My Tires are Boated ? !

[Aubrey N Bruneau]

Never made it to Edmonton... but we are having a local show and 1/8 mile drag race right here in my little home town.
Drove the car out to the "track" ( airport ) this evening, to get teched. I'll refrain from commenting in regards to the MHDRA member who looked at the car... but he did notice something that evidently developed on my way there ( it's about a 3 mile drive ). Seems that one of my slicks in particular, has become somewhat "puffed up". The outer side wall had started to rub against the upper fender/wheel-well lip on the inside. Never had this before. It is now simply too close.
My M/T tires are 4 years old now. over the past winter, I left them deflated.
Is this normal ?... for these tires, as they age a bit, to stretch out some ?

just wondering

No, I did not attempt to object. The tech guy was right. It WAS rather embarassing.
Car is running GREAT !!!! ... but it won't be going down the track until I get some fresh tires.

[rallye bob]

Aubrey;
Did you swap the tires side to side to make sure it is indeed the (one) tire that is rubbing.
Maybe something in the rear end has shifted, or the body. I am not that familiar with all your components, or what "links" are used to connect your rear end, and/or body, to the frame, but I have seen this stuff shift, in drag cars (mine)....... :-(
Just a thought

[Aubrey N Bruneau]

Thanks Bob
No, no movement in this car. Everything factory original.
I swapped the tire to the other side... and sure enough, it IS fatter at the cross section. Not by much though. Nohing serious.
Too bad. I had evidently remedied a valve train control problem on the intake, through the use of .050" "shorter" valve locks on all the springs, and a .030 shim under the intake ( ooooo, that spring is pretty tight ! ) It was cool last night... and my old 409 had a really bad attitude. My new shift-light tach tattled on me... ! !
hee hee !

I'll get out there yet this year. Appears we're getting rained out here now.

[Jack McCarthy]

aubrey your panhard bar behind the rear end did not move did it ?
buy some radials (i know sticks dont like them) they have tighter sidewalls

see ya
jack

[Aubrey N Bruneau]

Naah, Jack... nothing to move back there.
I ended up removing the whee;s/tires, and edentifying exactly where the contact was being made on the inner side of the outer wheel well panel ( these cars of course have a full "tub".
Wasn't much, but both sides, definitely a problem, same area, about 4" long.
It was a little crude, but I simply "squeezed" the inner panel at that spot, a little closer to the outside ( MAYBE 1/4" ).
Seems fine now.
I'll put a shade of chalk on the sidewall of the tire ( at the maximum section width ), and drive the car a bit to make sure.

Radials ?
I dunno man
With this thing, the temperature, track, and all the cloud-to-sun ratio has to be perfect, or it spins the tires off !