Vintage Firestone Pie-Crust Slicks?

[Snake45]

I'm currently working on restoring a pair of 1966 AMT annuals, which I have no reason to believe were not built in 1966 or thereabouts. They both came with "Firestone Deluxe Champion" pie-crust slicks, but different sizes. The thinner ones are marked 7.60x15, the fatter ones say 9.00x15. I don't think I've ever seen these slicks before, certainly not in any 1966 AMT annual I built back in the day. Could they have come from a Revell kit? Revell parts pack? Did AMT have a tire parts pack? (I know they had a wheels parts pack, don't think I've ever seen or heard of tires, though.) Anyone know? 

[dodgefever]

Definitely AMT.  Early trophy kits had narrow slicks with no markings; the Firestones came a bit later.  I have some of the 9.00x15 ones in a soft rubber compound, rather than the usual PVC found in kits.  I was told the rubber ones were sold as slot car accessories.

AFAIK, Revell only had M&H slicks, in 8.00 and 11.00 widths.

[Mark]

The wide Firestones (in vinyl) came mostly in Trophy Series kits, and not many of them at that.  I can't think of any annual kits that definitely had them, the '65 El Camino might be one.  The softer ones would be from a parts pack, possibly from a first issue '58 Impala kit.

[BeakDoc]

I have this AMT tires parts pack, but they’re all 8.20/15 and M&H, not Firestone. I know it doesn’t help solve the mystery.

[Ace-Garageguy]

Two AMT kits I'm almost certain came with the vinyl Firestone piecrusts were the Willys/'32 Ford double kit, and the first issue Barris Surf Woody.

As noted, the soft ones made a few appearances, and were also sold for the AMT Turnpike slot-car sets.

 

[Snake45]

Very interesting, thanks all! 

[oldscool]

I had a Bonnie and Clyde boxing of the 32 Vicky back in the early70s that came with the piecrust Firestones.

[afx]

These are the slicks Snake is talking about.  AMT's '66-'69 Falcon kits might have included these tires.

 

Edited May 7, 2020 by afx

[Snake45]

28 minutes ago, afx said:

These are the slicks Snake is talking about.  AMT's '66-'69 Falcon kits might have included these tires.

 

They weren't in the '69 I built in 1969, and they're not in the mint unbuilt '66 in my collection. 

[larman]

9 minutes ago, Snake45 said:

39 minutes ago, afx said:

These are the slicks Snake is talking about.  AMT's '66-'69 Falcon kits might have included these tires.

 

They weren't in the '69 I built in 1969, and they're not in the mint unbuilt '66 in my collection. 

The slicks on the left are definitely the ones that came in later issue Trophy Series kits. I have a '64 and a '66 Corvette, both original built up drag cars and AMTs, that had the ones on the right on them. It may be possible they came in that era Corvette. I have an original unbuilt AMT '66 and it has similar slicks, but they are not softer rubber. It is possible that the built ups had parts pack tires on them, but they were built pretty much from the box and didn't have any other added parts that I could see.

[Snake45]

They sure weren't in the AMT '66 Corvette roadster I built in 1966, nor in any of the several I've bought since then. 

I'll have to doublecheck the unbuilt '66 Coupe kit in my collection. 

[berr13]

Scenes Unlimited used to reproduce the wider version, but he told me he quit making them because they didn't sell.  I bought what he had left unsold, and I'm working my way through them on various projects.  I'd like to see them return.

[larman]

On 5/6/2020 at 9:51 PM, Snake45 said:

They sure weren't in the AMT '66 Corvette roadster I built in 1966, nor in any of the several I've bought since then. 

I'll have to doublecheck the unbuilt '66 Coupe kit in my collection. 

The 66's I have are coupes. I am pretty sure the AMT roadster had plastic slicks like the 67's. It is possible that the slicks in my unbuilt '66 are not correct to the kit. I checked them earlier and they are the 9.00×15 slicks but are hard plastic-like vinyl.

Edited May 8, 2020 by larman

[Mark]

The Surf Woody had the narrow version of this slick, as it had the dual rear wheels.  The 1:1 had some off-brand slick which Round 2 replicated in its reissue.

Many of the '66 annual kits included plastic slicks.  I'm beginning to appreciate those now, as they did a number of styles that weren't done in vinyl.

The wide version in the soft rubber were in a parts pack with four Turnpike treaded tires.  They may have been in the first issue '58 Impala kit also. 

The vinyl version was included in the AMT wheel packs along with those hard-to-find Firestone "gasser" front tires.  Several Trophy Series kits also, including the '32 Ford/'40 Willys coupe, and possibly the '65 El Camino annual (no reissues).  I have an annual, will check it later.

There's a plastic version of the wide slick also, in both the Munster Koach and Drag-ula.

[Jack L]

my unbuilt 66 vette coupe has the small firestone slicks

[Mark]

My '58 Impala is a later production first issue kit.  It's molded in white (early kits were light blue).  It has the soft rubber Turnpike tires and the soft version of the Firestone slick.  The Impala is the only AMT kit to include the soft tires.  I don't know where the slicks came in, but I always thought AMT put the tires in the Impala to use up leftovers from the poor-selling Turnpike.

The '32 Ford sedan/'40 Willys double kit includes four of the wide slicks in vinyl; two for each car of course.

The '65 El Camino annual kit also has two of the wide slicks in vinyl.  I don't know of any other annual kits that used the wide slick.

[Mark]

On 5/6/2020 at 2:21 PM, Snake45 said:

 Did AMT have a tire parts pack? (I know they had a wheels parts pack, don't think I've ever seen or heard of tires, though.) Anyone know? 

There were two AMT wheel packs.  Each included one half of the tree of plated wheels that was in the Stevens International multiple parts pack that was issued years ago.  The wheel packs included two of the wide Firestone slicks, and two of the small front tires which were used in only a couple of kits (first issue '55 Nomad and '56 Ford).