VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1912-1928 Tire Question

I'm new to club and vintage chevrolets. My recently acquired 28 National sedan will need tires before serious roadtriping. Do we know the brand of tires with which these cars were originally equipped - Goodyear, Firestone, both, or another brand altogether? As always, any help is appreciated. This is my second of what I'm sure will be many questions.

potomac

The original tires were Goodyear, Goodrich and maybe another. Ford used Firestone and some others. I have found that the Firestone tires mount well and wear well so that is what I use on my '28 Chevys.

Hi potomac,

By the way, my zip is 25419, Falling Waters.....

Anyway, I have experience with Firestone, Goodyear, Universal, Lester, and a couple of others whose name I happen to forget. Its a easy choice : the Goodyear 440/450 x 21 is certainly the best, and costly too. 175 a pop is a good retail price. You can buy them at Bratton's, which is a Model A dealer over in Mount Airy, Md off i-70, or mail order them from other Model T/Model A suppliers, like Snyders in Ohio, etc.

Bratton's is also good for common parts that interchange from Model As, like light bulbs, 600 wt oils, tubes, I even use the shift knobs and pedal rubbers, etc. though you have to re-tap the threads for the shift rod, but its easy.

You can use a economy tire like the Universal brand that Coker sells, but you will spit every time you have to work with it. I know, first hand. The Goodyear is easily on top, and I actually believe, it was used by Chevy back in the day, I have some illustrations that show a Goodyear Diamond back tread pattern.

Have fun,

Jay

FYI

back in the early days, Henry Ford borrowed $200,000 from Firestome and when he went to repay, Firestone wouldn't accept any interest "I don't take interest from friends" was his reply.

To show his thanks, Heny promised to only use Firestone tires on all his cars in the future, I believe this held until the mid 90's when dealers were letting air out of their tires to make the Explorer run smoother and that caused many accidents and for a PR move they changed tire mfg'er