Hi All,
I'm a digest reader, so this is kinda late.
In the mid '60s I was a poor HS student and the early
'70s a poor sailor buying recapped tires exclusively
for my cars due to cost. Of all the tires I bought
and used I only had two failures. Both were in
1970-71. One was a Goodyear recap and one was a
Firestone recap. Both were inflated properly
initially, but the casings had a nail hole under the
cap that caused the failure.
>From my tour of the local recapper in the '60s I knew
that to get a good recap one had to start with a good
(no holes or repairs) casing - or run tubes. From a
safety standpoint, who (not which company) does the
recapping and selecting of the casing is critical in
getting a good recap. This is not the kind of
automated process that is used in original tire
manufacturing and much more subject to the skill of
the operator.
Another possilbe reason that recaps may not have been
allowed in stock and sp (at least locally) was that
there were NO autox specific tires for stock in the
'60s. Recappers could give you a wide and soft
compound tire that would make the significant
difference on a competitive car. These were "special"
tires done for "special" customers at small shops.
They were not generally available to all competitors.
Today, it might be difficult for a recap shop to
duplicate the performance level of a modern autox
tire in a recap. Certainly, it could save local
autocrossers a bit of money, though. Assuming that
you had your own tires recapped to assure a good
casing, this could work out well with a cooperative
recapper.
IMNSHO
Steve
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