Shaved my first tire today

All summer and fall I've put up the the out-of-round Firestone bias ply 55MPH tire shake. Other teething problems on this car needed sorting out first, but about six weeks ago, I visited an old time tire shop who had trued tires for me in the early 70's. The near 80 year old owner said he hadn't shaved tires in 30 years, but after some conversation, he admitted that the machine was still in the old shop building. More conversation and he took me over to the old building and showed me the Dynatrue tire truing machine. It was buried among more old tire store equipment, but seemed to be pretty much there, so I asked if it was for sale. He said no, so I left my number and asked him to think about it. Last Thursday I made a follow up visit. The old fellow took me to the old shop again, and the Dynatrue was on a pallet, out in the open. Friday I brought it home. It took all weekend to repair the wiring and pneumatic solenoid, replace the bearings in the cutting head, and lube and adjust the cross slides. After I figured out the the crown following cam and the self sharpener for the blade, I cut my first tire this afternoon. It was a new, never down space saver spare, and a good 16th inch out of round. I left the painted lines on he lowest area to show the cut area. I've searched here, and on some race sites for tire truing information (and found some good stuff), but I'd appreciate any advice, tips, or tricks, from anyone who has done this past or present.

 

That's a hell of a machine. With the popularity of bias plies these days you should be able to recoup some of your money by shaving them for people. The place I just went charges $ 12 a tire and I thought that was reasonable.

Don

 

I see a side business in your future!!!

 

Cool, now you have something you can post on the Hamb'Odex

 

Now that is what i call an awesome score.
Even more so if yo can use it to "carve" sidewalls to make your own white, or whatever color, walls, and then shave the lettering off of them too.

 

Great: I would send you my tires to do but the shipping would kill me.

 

I worked at a tire shop that use to shave out of round tires. Nice score! You saved this piece of automotive history from the scrapper for sure!

 

great save, all the old shops that used to do it around here are gone, what other old tire store machinery was there? an old air bead breaker tire machine with the hand bar would be great-had one loaned it to a fellow when I was buidling my house and he dissappeared with it!

 

There is a tire shop in Racine, WI that still uses these machines (they have two of them) on every new tire they install.

O'Brien Tire.

 

nice find.....have fun with it

 

I feel like a kid with a new toy. I had a 2 day project I finished early this afternoon and couldn't wait to true my front tires. Since it was clear and sunny (40&#730, I took the roadster out for a 20 mile tire warm up drive, then jacked up both ends of the car to keep the tires from flat-spotting. The Kelseys mounted on the machine's arbor with no problems, and the first tire was probably 3/32" out of round. I went slowly, but the Dynatrue has a cam to help follow the tire's crown, and it was cake to make the tire round. I then did a static balance on the machine. It has a provision to run the drive motor while the tire is stationary. The vibration makes the wheel/arbor very sensitive to as little as 1/8 oz. out of balance. The 1st picture is of the uncut tread, the last picture is the tread after shaving. Tomorrow afternoon shoud be sunny and 50˚, so I will put the tires to the test. Stay tuned.

 

Thats a cool score. Old garage equipment is starting to be my second bad habit. I just picked up an old spin balancer and tranny jack last Sat. at Springfield. Nice roadster too by the way. I live in Milford but I can't remember seeing it before. Can't wait to hear the results.

 

Today was the moment of truth. It was 3:00PM before I had the rear tires shaved and balanced, and all four back on the car, inflated to 30 PSI cold. The balance had changed by as much as an ounce on all tires. We have a mile or so stretch of straight, flat divided highway nearby. After a chilly 10 mile back road drive to heat the tires again, I hit the highway. The sun was low by now and directly in my face. I quickly ran up to 75MPH, and low and behold - no cowl shake at all. In the past, 60MPH was all I could stand, and only briefly. I couldn't see if there were any cops out and evening traffic was picking up, so I cut it short and will try again earlier tomorrow. I'm really confident that truing the tires on the wheel has solved the problem. All four tires had some lateral run out, and my 76 year old wheels are not dead true. As they're only 4 1/2" wide, I don't think static balancing them on the back side of the wheel matters much either. The left front tire even looked like it was running smoothly. Again, I feel that making the tires ROUND is the key here.

 

Austin-Healeys suffer from the dreaded scuttle (cowl) shake at 55 mph as well. Truing wire wheels and shaving tires have solved the issue for a number of owners. But one source that might not be immediately considered as a problem is out of balance brake drums. If you're trying to chase down a wobble, brake drum balance is one more area you might want to look at.

 

That's pretty cool.

I have the typical M/T Sportsman on my T-bucket. I had them balanced and the guy said they were also out of round. Which he coudn't do anything about. He put on all the weight he could and still couldn't get one of them right. I can get to 80 or so. Before re-balancing 70 was it.

Would be good to find someone to true my rear tires. The tires ar so big I doubt that they make a machine to true them though. Maybe a truck tire place.

Bill

 

Cool, someone close that can shave tires? Dumb question but can radials be shaved?

 

score! wish we had one around here (central oregon)

 

The best of all worlds. You get to fix your tire, keep some history alive, and possibly help out some others along they way.

Congrats!

 

That's really neat. There is a local guy that bought a tire shaver from a shop in town. I need to look him up...I bet that would help the cowl shake on my RPU.

Neat roadster BTW.

Neal

 

So what's up with bias tires being out of round? Even new ones, why? Does this also happen on radials? Please school me!

 

When you see a tire is going to be out of round break it back down and rotate it on the rim a quarter at a time and see if it takes a better shape. 75% of the time this will help. Tires often inflate like balloons and change shape to different position on the wheel. Some of your newer balancers will tell you where to rotate the tire to the wheel for a better match mount. This works with bias and radials.

 

Took the car out today for an extended tire test. As the pictures show (me in the mirror), things were smooth enough at 70MPH on a back road for me to take some one handed pictures of the speedo.

 

I live about 20 minutes from Milford and I know several guys in this area who would love to pay you to fix Coker's so called round tires. Please let us know if you decide to do any more.

 

I'd be glad to true some tires. Part of my motivation, aside from doing my own tires and just saving the machine before it disappeared forever, was to maybe recoup some of the cost and eventually buy an arbor mount wheel adapter that would mount the wheel via the bolt holes. I'll send a pm with my phone number.

 

glad you saved it.. because i bet a lot of these machines will be scraped. looks like you may want to mention your new toy to some of the local clubs also..

chris.

 

I thought wow that would be cool so I hit egay, found this
http://www.ebay.com/itm/AMERMAC-TIR..._Automotive_Tools&vxp=mtr&hash=item4cfb78b292
Hope you didn't have to pay that much.

 

I could use a fix like that.

 

Where have you seen an arbor mount adaptor for these machines ? I'd like to try one.... I think. My machine was made by Kemsway. Thanks.

 

Great story! Now go back there and see if he's got an old Dynamic On-the-Car Spin Balancing set up!
You will be THE tire guy in the area!

 

I spoke with Larry Littleton at REP-QUIP Sales at 770 320-7276. They sell Amermac tire truing equipment. The arbor on my machine is 1¼" OD, and Amermac adapters are still designed for 1¼" arbors as well. The former owner trued 100's of tires with the cones, but I think the wheel bolt circle would be more precise for older wheels. Be prepared as these are expensive. I'll try and include a link. http://www.repquip.com/Amermac/WheelAdapters.html