correct tires for a 1966 gt350 #1761?

Don't feel bad I bought a car 66 #189 that Skip Mcdougal owned and won a Senior Div Award in SAAC concours in Portland 92 I think, anyway when I got it a couple of years ago I had to completly disasemble and redetail the car due to the level correctness we have progressed to today and expect our cars to look like today. The next year 93 I showed my 67 GT350 0001 and won the same award with a slightly better score (as Skip said)-had to do almost the same to the 67 a few years ago to bring it up to snuff. Just when we think we got it covered another tidbit of info is discovered .

 

Not certain of the picture your referring to - sorry

 

Bob,
I remember Skip's car from Portland. It was a beauty but one
thing was wrong. It had a standard equalizer bar instead of
a hipo, correct?
/Bo

 

Here's another point... look at these pics... to me, the area where the stripe would be doesn't look raised, it looks recessed. What do you guys think?

John Thomas

 

The two 66 GT350's on the display floor at the Shelby facility in Las Vegas (the white one pictured and the blue one on the right) both have 10 spoke rims and the inner areas of the spokes are painted dark gray. It's hard to see in the picture, but it caught my eye, and I remember it well. As a side note... the tires on these two cars were unusual. They have a thin white stripe, are labeled "Goodyear" and "Wingfoot" with a checkered flag in between the words. Has anyone seen these tires before?

John Thomas

 

Your tire probably has blue in there, take some laquer thinner and rub in the groove you will probably see some color. It is possible that all the tires have blue rubber under the black. They may have not made two versions they may have just not buffed the groove in the tires that do not have the blue stripe. When white letter tires are manufactured they have white rubber under the black, and when they are produced they come out all black and then you have to buff off the black to make the letters white. We have purchased a lot of blemished tires over the years and I had to correct where the machine that buffed them did not get all the black off the letters. Thats why when you curb or scuff a white letter tire you get into the white under the black.I will experiment a little with the tire I have thats slick with no stripe and see if it has any blue rubber in there.

 

The wheels you see in that picture are probably the repros they produced at one time and the tires with wingfoot on them like you see in the picture were only made one year and that was around 1979-1980. We still have several sets of them and I have a set on a Blue 66 Shelby. They were the closest thing to a blue streak you could buy and the were radial construction.

 

To ad to the line of thought shelby73 commented on, the same wheels and tires being commented on were original equipment on the 1966 Continuation GT350 converts that were built for 1980 to 1982. There were 12 built starting with 6S2381 most were built between 80 and 82 the rest after.

 

I am sorry to say I havn't talked to him for years . Jeff S. might know.Hopefully he might have some news.

 

I believe the black painted 66 GT350 tenspokes were a early late thing . Besides the famous picture with CS standing by the 66 GT350 and the 66 Cobra I have seen only a few on what I would consider surviver cars with those wheels .All were early cars. This leads me to believe it was a early - late issue, the painted ones being used early in production for a short period of time and then the painted background eliminated after that. Interestingly when CS commissioned the building of the 12 continuation GT350 converts they also had the black background on the wheels which were sourced from Shelby's wheel company in the early 80's.Maybe they too referenced the famous photo when thoughts of reissuing the wheels again came to mind.

 

Now that you mention it, I think I recall that blue GT350 in the picture being one of those continuation convertibles. The tires and painted recessed areas were most certainly the same on both cars though... and the recessed areas were painted dark gray.

As I said earlier, it just stuck out in my mind because I was curious of the Shelby facility's source for both the rims and the tires as they both looked new and they were both unusual (to me).

John Thomas

 

You are correct . It is 6S2482 the car Shelby kept for hisself.

 

Bob, I believe you mean 6S2382

Tough night?

 

Woops . Yes 2382. Not a tough night, just your everday brain fart.

 

Here's another pic I found in my archives. Don't even remember where I got it from but IIRC it's a demo car on a dealer lot after the 67's became available. Notice the poster on the showroom window and the car inside.

 

Ed it appears to be Sapphire Blue

Tires appear to be what we've been describing as the normal 66 Shelby tires

Yes original wheels were natural with no painted details

 

Just going through a number of photos I have looking for those 10 spokes that have been painted black or gray and noticed a car I took a picture of at SAAC 31 and noticed in one shot what appears to be painted inside spokes and another angle the same car that is bare but looks somewhat painted. Conclusion ? Did the car with Carroll in the photo have painted or were they as this one appear painted? Black and white photos sure knock out a lot of detail.