Do you change your own tires?

C

Commander Toasty

Member
Not wheels - tires.

Next spring I will go around with four new tires, on my powder coated rims. I can buy the tires locally over the counter and figure I will change them myself, being careful to not chip my nice finish.

Does anybody change their own, and do you make any attempts at balancing?
 
Yes and no. I found new tires go on powder coated wheels very easily, no tools required. I mount the wheel on the rear spare tire carrier which gives a solid mount at a good working height. I have never had a tire that seemed to need balancing. If I did I would try rotating it on the wheel. Others balance them & they will chime in.
 
I laughed out loud when I read the initial post... :D I was imagining the blank looks I would get from all the local tire palaces if I were to bring them Model A wheels & tires and ask them to mount and balance... :confused::confused::confused:

I gave-up on having shops do my tube-types about 15 years ago, when I bought a beautiful ( and authentic ) set of (6.50 x 16) Goodyear Diamond-tread WWW for my '41 De Soto from Sears ( yes, really! ). The price of the sale included mounting and balancing. Trouble was, none of their tatooed & pierced tire-monkeys knew how to mount tube-type tires...
I took my new tires & tubes home, mounted them myself in the driveway, then hauled them all back to Sears for the balancing... :rolleyes:

You might be more fortunate to have a local shop with staff that know how to deal with such "ancient" stuff, but learning to do your own will serve you well.

Good luck ! :cool:

SC Frank
 
About the balancing- Before installing the new tubes would be a good time to add a dynamic balancing material, like Dyna-Beads to make the tire self-balancing every time you drive. No external weights, and you can then align the tire logos in relation to the valve stems. It is much easier to get the beads in the tube before placing it in the rim.
Dyna-Beads Link
 
I always mount my own tires.

I made up a piece of 3\4" plywood about 40" square with a 9" hole cut in the center. I covered it with a piece of carpeting. The plywood is set on a couple of supports. The wheel is placed on it with the hub cap protruding through the hole. I coat the inner tube and the inside of the tire and the edges of the tire with a liberal amount of baby powder. Getting the first edge of the tire on the rim of the wheel is not difficult. To get the second edge on I walk it on with the heel of my foot (wearing tennis shoes) by standing up on the tire and wheel. I mounted a hand hold under the eve of the house to grab onto for balance.

Tom Endy
 
Marco has the instructions for mounting using the garbage bag system. I found I did not need to use them with fresh powder coating and new tires.
 
You can mount the tubes and tires right on the car. I had my wheels powder coated and had no problem mounting them my self. I did soap up the tire and it slid right on the rim. I worried about chipping my rims also, but had no problems.
 
I’m idiot but sense doing my own for the first this summer I will never take them to a shop again. Why pay someone to hack up the rims when I am more than capable of doing that myself. Really though I was surprised at how easy it was, I tried the bag and soap method and prefer the soap. I did work up a sweat but it was about 95 and I am fat.
Still 1.5 inches from the steering wheel in a 1930 coupe!
dusty
 
First you need to coat the inside of the tires with corn starch. That prevents the tube from sticking and lets it find its natural position.

I put a blanket down on the floor and did the garbage bag thing.

To set the best position of the tire on the rim you need to do a basic balance.

C-clamp a spindle to your bench. Put some lightly oiled bearings in a hub and put it together so that is spins freely.

Put a wheel on with a tire and inflate, try it first with the dot at the valve. See how well it balances. Pop the bead and move the tire some and see if it improves. Some will balance nice and others are just off.

Check the bead while you inflate. Make sure it is seating evenly. You could get a bead coming off at point if you do not watch. Check the tread for out of round. Some of the lower quality tires may come with built in pot holes. My Goodyears I just put on were pretty good.

Put Dynabeads in. I have not done this, but I have heard from several people with very high miles that these are a good thing. I will be doing this with my tires.
 
Tube-type tires are actually fairly easy to get on & off a rim; once you get into "modern" safety-rims and tubeless tires, it gets a lot more challenging...

I found Michelin radials to be about the most impossible thing to get on & off a rim...
 
Commander Toasty said:
Not wheels - tires.

Next spring I will go around with four new tires, on my powder coated rims. I can buy the tires locally over the counter and figure I will change them myself, being careful to not chip my nice finish.

Does anybody change their own, and do you make any attempts at balancing?
Click to expand...
First tire I changed took an hour. Second one took half an hour. Third one took fifteen minutes. Fourth about twelve minutes. Fifth about twelve minutes. I had nasty, rusted rims and found that the more soap and talcum powder I used, the easier the job. No need to balance.
 
Last year I bought a new set of 16" Goodyear diamond treads for my '31 A that came with '35 Ford rims. Tried the trash bag method, built the plywood thing, used enough talc, NO luck. Then tried soapy water, NO luck. Note; I've hand mounted older type tires before with "spoons". but didn't want to mess up my new red paint on these rims, So the trash bag got filled with shop trash and I went to a nearby independent truck tire place. The man said he always is mounting tube type tires at his shop, clipped on a little nylon clip to the machine's "finger" and all tires got mounted in minutes with NO scratches to my fairly fresh red enamel paint job. He even gave me a break on the cost because he said he likes old cars. WELL worth the money.
 
I always mount and dismount my own on a bench with a blanket. On new tires with powder coated rims I spray the tire edge with WD-40 and use a couple of tire spoons with rags over the ends. For balancing I use an old spindle and drum clamped in a vise and use stick on weights on the inside.
 
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