MTFCA Forum

Anyone try the blemished smooth grey clincher tires on sale at Coker for $165 each? At that price they should have sold out last winter. Has anyone bought and mounted them?

They will turn chocolate brown in about 3 years. Buyer beware!

I bought a set. Haven’t mounted yet. Henry are you thinking of the white tires turning brown?

Chocolate brown? No problem. Spray 'em with FlexSeal!

Even the gray ones about 10 years back turn to a chocolate color.

Bought these grey blems at Hershey last year. Like 'em. For my '12 project, the old look is needed as this is a replica of a local delivery pickup in a nearby town of Melrose FL, at the turn of the century.

If they go brown in spots ok anyway, this ole truck will run on dirt and sand roads here, and will stay period correct blemished

I purchased three sets of grey blems for my cars and none of them have turned brown for three years. I used older, Made in U.S.A. tubes rather than the new tubes made in Vietnam or China. I have had no problems with these tires, and they have a GREAT look. I hope this helps, Russ Fustnow

Discoloration of white or grey tires was discussed on these boards a couple of years back to great length. While nothing conclusive could be determined, a preponderance of circumstantial evidence pointed to inner tubes being the cause of "browning". Once again, Russ's post corroborates that !

I seem to remember seeing discoloration in white rubber items that were in contact with other, non-white rubber items in storage. I know that some new inner tubes have a very strong odor, and are obviously out-gassing something. I assume that if the inner tubes cause the discoloration, it would affect the tire all the way through, and not just the surface. I'd think that if the discoloration was due to external influences, such as UV light, ozone, etc, it would be possible to buff it off. Would using nitrogen in place of air have any benefit?

With the older tubes I used, I just filled the tubes with clean Flagstaff air from my compressor, and the tires have stayed the grey color since they were mounted. I'm not sure how the mileage for these tires would be since my cars with the grey tires are "show cars", but Bruce Borledon drove his 1914 runabout that has the grey blem tires on the MTFCI Tour in Hamilton, and he seemed to have no problems. Russ Furstnow

If anyone is interested in a set, as of yesterday afternoon (8/3) there were only four 30x3-1/2" tires in stock. Apparently they have plenty of 30x3" tires though.

Good deal on these.

Yesterday rubbed off the brown spots with hand cleaner, and all grey now.

Could be the brown is only surface, combo of mold release agents and the dark plastic wrapped cover left on since new?

Anyway will keep watch to see if brown re-appears.

Cleaned.

Dan, Wow! that's pretty cool that you were able to clean those off with orange stuff.

Ordered last Thursday (8/4) the set of four for my '13 arrived this morning. Perhaps I don't know enough to be displeased ? They look good to me, and I'm sure I'll be happy with them. I'm not sure what they are calling a blemish. This minor flaw on one of the tires is all I could see in the way of imperfections.