Most of us "belt and suspenders" guys, like Alan Hendrix, would recommend you
run tubes inside your radial tires on your wire-wheel cars. Sure it is
possible to seal the spokes and depend on the modern rim/bead design to hold in
the
air, but better safe than sorry.
On the other hand, the old tire guy was right. Chafing is a common source of
tire failure so before you put in the tube, you want to make very sure that
(a) it is the right sized tube so it doesn't wrinkle when inflated, (b) very
important: you have carefully checked the inside of the tire to remove any tags
or labels. As thin as they are, over time they can chafe a hole in the tube,
and (c) you've dusted in some baby powder in the tire to allow the tube to
slide
into place as it is being inflated and to reduce risk of chafing later.
I've had three of my tires on the cars for years (I'm still running SP20s)
and had no problems. On the one tire where I did have a flat, it occurred
within
about 300 miles of mounting. In that instance, the culprit was a paper label
that had been left in the tire.
Incidentally, thanks to Rich for a definitive statement on concours and
colors.
Cheers
Gary Anderson
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