Tired Out
“Wow, those are really bad. You probably shouldn’t drive this until we replace those.”
My fella, Tom, and I had the Dodge Polara on the lift and we were looking at the front tires. A combo of miles and worn-out front suspension had left them with a deceptive amount of tread on the outer inch and more torn-up cord than your old jeans on the inside edges. I ordered new rubber, and feeling like I’d dodged a bullet, took to Opel to run some errands and head to my friend Lyn’s house for a lady day.
I was pretty darn smug about catching the Polara tires before they blew, and that feeling lasted about 3 miles until I went to make a right turn into a parking lot and felt a strong pull to the left, followed by that awful thumpa-dathump of wobbly sidewall. I limped the GT into a parking space and stared at its puddled tire.
There was an auto-parts store in the parking lot, so without expecting much, I bought a can of slime. The green goo exited a large slash in the sidewall as quickly as it went in, and all I got for my trouble was sticky. Feeling put-upon as I watched my mimosa mixings get warm in the passenger seat of the Opel, I started calling tire places. “Yeah, do you have a 165-Tk-13 in stock?” I asked, sure they’d laugh and tell me they didn’t service lawnmowers. To my surprise, the tech said they did, so I called Tom for rescue and he came with a jack and a wrench. My rescue chariot? The Dodge Polara. I should never have doubted it.
The post The Fun Of the Surprise Flat Tire appeared first on Hot Rod Network.