White walls

L

Lenny Bruce

Senior Member
Good morning! Has anyone ever used the Port A Walls? The white wall inserts on their tires? I have beautiful black walls but prefer the white… With the price of white wall tires I was wondering how well these things work?
 
They were a popular accessory in the 50's and 60's. I sold them in my "Speed Shop" and they were sold by most auto parts stores at that time. I never heard a complaint from anybody that used them as long as they were installed carefully and centered well. Mostly they were 14" 15" and 16". I don't remember if anybody sold them in the larger 17"-21" sizes.
 
Lenny, as has been advised previously, you'll need to find someone that will install them properly.
Hit one curb and they are trash.
I had installed these on a couple of cars back in the very early 70's. Even then, there was only ONE place in the entire city (of 100,000 people) that would install them.
You may want to find that "one place" in your area prior to buying a set.
 
Kube said:
Lenny, as has been advised previously, you'll need to find someone that will install them properly.
Hit one curb and they are trash.
I had installed these on a couple of cars back in the very early 70's. Even then, there was only ONE place in the entire city (of 100,000 people) that would install them.
You may want to find that "one place" in your area prior to buying a set.
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That's what "curb feelers" are for:)
 
Black walls are Model A. We recently had a customer with a nice looking green 28 roadster. It had white walls that needed to be replaced. We convinced them that black walls were authentic and would make the car look better. We installed them they agreed it made the car look much nicer.
I can remember back in early high school trying to use a set of the white flaps, it was a total disaster.
 
The topic of White-Walls has mixed reviews. Yes the Model A came with Blackwalls. But sometimes and on some cars it can look better. All is in the eye of the beholder. I chose whitewalls, because when I bought my 'A' it had it and I liked the look, so my replacements were the GoodYear whitewalls.
 
I think they look good either way. I had whitewalls on mine when I bought it, but they were OLD tires. Nearly 100% tread but completely dry-rotted. I wanted another set of whitewalls but after seeing the price settled on a set of blackwalls.
 
I think this is another one of those topics like “what’s the best oil” and “antifreeze or not” that we’ll never resolve. ��

FWIW, I have whitewalls on the four corners and two fender-mounted spare blackwalls on my ‘31. That looks crappy all around.
 
JayJay - You might pick up a pair of cloth spare tire covers for your side mounts. They can cover the sidewalls and make the spare tires look spiffy. See my avatar and decide for yourself.
 
David in San Antonio said:
JayJay - You might pick up a pair of cloth spare tire covers for your side mounts. They can cover the sidewalls and make the spare tires look spiffy. See my avatar and decide for yourself.
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Actually I have a set of black metal discs and those stainless band tread covers, but those rattle something fierce. Hopefully at Turlock next year I can find a couple of cheap whitewalls to use as spares so I can get rid of the hardware. The corner tires are Firestones and have good tread and no rot.

If I was starting from scratch I’d go cloth covers, those on the Wretched Roadster look real nice.
 
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