires, 5 new brass stemmed tubes, and 5 new flaps and deliver them to me at the swap meet.  I will in turn deliver to them the 5 Silvertown Cord tires, tubes and flaps that I previously bought from them along with a copy of the sales receipt and that these tires and related parts are defective.  End of discussion.  The guy stammered around and told me that he didn't think that they could do that without seeing the tires first.  I told him that he could explain the why-not's to my attorney and that my next phone call was going to be to the US Department of Transportation and then I hung up on him.  It was less than 30 minutes and the guy with the mustache called me back and told me that they would have my new replacement tires, tubes, and flaps for me at Chickasha and that all I had to do was bring the defective products down with me to exchange.  The replacement tires, tubes, and flaps are fine - no problems whatsoever and this all took place in 2003 to early 2004.  My friend got his tires replaced too and he is happy with how things turned out on his end also.  For what they are getting for these tires today, I feel that a person has every right to expect a decent quality product.  Would I buy from them again?  Yes, but not willingly.  Where else can a person go?  They have the business all locked up by owning the original molds for these old tires.  Well, that's my story.  And by the way, the defective tires had less than 10 miles on them when the defects were caught.

 

Terry Wiegand

South Hutchinson, Kansas