Technical 64 Impala riding on 27 year old tires.... Too old?

I have a set of 27 year old 235/60-15 Grand Am Radial G/T tires that have been on my Impala since they were new in 1996. I had them on a set of Cragar S/S wheels for a few years then switched over to these because the 5-spokes were the unilug style bolt pattern and were hell to keep balanced. These were cheap and in stock at the time and they just grew on us, you don't see many Impala on moons.

The tires are kept clean and at good pressures, still have plenty of tread and don't show signs or rot or cracking. What are some things you guys look for on tires with this kind of age on them. Think these are still safe to cruise on or just replace them?

 

Per DOT yes.

 

What is the price of injury, life and your car compared to four new tires.

 

97, 87, 77? is why tires are marked with four digits today.

 

Hmmm...I just replaced a pair of 12 year old tires because they're too old.

You can do whatever you want.

 

I had a set of Mickey Thompson SS G60-15 Tires. They were always garaged and had about 8,000 miles on them. They looked brand new and were still soft. The shop that removed them called the other workers over to see them. They could not believe that I got them in 1984. This was two years ago. This was on an OT car and the majority of the miles were put on during the first 5 years I had them. That being said I would replace yours if you planned on driving at anything more than a few MPH.

 

Steel belted radials tend to have the steel belts come apart (tread separation) when they get old. Bias ply tires, without a steel belt, don't have that issue so much.

 

They look great........ but the look of a tire doesn't count towards the level of grip it will provide.
Rubber is a perishable substance. 27 year old tires will have hardened over time, and will have less road holding ability. Imagine them in the wet !!!!!

Would you trust that 27 year old condom still tucked away in your wallet ???

 

Only you can decide is the biscuit worth the risk it... ? Not to be a jerk but id be looking for better looking/ period correct tires, probably whitewalls anyway. Sell those and let the next guy decide if they're roadworthy. :edit: I had brand new tires from 86 on our GTO stored in the garage until 2020. They were completely dry rotted/ destroyed after I rolled it about 100yards. Amazing how nice yours are.

 

Yep, if the OP's tires were fitted in 1996 as he claims, that means they were manufactured in the 45th week of 1987 ........ or worse, 1977 !!! They may be older than he realizes.

 

I hear ya but what is the rule of thumb on tires like these. And is it different dependent on any variables with different tires? Bias/radial/capped cheaters, etc... Are they all different regarding when they should be replaced? Are there opinions or is it gospel on what thou shalt do in these cases regarding tire age of different tires, when they appear otherwise good. Educate me on what's a good guideline to follow...

 

Interesting, makes sense I guess.

 

Now you're putting it on terms I understand haha! That reminds me of a time...

 

So the 457 is the 45th week of some year ending in 7 then as I understand your saying? I'll bet it's 97, I'm probably just a year off thinking about when we bought those. I bet there were made in 1997. I want to say we bought them at the local Les Schwab. 97 has to be right.

 

That is the correct way to read a pre-2000 three-digit date code. Your tires may very well be 1997, but they also may have been stored new for too long before being sold/fitted. Either way, 27 years (or more) is way older than I would trust.

From 2000 on, the date code is four digits. This way you can nail the actual year down.

 

You are right... Grand Am is/was a Les Schwab brand. Not a bad tire, but low mileage in my experience. I had a set on my truck that were installed in 1997 and lasted 10 years/20K miles before they started looking "iffy" to me.
I understand your desire to run them (having just replaced tires on my wife's SUV... whew! Sticker shock!). Keep in mind that ambient conditions in storage (heat, humidity, air pressure and storage load) all have an effect on tires that may not be visually apparent.
If you choose to run them, make sure pressures are good and monitor wear and condition VERY closely with the thought that you may have to replace them if any issues appear imminent. Good luck.

 

Those tires look great. Until they don't. Rubber dries out and you can't always see it. This is what normally happens when you least expect it with old tires.

 

How are you going to feel when the tread peels off and destroys a quarter fender or a front fender? What is your life worth compared to a new set of tires? I would not run a tire that was ten years old much less 27.

 

When I was doing the chasing fires thing we kept records of the date codes on all the rigs and replaced them when the tire reached 5 years old. Replace them for piece of mind.

 

10 years max on radials. The bond between steel and rubber is not permanent.

 

It's your life, your fenders and quarter panels you can do as you please, but the damage from one of those tires failing can far outweigh the cost of a new set of tires. I don't run old tires on my cars for that reason.

 

Other than rare unobtanium tires for display only on select important cars there's only been 2 tire brands that earned a reputation as still road worthy. Old Denmans and the uber desirable Martin. Denmans were essentially heavy truck tires dressed for the prom. Martins seemed to always have a reputation of lasting nearly forever. Sage vintage car folk know of what I speak. And while the tires in the subject may look and feel good? I'd bet sustained speed and heat would expose the decay invisible to the naked eye in a rather nasty way.

 

We had an engineer from Firestone come to one of our AACA club meetings and the subject was just this, “how long is a tire good for?” He said for the most part 5 years is the maximum you would want to have them on before the rubber starts degrading. They might look good but at current highway speeds they will have a greater chance of blowing and possibly destroying lives and your car. I have 3 cars in the garage that have been sitting for at least 7 years and between them they might have 25 miles on the tires. I’m looking at one heck of a Coker tire bill with twelve 670/15 Firestone WW’s in the next month or two…..
On a side note the gentleman also said that during a burnout when the tire is hot enough to smoke up the place, you are loosing 80 miles of tread per revolution.

Billy

 

I pulled a set of BFG’s off my car because they were 11 years old. They had started slow leaking, about once a month you had to air them up. Only had about 10,000 miles max on them, if that many. Outside sidewalls looked great, but closer inspection revealed hairline cracks on both sides, as well as between the treads. The car had been under a roof the last 5 years, not moved. After I got it running again, I made two or three 5 mile trips at slow speeds, then bought new wheels and tires and replaced them. No way I was going to trust radials that old. I’ve seen the damage one can do when it sheds the tread or blows, not pretty.

 

Right on fellas, thanks for all the knowledge, experience, and feedback. I'm getting smarter every day, and glad to know some of those shared thoughts. I was pretty much figuring on replacing these tires this spring when driving season starts to hit so this all reinforces my thought on doing that. When I hit the switches and bounce this thing sky-high I'd hate to spit out a sidewall!! .... (Kidding...insert puke emoji lol) This car will see a few maintenance items and upgrades this year. She's been a little neglected and honestly not even been out of the garage much the last few years. I intend to change that! I would really like to strip it back down, block it out and give it a fresh paint job, probably with a color change but there's a lot going on this year. This car was originally ermine white with the blue cloth/vinyl patterned interior, 283/PG. I do like the black interior but we've also thought of swapping to the pleated style like a lot of the convertibles and super sports had, but keep the bench. I'll go at it on another thread if I get into this car this year.

Any fun ideas of what might be a good looking tire on this car, on a set of 15's? I don't know if I'll keep the chrome / baby moon setup or go another route, but I'll still probably run 15's. I'm not much on the larger diameter wheels on these cars. Drives me crazy....

 

Yes radial life is definitely limited to 10 years or less these days, the steel belt to rubber bond letting go is a real thing, glad you are making the wise move to just hang another set on them. Maybe you can make a tire store type display with the "new looking" old ones currently on the car.

 

Desperate times call for desperate measures. Trust would have little to do with it.

Now regarding those tires... since we are offering opinions, It's been my experience that it isn't the tire that will be the issue just the idiot driving the vehicle they are attached to. While I'll agree that they get harder, dry and crack, if the plan is to carve the canyons of the Cali hill sides, or 75-80 miles an hour on a dark desert highway cool wind in your hair, especially after dropping in that .o30 bored out multicarb wonder engine that the shop says was a corvette engine, best break out the Franklins and buy a new set.

But if your a poor mofo who just drives it around town like you actually value a dime spent, I wouldn't be so quick to recycle them. For the price however of mounting and balancing, off the rims they would not hold much value to me either for that reason.

 

I could be wrong, but seems the older radial tires did last longer than newer ones. Anyway, no more than replacements would cost for those, I would just buy new to not take any chances. I tried to run some 12 year old wide white radials that Roothawg gave me recently on my 60 Thunderbird and got about a month out of them before two developed lumps. Thankfully they were just lumps and didn’t come apart before I noticed.

 

I wouldn't drive over 45 or so with them, less problems if they come apart at low speed. I was going to replace two tires on my wife's car and decided to replace all four due to age and two of them were starting to separate on the back side, they were about seven years old with less than 50K miles. The owner of the tire shop talked me onto replacing all of them due to age and saved me a lot of problems since my wife drives on the interstate a couple of times a month.