Well, this is just poll to see if I should be going in business with what I think is a great idea. Please be brutally honest. I found a group of guys who are willing to vulcanize rubber wide whites for me at 50.00 per tire. This price includes a lifetime warrantee on the permanent adhesion of wide whitewalls along with the materials. This can be applied to a tire either on or off a rim and can be as wide as the design of the radial or bias tire can allow. This application can also be done to either new or used tires. Now do you guys think this is something that would be profitable? Anyone interested in the idea? No promises yet, just testing the waters. Would you be interested in using this on a set of your tires for these prices?
i guess it would depend on how it looks- does it look legit? also, how many people within your area are lookin fer wide whites?- everybody on here is, but we all live thousands of miles away- how much does it cost to get started- if it is a small investment, sure what the hell, but i wouldn't mortgage the house on it- my$.02
Does that cover Shipping and Handling....???? That would be the biggest deterent! If you're the one marketing this process (or Franchising) to other shops to do the work..., I'd say do it! Otherwise you'll have only a small market in each local area and you'd have to do some creative S&H discounts to gain larger markets! Ray Kroc bought McDonalds so that he could supply them with his Shake machines (double dipping) and he understood the scalabilty of franchising and being the supplier to the franchises was more profitable than running one! My two cents...! Mark
I would use the service for tire that are odd sizes, but other wise it is not much cheaper than a regular white wall. But for real fat tire it could come in handy... Thats my thought anyway.
The wide whites really look good. I haven't seen any that has been on a vehicle yet for any length of time even though I don't think yellowing would be an issue here. Yes, I do see that shipment would be the drawback. Tires are heavy and bulky. It may be an idea to francise this instead of handling it myself. That way a specific tire chain would already have the available tires and the process would have to be sold out. This would be great for specific tires and sizes that aren't available through the regular suppliers of whites.
I bought some "wide whites" from Antique Auto Accessories several years ago...found out they were vulcanized...after about 15 turns of the tire on the street and mounted on the car, they started turning brown...from the glue they used to vulcanize the white to the tire...needless to say, we went thru three sets of whites, still didn't solve the problem and they didn't stay in business too long... I'd investigate how white and how long the vulcanized rubber whites WILL STAY white...there might be the drawback...Is there a guarantee from the company they will stay white? If not, you'd probably be responsible for replacing tires...just a thot. R-
I VOTE NO -AS I FEEL 200 A SET TO WHITEWALL YOU OWN TIRE IS KINDA HIGH. Hay-Dumb question here....does anyone still sell portawalls? with all the miracle adhesives there are nowadays why couldnt glueing THEM[portawalls] on be profitable? I have an old set on the front of this Roadster Im doing now and they look good still/fit pretty close to sidewall also.....
Looks as though the cost is too high for most people here. I don't know, If I had a set on a ford that I wanted white walled, I may consider this. Especially, as said before the color is guaranteed. If in fact Diamond back vulcanizes their whites... has anyone had trouble with those staying true color?? I do feel locally this may fly but to ship tires would be too expensive. Looks as though I need to talk to the supplier more and get a better price. If anyone is willing to have a specialized set done..pm me and I can talk him into a lower price for a special introductory offer. Alot of ifs, ands and buts yet. But If this is a good deal for cheap whites on specialty tires, it will be to everyones benefit to try them out. I will have him do a tire and get some detailed pics for us. Thanks for the imput!
hey Petejoe, we found a guy from the akron(?) area who gave us his card and said he'd do that same thing for $35 a tire. My buddy has his card tacked to the wall in the garage. he said he'd warranty them also. he showed several examples of his work. looked good. for what it's worth!
You can get a 7" polisher/sander and a DA from Harbor Freight for a total of $50 and grind as many skinny whites into medium whites as you want, all day long... just a thought.
I use to work at a car dealership years ago & they had a guy come around once a week with a stepvan & he would install those vulcanized WW on tires, they didn't look too bad but it was in the bronx & after hitting a curb or 2 while parking they would peel.I know this wouldn't be a problem with any HAMBer( we're all good parkers!!)But that was one problem. Also $50 is alittle too high, You can probably get new tires for your car that are WW & it wouldn't be $50 per tire more!!save some money & install portawalls if you need WW before you get new tires. One last thing is that not having WW isn't the end of the world,In the 50's WW's were alot more money & there wasn't alot of them out there,Even getting a decent tire was expensive!!For some reason i don't remember too many"driven" rods with them & it wasn't uncommon to se just 2 WW on a car. JimV
[ QUOTE ] In the 50's WW's were alot more money & there wasn't alot of them out there,Even getting a decent tire was expensive!!For some reason i don't remember too many"driven" rods with them & it wasn't uncommon to se just 2 WW on a car. JimV [/ QUOTE ] Yes, I agree with that statement. Here in Ohio, when I was just a youngster, Believe me I noticed cars then, I can't remember any real wide whites on any cars. If they had whitewalls, they were usually bought as the second set and they were only 2-1/2 to 3 " wide. [ QUOTE ] we found a guy from the akron(?) area who gave us his card and said he'd do that same thing for $35 a tire. [/ QUOTE ] Grumpy, this outfit is from Lodi,Ohio which is about 30 miles from Akron. It may be the same outfit...definitely not the same price. That would be a total of 140.00 for a set. Did you get his card??
Diamond Back does Vulcanize their WWW, that's why they can do sizes that Coker can't. I've got a set I took off the 41 after 5 years and 27,000 miles. Still just as white as the day I bought them. I had problems with their recap WWW breaking belts (they covered them & don't do caps anymore) but I never had a whitewall fail. Find out if they'll do 17.5 tires on my motorhome.
The Jalopy Journal
