They make it look MUCH easier than it is!

[pgerhardt]

Now that getting back on the road is in sight it was time to remove tires from my crappy painted yellow wheels so that I can put them on powder coated black ones. I watched all the you-tube videos on how to change model A tires. Most did it on the car with the wheel mounted on the rear axle. But my rear wheel wells are newly painted and beautiful (picture 1) and I did not want to risk damaging them. So I created a tire removal station by mounting a spare tire carrier to one of my deck posts (picture 2).

The videos make it look easy. Just push the tire beads down into the wheel groves, and the bottom will pop right off. Huh - NO! After two hours of struggle and a liberal use of PAM I did get the first one off (picture 3). It was NOT easy!

Now I must admit that much of my struggle was due to the fact that I did not know what I was doing, and was learning (Actually relearning since the last time I changed a model A tire was in the 1970s.) as I went.

I highly recommend that if you are going to change a model A tire and are not sure of the procedure get the help of someone who has done it before. There is quite a bit of technique involved. My next one will go much easier. I could have saved myself a lot of trouble getting the help of someone who already had knowledge of the procedure.