Who Can Change My Tires For Me...Burbs.

[427 Street]

My car used to be maintained by The Last Detail in North Chicago, but that is about an hour from my house. I was going to have them swap my new tires, but that is just too much travelling.

Does anyone know of a more local, trustworthy installer? I live near the Hinsdale Oasis on I-294.

Thanks...

I have a great Speed Shop...Tony's Fast Lane and a great custom exhaust shop, but I do not have a wheels/tire guy

[patrickt]

Any performance tire shop can do that -- there's not a lot to it. Put your car up on blocks and take the four wheels in to them (you might want to mark them with a sharpie on the inside as to left/right). The only tricky part that you might run in to is that sometimes the room for the wheel weights is limited. Thin weights from Wurth is what I have on mine. A good shop will know that, a crappy shop might not.

[Bernica]

If you are running spinners, make sure you do something like this. A good shop will know...My 2 cents.

[patrickt]

The reasons you want to just take your wheels there, and not drop off the car, are that you don't want the kid taking it for a drive, you don't want them monkeying with it at all in the back, you don't want them putting the spinners back on with no anti-seize, you don't want them over or under whacking the spinners, and I'll now add safety wiring to that list....

[Bernica]

All very Sage advice.... I literally brought a bottle of anti-sieze, tye-wyre (including the tool) and everything to make sure they did it right. They had all of it on hand and told me to just get out of the way. That's the shop you want...Not easy to find.

[Renlady]

Check out Hollywood Motors at 3637 Woodside Avenue, Brookfield, IL 60513 (it's technically in Hollywood, between Brookfield and Riverside). Phone is (708) 485-9333.

They haven't worked on our Cobra, but they have worked with our other sportscars. Call and ask if they have experience with spinners. I'd trust them not to go joy-riding in your car, they have their own race cars to play in.

[427 Street]

Thank you Kate! The previous installer in North Chicago said they used forced road balance when they mounted and balanced them last time. I know some places use laser as well. I am going to make a few phone calls today, but I really do not know of any performance shops in the area. There is one in Plainfield, but that is 45 minutes...I might as well drive the extra 15 minutes and go to the original shop. I just did not want to drop it off...4 hours of total driving time for the two trips.

I trust that original shop, The Last Detail, wholeheartedly. If they can maintain Michael Jordan's cars and store them for the winter, they can handle my little ERA

[Bernica]

Since you are going through all of this, don't forget a good alignment and maybe corner-balancing too...

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by Bernica

Since you are going through all of this, don't forget a good alignment and maybe corner-balancing too...

Ahhh, corner weighting! One of my all-time favorite subjects. Note John's post, snap-shotted below, that closed out this famous thread: Best way to adjust rear coil overs for proper height on my SPF Corner weighting should be done on every one of our cars, whether you race them or not.

[Bernica]

Wow Patrick! You should have that one posted on the wall in your office!
I am in total agreement as well. Made a huge difference in my case.

[NBVC]

Sorry, i don't meant to hijack the thread, but i saw that Bernica is in SoCal. Where do you go in SoCal for good work to be done? I could use some advice as well!

Thanks,
Kevin

[Bernica]

Wheel / Tire / Alignment work / Corner Weighting, go see Dan and Russ at Glenn's Alignment and Brake service in Costa Mesa. Russ is a Vintage GT350 racer and a member of the Orange County Cobra Club. He will take care of you.

For mechanical work, go see Randy Richey at Performance Associates in Ontario. 909-592-4441. (just moved to a bigger shop from San Dimas). Randy is the late and great Les Richey's son and knows Cobras and all things Ford inside out. He's one of those guys that will tell you "just give me the keys, we know what we're doing" and they do. Randy also has a dyno and builds Cammers and Boss 9's. An amazing place to visit. Last time I was there, he was just finishing a true re-pro of a 427 Thunderbolt and had 2 old FIA Cobras that he was working on.

Tell Randy I sent you and ask him if Bernica's check cleared yet

[LRRCobradreamer]

One of you mentioned Road Force Balance. I did not know what this is so I did a search and found it seems to be an improvment to balancing alone. See link below and the tap with locate shop near you.

Hunter GSP9700 Wheel vibration Control System solves wheel vibration and tire pull problems that balancers and aligners can't fix

There are several near me, but my usual place for tires does not have one.

Lee

[LifeIsGood]

Originally Posted by LRRCobradreamer

One of you mentioned Road Force Balance. I did not know what this is so I did a search and found it seems to be an improvment to balancing alone. See link below and the tap with locate shop near you.

Hunter GSP9700 Wheel vibration Control System solves wheel vibration and tire pull problems that balancers and aligners can't fix

There are several near me, but my usual place for tires does not have one.

Lee

Lee,

I just found out Hunters web site does not list our Hunter Equipment. We have both the Hunter Road Force Balancer and the TC3500 tire machine.

If a Tire shop has a Road Force Balancer they most likely also have a Hunter TC3500 Tire Mounting machine. The TC3500 uses rubber feet to grab the rim. Some machines use steel claws that can damage the inside of the rim. The TC3500 also uses a polymer duck head to mount and dismount the tire and a bead roller to break the tire bead. Most tire machines use a clam shell desgn to break beads which can damage or scratch a rim if the operator is not careful. It's almost impossible to damage a rim with a TC3500. One problem with the TC3500 is it not very good with run flat tires and low profile tires.

If anyone needs help with tires or even wants to mount their own tires look me up and I can set you up with some shop time.

[cdog]

I used Suburban Tire in St. Charles to mount my Avons.

Of course ONLY bring the wheels and tires. Have them mount and balance them, then take them back home....Do the install/safety wiring yourself!!!!!!!!!!!!