firestone nylon f70-14 wide oval red stripe tire decode.
 

Can anyone decode this tire. Been sitting around my shop since the early 90s. I think it either came off of a 67 gto, camaro or chevelle. Not sure. but im more pointing to my GTO. I dont think its a repo.


Thanks SYC for the help

Specific to '67 Chevelle or GTO. PM sent

Bill W

Looks like the 12th week of ‘88 or ‘98.

----Rusty,,, I don't know a thing about the dating stuff. With that said, this tire appears to be much earlier tire as the red stripe is way closer to the tread edge than later F-70's. I remember vividly the Firestone's that came on my 67 SS Chevelle and this tire looks very similar. Firestone had problems with these vintage tires as they would crack and split around the edge of the stripe possibly because that area flexed more than a stripe closer to the bead. I had several friends that also had the same problems. These early Stones are very hard to find because of this. There's a chance that I'm wrong of course, but I don't think so.
----Also, the word Firestone is inside the stripe as opposed to outside.......Bill S

https://i.postimg.cc/T27TvT6v/trtrtr.jpg

This is a reproduction Firestone redline tire on a 1967 GTO. Compare the location of the redline (it's distance to the outer edge of the tire casing) to the two photos below which are Pontiac promotional photos

https://i.postimg.cc/MTsJwmgm/tuuu.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/FRHwTJ1d/ofyf.jpg

Agreed...that isn't a reproduction tire.

This is a 66 or earlier tire. In 67 they changed the stripe and moved it inwards slightly. Nice tire!

This is a pre 1971 tire because in 71ish tire identification was standardized due to DOT and mandated 11 digits. Not a reproduction based on stripe location.

IMO . . . that tire was manufactured in the 12th week of 1968: the last 3 digits are 128.

Thank you for the education... learn something new each day!!

I know Goodyear moved the red stripe inward on speedway after 1967. Firestone as you state may have been in 66ish as you state.

Firestone red stripe
 

The F70 Wide Oval was introduced for the 1967 model year. In this image the top tire is the '67 only version, which is what the OP has. The bottom tire is the '68 version with the stripe moved closer to the bead. The '68 version may have came on some very late '67s and was offered as a warranty replacement of '67s due to sidewall issues. Note that the lettering on both of these is on the inside of the stripe unlike the '69 and later version, which are the same as the repop tires.

Bill W

----66 or earlier would have been a 7.75. To my knowledge no GM car had an f-70 until 67. I am mildly surprised that the tire is a 68 although I agree. I sort of thought they changed the stripe location sometime in late 67......Bill S

I had a couple ask about the tread. Here are some pics. Sorry for the delay, Im in the process of moving so it's been very hectic.

As Bill noted, that is the 67-only version. The stripe was moved as shown on the second tire in Bill's pic some time in latter 67 production, and definitely before July of 1967. Then that version was used on 68's as well. Then a completely new sidewall (with the writing on the outer portion of the sidewall and stripe close to the wheel) came along for 69 and is what has been repopped.

And that is not a 1968 (or 1978 or 1988) date code. The standardized dating did not come along until well after this tire was made. The Firestone codes from this vintage are undecipherable and as far as I know no one has the info to decode them. Several years ago I engaged in lengthy discussions with Firestone over several weeks to see if they still had that data and could track it down, and it was a dead end.

By contrast, even though Goodyear also had a cryptic system back at that time, the key to decode it is known and it is very easy to determine the mfr. date of a pre-DOT Goodyear tire.