[geeteeohguy]

Originally Posted by F ROCK

I confess that I dont know much about tires but when I was a kid in the late 60's early 70's, tires came wrapped in paper, or colorful foil. That was to protect them from something.
Also, New tires were/ are coated with something blue. I'm pretty sure that was to protect them (from the air?) while in storage.

My Jeeps sit outside. Both have brown sidewalls. The whole sidewall on both jeeps.
My 4wd pickup also sits outside; with BFG RWL "All Terrain TA's" on there... Not brown at all.

I've had Cooper Cobras' on the GTO for a year now. One tire showed a small brown spot within the first two months. I've been spraying them w/ armor all, the original one, not the tire stuff. It claims to have UV protection. I havnt noticed any new discoloring, but I'm not leaving the car sit in the sun as much these days. I used to let the car sit outside all day. My last set of tires, Mastercraft, turned brown too; the whole tire, not just the letters.

Quick story: I installed a new A/C unit and line set in my home last summer.
The Armorflex insulation on the line set in my basement is like new, soft and nice. The part that goes outside is dried up, porus, and splitting already. Looks like a twenty year old line set. The rubber is cheap or is it the sun? or both?

It's the rubber. A few years ago helped a friend restore his '67 GTO. All new rubber ball joint boots, tie rod boots, control arm bushings. Upper poly control arm bushings. Car sat in the shop for 6 months without the engine, waiting for the rebuild. When we went to put the engine in, all the new rubber was lying on the floor in pieces. It had crumbled and rotted and fallen off the car. We ended up washing the 50 year old original rubber in kerosene and re-installing it. HIs poly upper A-arm bushings disintegrated and fell out of the car about a year and 100 miles later. The only good rubber on the car was the body mount bushings, which he had bought in 1978 and had in a zip lock bag.
I ordered a set of premium inner tubes from Coker for my Model T Ford. Figured the 45 year old tubes were not safe. The new $$$ tubes rotted and the valve stems fell off in less than one year and 100 miles of service. I ended up re-installing the 45 year old tubes. They were still going strong when I sold the car. New rubber is crap. I ordered a repro shift boot for my '65 GTO and it rotted and split in two in about 6 months. Am running the original 57 year old boot that has a tiny tear that's been there and not gotten worse since 1982.