Which whitewalls?

J

jdempsey

Junior Member
I'm a newbie to the "A" group and am re-restoring a '31 Vicky...

Wife loves the whitewalls...so I'll be changing out the tires....has an excellent older set of Goodyear black-walls made in Canada on it now.

Anybody have any preferences on brand of whitewalls to buy..I definitely want to get some made in USA? Are some better that others? I've occasionally heard stories about some premature cracking on some? Can't remember which brand..

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated, especially before plunking down a "grand" for tires!

John
 
Thanks, Paul for the comment and I had a similar feeling about keeping them clean...I have no reference point on that since I've never had them. Of course the car won't be driven all that much...we have a 27 T coupe with blackwalls that get driven quite a bit.

Anyone else want to comment on keeping the whitewalls clean?

John
 
Some whitewalls, old firestones being one of them, tend to go yellow-brown with time. Scrubbing them gets rid of the discoloration, but it needs to be done at least twice a year. I now run BF Goorich 6.50-16's and the whitewalls stay white. Lots easier to live with.
 
I'm not fond of white walls to say the least. With that said, the best quality tire (and most expensive) in my experience is Good Year. It's also worth noting they are the only true reproduction available for Model A's (in black wall form).

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GooyearAllWeather-Baloon-450-21.jpg
 
Just put 4 Lester 21" whitewalls on my '29. Keep them clean with sos pads when needed. Usually just wash with soap & water.
 
Marco Tahtaras said:
I'm not fond of white walls to say the least. With that said, the best quality tire (and most expensive) in my experience is Good Year. It's also worth noting they are the only true reproduction available for Model A's (in black wall form).

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GooyearAllWeather-Baloon-450-21.jpg
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Marco,...they have to be White on both sides, correct?
 
I also would prefer to have Good Year Tires on my cars, but for now have to retain the Firestone whitewalls that are presently installed. My wonderful wife is a "fanatic extreme" about keeping the cars clean including the whitewall tires. She uses SOS pads and soap and water. Yes....these cars are drivers, she just takes her cleaning supplies with her on our tours. I'am just very very lucky I guess.
 
Generally speaking, I like wide-whites on my antiques, and believe they help make the vehicle a little more visible to modern drivers, but with this year's increase in tire prices,
I think I'm going to have to go blackwall... strictly for economic reasons...

Which kind of bites, 'cause the tires on my coupe are approaching "baloney-skin" status...
 
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I have wide whites on four of my 6 A's. 2 have Firestone, one BFG and one is Goodyear. Although very expensive the Good Years are far superior looking and clean up better. The Firestones are definitely a little yellow looking and they are only 6 months old whereas the one year old GY's are still very white. Just be careful when cleaning the tires in the sidemounts if you use a commercial whitewall cleaner because many of them contain bleach which can discolor your paint !
 
FWIW, I've had WWW tires (6.50 x 16) on my '41 De Soto since getting it 15 years ago... first set was a complete set of Goodyear All-Weather diamond-treads, then as those wore down, I began buying pairs of tires, first starting with Lester WWW (cheapest WWW), as I had front-end issues causing them to wear first.

After a full front-end rebuild, I bought Firestone WWW for that end.

They have all stayed fairly bright-white; I have not had any of the brown staining issue that seemed to have plagued the hobby over the last several years.

I might clean the WWW twice a season - once in the spring, and maybe again during the summer, depending on whether or not I scrub a curbing...

I usually use Westley's for spring cleaning... it will affect rim paint...

The WWW's presently on my A are a combination of old All-States that came with the car, and even older Garfields that were take-offs from another club member's '28 Tudor... they stay fairly white too...
 
jdempsey said:
I'm a newbie to the "A" group and am re-restoring a '31 Vicky...

Wife loves the whitewalls...so I'll be changing out the tires....has an excellent older set of Goodyear black-walls made in Canada on it now.

Anybody have any preferences on brand of whitewalls to buy..I definitely want to get some made in USA? Are some better that others? I've occasionally heard stories about some premature cracking on some? Can't remember which brand..

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated, especially before plunking down a "grand" for tires!

John
Click to expand...

I've had old "Made in Canada" BW Firestones which seemed pretty good for their age. They're no longer made in Canada and I have heard mixed reviews on the current crop.

I've got 37000 miles out of BW GoodYears, still with decent tread left before replacing them.

I will be replacing BW Insa tires (Chile) on the truck with BW Goodyears during the off-season, because of aesthetics and performance.

My wife had input on the available authentic color schemes for the roadster, but I draw the line on tires. ;)
 
:) Thanks for all the great comments...I'm convinced...going WW's! Probably Goodyear or Goodrich if available.

Great forum!

Have a great day, to everyone!

John
 
I have Lester w/w on my car. They are a little wider than a firestone or goodyear and there is more whitewall. They ride very nice and I use dynabeads. I get compliments all the time.

However, any whitewall is a real pain to keep clean. The best solution I have found is Vim cleaner with bleach. It can be put on with a wet rag, requires little scrubbing and whitens the tires up right away.

http://www.unilever.ca/brands/homecarebrands/vim.aspx
 

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The Goodyear Diamond Tread gets lots of favorable comments from people, looks cool to me, is technically accurate, and I have thousands of wear free miles on my blackwall Goodyears.
I like whitewalls, though, but I would need black wheels to have them look right on my three toned Cabriolet. I have photos of blocks of cars parked in Queens, NYC, most with whitewall tires in 1930, but it was an upscale neighborhood.
Comes to personal taste, but there were flashy cars in 1930, just as there were conservative cars, though the Depression did not contribute to spending on extras.
 
C26Pinelake said:
I have wide whites on four of my 6 A's. 2 have Firestone, one BFG and one is Goodyear. Although very expensive the Good Years are far superior looking and clean up better. The Firestones are definitely a little yellow looking and they are only 6 months old whereas the one year old GY's are still very white. Just be careful when cleaning the tires in the sidemounts if you use a commercial whitewall cleaner because many of them contain bleach which can discolor your paint !
Click to expand...

Yeah, that! I should have joined this forum sooner!
 
Bruce Adams said:
The Goodyear Diamond Tread gets lots of favorable comments from people, looks cool to me, is technically accurate, and I have thousands of wear free miles on my blackwall Goodyears.
I like whitewalls, though, but I would need black wheels to have them look right on my three toned Cabriolet. I have photos of blocks of cars parked in Queens, NYC, most with whitewall tires in 1930, but it was an upscale neighborhood.
Comes to personal taste, but there were flashy cars in 1930, just as there were conservative cars, though the Depression did not contribute to spending on extras.
Click to expand...


Bruce,

Would love it if you could post scans of those period photos...

SC Frank
 
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