Projects 1963 bel air www

Anyone running wide white walls on a 63 Chevrolet bel air looking for ideas what to do with it

 

Wide whites went out of style in 1961. But that doesn't stop a lot of folks from putting them on later cars.

you might try a google images search for something like

1963 belair wide whites

you'll see what they look like. (or use impala instead of belair in the search, there are probably more Impalas with that treatment)

 

I think skinny whites would look better on a 63.

 

Meh, it’s ok. The bottom pic with the chrome wheels looks good, but more of a custom, do some funky paint and bellflower exhaust for the mild custom look.

i would do thin whites or just black walls .

 

Skinny white walls for that car.

 

Wide whites and 63 ss caps are hard to beat . Check out the Moose on here , he photo cropped a lot of diff variations for me ,lowered not lowered ,different colored wheels ,whites no whites , he might be able to help helped me out a lot , good luck .

 

1” or less

 

For Bel Airs, which were the "economy" level in the Chevy lineup at the time, most had poverty hubcaps and
blackwalls. Here is my '64 Bel Air with that look....love your '63!

 

yup, the car in the first picture looks "hot rod", not "cruiser"....so black walls on some type of early aftermarket wheel would look better than wide whites.

 

When I see queries like this I wonder where the hell people are getting their inspiration.
Put your money under the hood.

 

Things tend to go into a sort of undifferentiated bucket of old-fashionedness, from which then emerges such incongruities as wide whitewalls on a 1974 Alfasud. The syllogism is something like, you get wide whites on old cars; that is an old car; ergo ...

That fallacy ought to have a name.

 

One those the car really aint my style just picked it up for something differant thought i try doing something differant then the normal with them might just sell it though

 

Let the car talk to you...and if you don't like what it's saying, get rid of it

 

I see the car looking pretty sinister in black, with black wheels and redline tires...piecrusts on rear

Even better if the sinister look is backed up by a nasty sounding W-motor and a 4 spd!

 

Try picking a theme for the car, then choose mods consistent with that theme, instead individual stand-alone questions.

Kinda like this:
Hot rod/Muscle car: Black wall tires, painted steel wheels or period-correct mags, tachometer, 4-speed floor shifter, speed parts on the engine.
Granny car/stocker: ~1" whitewalls, full wheel covers or poverty caps, stock interior. Like @Bob Lowry 's car above.
Bellflower custom: Thin whitewalls, Astro Supremes or chromed steelies, lowered, chrome exhaust, chrome on the engine.
Pimp-mobile: wide whites, every accessory in the JC Whitney catalog.

How about "Stereotyping" or maybe "Inverse Cherry Picking"? Lumping everything together that's remotely related, despite obvious differences.

 

It looks kinda mean with blackwalls. maybe you could go with some taller tires though. I'd get the motor in before you worry about the tires. You might find you like the blackwalls when the front squats down alittle.

 

Sorry, blackwalls for me. Not that they don't look great, cause they do.
I gave up on WWW after my '35 slantback.........they can turn yellow and cleaning is a PITA!

 

^^^ It would be fine with early 60s wide, but not so wide, wide whitewalls. You want to avoid the 40s early 50s extra wide whites.
For a sinister look that was popular in the late 50s early 60s, run these "not so wide" wide whites on a solid black wheel, no cap.
Personally those "ralleys" need to be 1963 OE style solid wheels.

^^^Look just above the hood of the coupe.

The style I'm talking about.



Notice the car in the background.

 

Thanks think goin go orignal style with a corvette 283 duel quad from 1959 iam a traditional style pearson but these cars are limited on looks really i dig this how hard are poverty caps to find in good condition?

 

Just sold a nice set of 63 dog dish on here last week , black steel wheels black walls and 63 dogdish , forget whitewalls !!!

 

Thats what iam goin go with

 

Wide whites will make it look like a pimpmobile.

 

That's exactly the look I wanted to suggest but figured you (and others) would poo poo it.
Sure it looks stock, but that's the beauty of it, plain Jane Biscaynes and BelAirs were very cool even back in the day because of the available horsepower available whether stock or aftermarket.
I sold a set of those 63 dog dish caps some years back, they were near NOS condition, the guy gave me my asking price of $350 and I saw a set after that on that auction site for $500.
They are getting hard to find even in fair condition at a reasonable price nowadays.

 

To each there own, if you like them that's all that matters. HRP

 

Lol i can see that

 

Is the car staying flat black? If so, Go with street racer look, put as much rubber as possible under it. Your choice on big and littles or fatties all the way around.
Wide whites, in my opinion, fit better with a custom and gloss paint.
If you're putting much power to it, wide whites limited sizes and tread become an obstacle.

Good looking car, I have a 63 on the backburner, post up more details or a build thread.

 

Most of the young guys are absolutely clueless to the fact that when whitewalls got narrower the custom car guys picked up on it real fast. In 1963 there were a few throwbacks that couldn't get their head around the narrower white walls but that was the hot lick at the time and guys went with it and wide whites that weren't on a true vintage classic were way out of date.
The "that looks so gangsta" brigade will love big wide whites on a 63 though.

 

Re poverty caps being hard to find, I’d expand the search a few years either direction for something that you like and looks cool