evidently you better have GOOD tires on your project, yeah, im crying

welp, ive been working on this 68 Galaxie XL convert for a while now, and last week I finally got the front fenders and hood on, after they were painted/wet sanded/buffed, so it was finally looking like a car again.

Not so much anymore

Yesterday morning I walk into the shop and the drivers side front of the car is sagging, so I check it out and the tire has blown out, spontaneously, it has been sitting for a month now and for some reason NOW it decides to blow out. And im not talking some little "pop, uh oh, the tire is flat" no no no, that would be toooo easy. This tire EXPLODED as you will see. During the blast, it bent the fender out on BOTH ends, cracking the paint in MANY areas.

Then I took the tire off, only to find the inner fender COMPLETELY mangled. It ripped the fender right through the bolts in 3 places, and also put a 6 inch tear in the top of it.

What a mess.

Now I get to start the bodywork over again!

moral of the story: If the tires on your project are noticably cracked or weather checked, look closer. These tires seemed fine to roll the car around in, and have held air for over a year. I knew they wouldnt be roadworthy, but I shoulda looked closer to see if they were PARK worthy!

 

Damn, I'm sorry... I better check out the tires on my desoto before I put the front end back together. Thanks for the warning and it's a shame it had to come at such a high cost. I like the color though.
-bowtie

 

Sorry to see it caused so much damage....1 step forward--2 steps back.
That just plain SUCKS.

 

That reminds me of when me and my best friend went camping one night. Pulled into the campground late (10:30) and were setting up our tent when one of his tires exploded on his car. Scared the shit out of us and pissed of a bunch of campers until they found out what it was. Good reason to check for dry rot on the tires.

 

wow, my car and my bros car might have explosive tires on em, that sucks how random is that??? didnt even know tires couldnt be park worthy

 

That is just too damned strange.

Sucks it did all that damage, as if a flat wasn't enough.

Good luck with your repairs.

Randy

 

That is totally weird....

 

man that has gotta suck

 

How much pressure were you running in that old tire?

 

BIZZARE! Sorry to see that happen!

 

First time I saw that happen was on a friends Caddy. It was sitting in the driveway nobody around and the wife heard a loud pop. Looked around and didn't see anything and didn't give it a second thought.

Later that day my friend comes home from work and walks by the car and noticed the rear of the hood was sticking up about 2 inches!

Aparently the tire had done the same thing, just spontaneously exploded.
We were all shocked at the damage it had done. It was a later model with the plastic inner wheel house and it distroyed it and buckled the fender out and bent the hood hinge.

THe insurance adjuster was even surprised. He had never seen anything like that.

Don't think I don't always think of that incident when I'm filling a tire at the shop or at home with my face less that a foot from the tire.

 

I wondered that too. All my years I have never seen a tire blow like that just setting there. The pressure looks like it may have been too high.
That's unbelievable the damage..... Could you imagine what that could do to someone working near there in an opened wheeled vehicle.
Sorry to hear that, Walk away for a while and come back anew.

 

I've seen that happen a couple of times. Usually, it's due to an unseen fault in the tire, like a nearly severed belt or something. My buddy's little brother had it happen on his old Tempo...and it just about ripped the whole front fender off on that little tin can!

Having worked at a tire store for some time years ago, we saw the results of this type of incident fairly regularly. Mostly with old tires that were of poor quality even when they were new. But, now and then, we'd see it with newly installed tires, too...all it takes is a small defect in the tire's construction...coupled with a little air pressure and the weight of a vehicle...

 

Wow, That was a pretty good wake up call. And a pretty good blast. I hope the office of homelant security doesn't come knocking on your door Ill be checking my tires today. Sparkxx

 

That definitely just plain sucks, I don't think I've seen that much damage occur from a parked car.

 

"How much pressure were you running in that old tire?"
As rodders, we probably already know not to trust other people's work, but always check your pressure when you buy a tire or have any work done by anyone else--I once checked the pressure on a newly purchased brand new tire when I got home from the store, and it pegged my 110 lb pressure gauge!
I unscrewed that valve a bit at arm's length with my left hand, and fled the scene until the pitch of the whistling dropped some.

 

I have never heard of such a thing. But thanks for the information, I'll be checking my tires more carefully. Sorry about your incident, but I'm glad you weren't hurt. Think if you'd been leaning over the fender working under the hood!

 

I had the same thing happen, but it was about 1/2 hour after I took the wheel off (I was putting new front wheels on my car). It was just sitting there leaned up against the garage, and BOOM! The noise it made rivaled the best pyrotechnic devices I've ever played with, and it scared the hell outta me... Like was said, what would've happened if it would've gone while I was taking it off the car, or rolling it to the the garage?

PS: The steel wires in exploded tires are SHARP AS HELL!!!

 

WOW, this is really a bummer. Like others have said, it's a good thing no one was near and that you didn't get hurt. It does really suck about all that extra body work and paint though.

 

That's a bitch, at least since you've already been through the body work once before you know exactly how to do it this time so it should go a little faster.

 

I just read an article on steel belted tires. Anything over 5 or 6 years old has the potential of breaking. The last 3 numbers in the serial number are the build date. 114 would be November of '04. Or would it be November of '94.
When in doubt, throw out.

 

What you really have to watch is that fix-a-flat stuff. If this happened with a can or two of that, you would really have had a bomb. That crap has butane in it, and is really flammable.There was a guy in my home town killed when he attempted to repair a leak with a plug. The owner of the car had put in three cans of that stuff. When the guy stuck the tool in the hole it apparently sparked against the steel belts, and boom.It blew the garage doors apart, blew the car right off the rack And killed him in the process. I haven't used any since, and this thread really confirms my feelings about it.

 

I was telling a buddy about this today and he REMINDED me of when a guy was filling a truck tire at our local truck-stop 15 years ago, and when the tire blew, it just about decapitated him. ( i had forgot about that incident )

 

believe it or not, 32 pounds

I always set tires at 32 pounds, and the rest were at 32 (I checked).

These tires havent seen road use for probably 3 or 4 years, and had some cracks and weather checking, but probably had 50% tread left so it wasnt like they were bald and the belting was exposed. I would guess that the tires are around 10 years old, which really scares me because we have got some other projects that are probably sitting on 20+ year old rubber, just because they hold air and work to roll the car around.

I had a fun day, I got to take my hood and fender off, and also was graced with the pleasure of putting 4 different tires on the rims. I figured I better get some good tires on the car before I wake up one morning and find my new quarterpanels are laying on the ground!

oh well, no one ever said that this hobby is easy...........

 

It could be worse i suppose. Not really, but at least your getting more bodywork practice.

 

I've seen that kind of damage from a tire that blows on a moving car.
I've never seen it on a tire that went while sitting!
Wow!
That tire must have been in pretty bad shape.

regards,
Doug

 

that blows. sorry couldt resist.

but on a serious note, i took a "tire class" years back when i was working at a ryder truck rental place, and they had us watch a tire safety film, almost as bad as the ones we hadda endure in high school shop. anyhow, they showed pics of a tire explosion and the resulting injuries sustained when a guy was filling and setting the bead on a trailer tire outside the tire cage... compressed air means business and the shit dont like being pent up inside a tire by no means. the guy that got hurt, well, killed actually, was blown up against a ceiling over 20" tall.

moral of the story, learn from a cheap (body parts wise) mistake and move on. good advice for all from briggs&stratton about having safe tires even for mockup and shop rolling chassis.

sorry your car got messed up, but im sure as hell glad you didnt have your face under there working on it at the time dood.

T

 

Wow, I now have proof........ that Murphy is omnipresent. He just does not live at my shop..

Really this post just makes me sick........ to hear all that hard work to be screwed up by a stupid tire. Thankfully no one was hurt. Cars can always be fixed.
I had a visit by him a couple days ago. I was taking a steering wheel apart, when the horn button poped off flew 25 feet, to land on a fresh new covered up fender. (so nothing would happen to it ). All you can do, is your best, to be careful but stuff will happen.............

 

I thought maybe you had a little helper with an air hose around the shop. After closer inspection of your photos, I'd say the old tire suffered from cord shift or had a bad hole repaired years back. You can see where it blew at a specific point. This thing was waiting to happen for a long time.

I remember a tire blew in the driveway when I was a kid, but we didn't have your kind of dammage.

 

Damn, when I was young and broke (as compared to just broke) I had a little toyota that I had to drive for a bit with wire stiking out of the belt!!!!