IML: Old Cars, Old Tars

[Mark McDonald <tomswift@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I just wanted to share this little story with everyone in case I can 
save a few lives, and since it seems I am destined to become the man 
who has had the Most Blow-Outs in an Old Imperial.

To make it as brief as possible, you cannot let your old car sit around 
for long periods of time with old tars (i.e., "tires") on it and then 
expect to hop in and take a 5 hour cruise at 70 mph to a 
Packard/Imperial meet and expect everything to be hunky dory.  I mean, 
it may be possible, but not in my experience.

This Saturday, about 2 hrs. out of my hometown on my way to Anniston I 
noticed a shimmy, or a weird vibration, in the front of my '68 Crown.  
Having gone thru this experience before I recognized it as one of the 
symptoms of a bad tire.

"Gosh dang it, I'm about to have a blow-out!" I thought to myself 
[language edited for IML].  Well, almost as soon as I had that thought 
and started to look for a place to pull over, it went KA-BLOOIE!!!

Now, this was not your casual blow-out.  No, I never get those.  This 
was not "I say, Muffy, did you hear a pop?"  "Why yes, dear, I believe 
I did."  "Do you think we ran over a paper cup, perhaps?"  "Why no, 
goodness gracious, I believe we've blown a tire!"  "Do you really think 
so, Muffy?"  "Yes, lumpkins, I think we should pull over right now to 
check it out."  "In that case, I believe I will, Lovey Dove."

No, this was "Holy &*%#!!! Grab something and hold on, we're about to 
die!"  That kind of thing.  The tire actually took the liner of the 
wheel well and unpeeled about 6 inches of it from the wheelwell.

Anyway, prepared as I was, I limped off the roadway and no one was 
hurt.  Eventually I made it to Anniston.  The last time something like 
this happened to me was in my '68 convertible, and I have compiled this 
list of contributing factors:

1.  The tires were at least 10 years old
2.  They looked fine (means nothing)
3.  The car had sat for at least 3 months
4.  The tires were underinflated (one was at 24 psi)
5.  I inflated them to 35 psi before the trip
6.  I was doing highway speeds for an extended period of time
7.  Prior to the blow-out the car started to shake as if going over a 
washboard surface, even though the highway was smooth

So my advice to all you Imperial owners out there is, don't let your 
car sit in one place, and DON'T expect old tires to get up and do the 
work of new tires after they've been sat around in the garage for a 
long time!  And also, if you have a major blow-out, just relax and 
gently guide the car over.  They're harder to steer but not impossible.

Hey, good luck & enjoy!

Mark M



-----------------  http://www.imperialclub.com  -----------------
This message was sent to you by the Imperial Mailing List. Please 
reply to mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx and your response will be 
shared with everyone. Private messages (and attachments) for the
Administrators should be sent to webmaster@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
To UN-SUBSCRIBE, go to http://imperialclub.com/unsubscribe.htm