That's a great report! I'm going to buy 165 radials
for my MGA next month to replace the old whitewalls
but also want someone to true my 48 spokers (they only
have 15K miles on 'em so not in the market to replace
them). I'm thinking about using the guy in Santa Cruz
- JB's Wire Wheel. Also considering the Italian wheel
guy over the hills from Oakland.
Regards,
Joe Mulqueen
'60 BT7 Project
'56 MGA
Date: Fri, 19 May 2006 13:55:24 EDT
From: Editorgary@aol.com
Subject: Rachel got new shoes (er, Tires)
Against all our bemoaning of the passing of an age,
last week I decided
I
needed to get new tires for my BN7 (named Rachel)
before trekking the
1800 or so
miles up to Nelson and back. The old Dunlop SP20s are
pretty much
treaded out.
So I went in to see my friendly local tire outlet,
Skip's Tires, in Los
Altos. Sure, he said 165R15s, no problem. Kelly metric
radials, 165R15
86S. Speed
rated to 116 mph.
Balancing wire wheels, likewise no problem because his
brand-new
digital tire
balancer comes equipped with centering cones for just
such an
application.
So, giving him a day to get the tires from one of his
other stores on
the SF
Peninsula (he runs a four-store chain in Los Altos,
Sunnyvale, San
Jose, and
Santa Clara), yesterday I dropped off the wheels while
I had the car up
on
stands to change the oil. Four hours later, I had the
new tires on the
wheels,
balanced neatly with the weights on the inner rim, and
was ready to put
them on.
Total cost for four tires, mounting, balancing, and
disposal of the old
tires
(we reused the old tubes and bands, which were in good
shape): $296.49.
So, even in this day and age, one can get proper
tires, properly
mounted, for
an Austin-Healey 3000.
Cheers
Gary
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