As far as the BF'S and the lettering, all 4 of mine that I bought 2 years ago went brown within 3 months. They didn't touch another tire, no exhaust, didn't drive through a powdered hot chocolate field. Just crappy white lettering. Got a paint pen and tried that, sorta worked but not up close. NOTHING looks as good as the Poly Glass repro tires. Amazing. And Jim and Brad are 100% correct. Not the best driving tires out there. But I guess if you want to go around a corner fast we kinda are in the wrong cars. A 2009 Honda civic would be better! Just Kidding, well not really.
My dealer is in contact with the his rep in Toronto,. They will attempt to find a pair of T/A's with the same date code as on the good tires that I purchased in October. The tires are made in Mexico by BFG/Michelin. When these tire used to be made in Canada, no problems!! I purchased 5 of these tires back in 2005 that were Canada made.
The 295 on the back are great - never discolor (probably bought them in late 05 or early 06). The 245s on front are older and will discolor if you point at them.
I tried one of those pens many years ago. Did not work well with the wheels on the car. I think that if u remove the wheels and lay them on the floor, it would make it easier to use the pen.
I bought 5 wide white Coker's for my '57 Mercedes Benz and the entire White wall went yellow in storage. They will clean up slightly with a scrubbing pad and Vim cleaner.
If it's any consolation, the issue isn't limited to BFG. I have a set of whitewall Firestones on my model T. They were purchased and installed by the former owner six years ago. He died before he ever drove the car. They were brand new made in USA tires. One whitewall goes brown in a couple of weeks, another gets tan in about a month. The other two stay white. I can get the tan one back to white with Bleche-wite but the really brown whitewall never comes back to the same white as the other three.
I'm not Larry but I know a guy. I've got Cooper's on my 70 and they still seem as white as they were when I bought them back in '09. I'll take a closer look...
Have Coopers on for 4yrs with no discoloration at all. I would definitely buy them again, at $112/tire vs. $170/tire BF Goodrich. They get shredded either way! If I'm spending cash for better tires, I'd go with MT's ET Street for $220 and flip my fronts in to black wall.
Coopers for years, no trouble until I started applying "tire black" and found some of the dressings either discolored, or caused dirt/disc brake dust to discolor, so I use a rag and brake cleaner to clean them after dressing treatment and I am good between car show prep.
It appears Cooper stopped making the Mickey Thompsons in a passenger tire which was 255 x 15. If you see that I am mistaken, please post.
Coker has never been able to obtain a Goodyear license of any kind. So do not expect a Goodyear Polyglass sidewall on a radial from Coker.
