Madmustard

Those of you who have original cars or had one new-Did they come with Goodyear or Firestone bias ply tires.?Have 3 of these cars now and restoring the 1 st one.need to know for sure before I buy a set .This is for 1970.Also were these 14" G70 series?

tomsw31

My W30 has the original spare, which is a Uniroyal Tigerpaw G70 X 14. They do not reproduce this tire, so I went with the Firestone Wideovals. If your car had the PK5 tire option, it could have come with either the Goodyear, Uniroyal, or Firestone, whatever tire was on hand when your car came down the line. Unless you have an original tire from your car, there is no way to know which one was on your car when it was new.

Bobsw32

My 70 W-31 came with Goodyear Raised White Letter Polyglass GT G70 X 14

wmachine

The tires are RPO code PK5 and were generically described by Olds as "G70 x 14" Blackwall Wide Oval Tires with Raised White Letters"
They were supplied by Goodyear, Goodrich, Firestone, and Uniroyal.
Take your pick.

ROCKET VAPOR

Here is a photo of my original spare from a Fremont built '70 442.

IMG_0728.jpg

Madmustard

very nice! seems like the Firestones were most used on the 70

Del70

Has you spare wheel ever been painted?. If not, it is interesting to see the facroty 'argent' silver paint color.

ROCKET VAPOR

I have taped off the front of the spare wheel and painted with some wheel paint I got from Super Cars Unlimited many years ago.

The original paint on the front of the wheel IIRC was very thin paint and seemed to be faded . The paint on the back side of the wheel is still original and is very dark, almost black.

507OLDS

I suppose there's the possibility that the tire brand varied among different assembly plants,and what was available at the time of assembly.

Madmustard

looking for a cut and dry answer but the factory manual helps a lot.It could have been any of the 4 manufacturers.Just thinking about the w30's though since all built in lansing in 70 if they all had the same brand tire.Guess not -the one guy had uniroyals..thanks

Rickman48

Although I don't remember what was O.E. on my BB '67 Impala SS, the second set was Goodyear Polyglass just as they came out, and I loved them! Think I put F-70's in front and G's in the rear.
Great improvement over O.E.!!!

BlackGold

As tomsw31 said, they could come with any make tire, even the W-30s, which were all built in Lansing. But for what it's worth, my W-30 has the original spare and it's a Goodyear Polyglas.

wmachine

That statement is a little too broad. "Any make" includes the fifth tire maker for GM that year which is General. General did not make that specific tire, so it would have to be one of the other 4 that did make them.

507OLDS

What I meant was if a 442 in Fremont got different tires than a 442 in Lansing.I guess it comes down to what was available at the time of assembly.

wmachine

And I'll bet that is about all we may ever know.
But I wonder what went on at the time. I'm sure all of the manufactures had a keen interest in having their tires on as many cars as possible. What really did dictate what tires went on?

firefrost gold

Kurt shame on you. you are not saying that there was some back door deals being made rather than putting the best rubber on the road. Are you ?

wmachine

Sure! I would think there was an "official policy" as to which tires were used when (whatever that may have been). I also believe that the situation was ripe for the policy to be circumvented for various reasons (whatever they may have been).
Would be nice to know what really happened in both cases.
I also don't believe that the "best rubber" didn't figure into the final outcome regardless!

bkeese

And then there is the Goodyear Polyglas that they don't repo.

orange442

Kelsey Tire shows the Goodyear Polyglas G70-14 at $220 each.

http://www.kelseytire.com/pages/preformancetires2.html

bkeese

I knew another company repo tires, I just couldn't remember who.
Thanks

Smallhurst

Anyone who is needing help with the Goodyear reproduction tires, please feel free to contact me.

herpestes

70 w-30 goodyear rlw polyglass g70-14

leepear

70 w-30 came with Firestones.

Lee

Smallhurst

442's (w-30's included) were not tied to just one tire. Goodyears, Firestones, and whatever else Olds had as a performance tire supplier (Uniroyal?) were used. Just like at Chevy, Firestones and Goodyears were used on Chevelles (including the LS-6). The tires that happend to be there or if they were special ordered were what was put on the car.

Only manufacture that I now of that was tied to one brand only was MOPAR.

leepear

sorry I meant my car came with firestones.........Lee

Smallhurst

What is it about your tire that is special? I know that they reproduce the G70-14 Polyglas RWL. Just wanting to find out.

leepear

You mention your w-31 came with firestones. I need some original owner or original pictures to verify that the w-30s came with firestones. I ordered Firestones for my restoration but am getting some na-sayers that I am wrong even though I have pictures of my car 1 month after it was purchased with poverty caps and replaced with mag wheels. I will prepare a new post on the site to get some documentation. thanks Lee

w-30dreamin

Since the factory literature describes the tire as being "blackwall wide oval with raised white letters".Could this mean the factory preferred the Firestone wide oval?
Would it be possible Firestone could not keep up with demand so the factory started using other brands?

Just thinking out loud here,this topic really catches my interest...bias-ply are next on my want list

leepear

I will tell you how interesting a restoration is on an old w-30. I have already heard comments that people will think I cut corners on my restoration because the firestone reproduction tires are cheaper.....so how else did I cut corners on my restoration. Plus some insisting that a 1970 w-30 did not come with firestone tires. I am using the Firestones because the vintage dated April 1970 photos one month after the car was sold new shows firestone tires. In the pictures the poverty cap steel wheels were replaced with aluminum mags but the car still has firestones. Lee

stevengerard

let me know who those guys are that are telling you that you are cutting corners and I'll ask them to fund my restoration . We all have our limits to what we can or want to do with our cars. I would love to have the Firestone Wide Ovals because I think they are the nicest looking of the original tires. But since I drive my car a decent amount in the summer and have 4 kids I prefer to have modern steel belted tires. I have even gone out of the way to find 15" bolt on SSIIs so that I can get a better ride and have a better choice of tires while looking original.

Now I have not compared the repo bias ply to radials on my car but every person I have spoken to says there is a difference and they do not drive as nice and you do risk flats and handling issues - is that true?

leepear

I found some original w-30s with Firestones so I am good with the nay sayers and I don't really care about the cheap out comment since I am not at all and the car will speak for itself. well, cars dont really speak do they...........

Lee

tomsw31

Update : I spoke to an owner of a 1970 Chevelle LS6 Convert (yes 1 of 17) with GM of Canada documentation and it stated that his car came with the Goodyears specifically. On my GM of Canada docs, my W30 states "PK5 G70X14 W/Letter Tires" and my W31 states "PK5 Tire: G70X14 White Letter".

I wonder if there are any Oldsmobiles with GM of Canada docs, that specify which tire the car came with?

hurst68olds

Hello, My name is Dan & I have a problem .....

1968 Hurst/Olds made it easy - all G70-14 Goodyear Polyglas "white stripe".

I've seen original Goodyear Polyglas RWL & Uniroyal Tiger Paw RWL in G70-14 on '70 442s. I haven't personally seen a '70 vintage Firestone RWL G70-14 & I'm not sure what Goodrich had in the early '70s for RWL?

To narrow the field for what is correct on car - a database of plant and assembly dates of known "survivor" type cars & tires would need to be researched/created.

ROCKET VAPOR - I'd love to see some detail pics of your Firestone G70-14.

hurst68olds

I am familiar with one of the '70 LS6 'verts also, this car still retains it's original Uniroyal Tiger Paw F70-14 spare & vintage pics with its originals on the ground. I don't think the car companies named a "stock" tire by manufacturer so they wouldn't be held "hostage" by the tire companies (by price or being unable to supply) & they didn't need customers complaining "Why doesn't my car have Goodyear Polyglas tires?" They were able to advertise for short run specials ('69 H/O for example), but not for a full model year/multiple plant offering.

I'd also think that the beginning of the '70 model year the tire manufacturers were overwhelmed by the quantity of new for '70 sizes & variety. I'm pretty sure the Oldsmobile, Buick, & Pontiac a-bodies were the only '70 model year cars to use G70-14 tires.

mmurphy77

Sorry to dig up an old thread.
Tom my car, like yours, came with the Uniroyal Tiger Paw G70-14 tires (original spare in my trunk) and, like yours, my GM of Canada documentation says "PK5 Tire:..." etc. with no specific mention of brand. I wish someone reproduced them but it seems like the majority of the GM musclecars had the Polyglas or Wide Ovals so there probably won't ever be enough demand to warrant a reproduction.

Boiler_81

My 70 W-30 which I purchased in the Spring of 78 had what I believe to be the original G70-14 Goodyear Polyglas GT spare in the trunk.

hurst68olds

Do you still have the car & tire? Can you get the DOT # off the tire & the production week of the car?

Boiler_81

Still have the car but I don't have the tire.

hurst68olds

& the production week of the car was?

Boiler_81

12d