New white walls were expensive, used tires back then were like 4 or 5 bucks each, local place used to have a sale on Portawalls, 2 for a $1.99. Cheap way to spiff up your ride. Paint your rims red and you were the cats nuts.
In Minneapolis back in the early '70's, the Champion Auto on Lake Street was the store that sold lots and lots of portawalls to a certain group of people who drove duece & 1/4's (aka Buick Electra 225) and Cadillacs - those same cars had swan hood ornaments, thickly padded vinyl tops,etc...the guys wore those superfly suits and they each had "a group of women who worked for them".....memories of portawalls on Lake Street!
When I had my Shop in Astoria, Queens back in 1963 I bought a set of WW for my Merc, Firestone Tires on Steinway street for 15 dollars each installed & Ballanced and away I went they are still on my Car! just my 3.5 cents
Put some on my car in 56 with new full moon hubcaps. Arond 58 swithed to blackwalls and never looked back. Nothing worse than wide whites on too new of a car.
Seems to me back when we usually just bought one tire as we needed it and white walls were not always available when you were buying used tires. So for very little money you cold get a set of port-a-walls and with a little work you were cool. I think it would be fun to run a set now on the right car.
Several years ago now we found some NOS 15"ers at Hershey and we walked around all day with them around our necks. You wouldn't believe the guys that asked us where did you find them? Lots of people had fond memories of them. I ran them on radials for a few years. When they got out of place, I'd let the air out of the tire and take a rubber "ka-blitzer" and knock them back in place. No need to dismount or rebalance them. It worked for me.
I know I will prob get flamed for this, but I was actually looking at a set of 'port-a-walls' on the Moon website earlier, and I noticed it said they are not recommended for radials. Anyone have any input on this?
In Portland they were called "Mickeys" which was short for "Mickey Mouse whitewalls". When gas stations still did mechanical repairs you would always see "Mickeys" hanging on nails, on workbenches, hanging over the backs of chairs.
In the 50's there was a totally different mindset... No one thought you to be a "Mickey" or a "Squirrell" It didnt matter as long as your car looked cool
A little bit of a side story, since I'm young and don't know the truth behind it. The first old car I bought right out of highschool was a 50 ford that had been sitting since 65 when a water pump failed. The car had 4 blackwall bias plys on it, but in the trunk were 2 incredibly worn tires with portawalls. I wondered why his summer tires for the rear had portawalls and why the fronts I'm ***uming were used year round didn't have them. Well whne I pulled the tires off, I found what was left of the portawall tucked into the rim. I have no idea if he cut them off or if they got so worn after so many years outside that they came off or what, but that was the first time I ever saw portawalls.
Back in 1961, I was earning $37.50, take home pay, for a 40 hour work week...buying a pair of whitewall tires ate up a lot of that...hence, Port-a-walls were cheap...and who cared if they lasted two weeks or a month...!!! I went thru a lot of them when I was cruising my four year old '57 Chevy... Yep, sometimes it was a pain to have to go to a gas station to break down the tire to install a Port-a-wall...but it was easier than buying, dismounting and mounting a new very expesive tire. R-
I've read that because of the different flexibility of a radial sidewall that often they will pucker and wrinkle when run on a radial. That didn't used to stop a lot of guys before the introduction of WWW radials from the likes of Coker and Diamondback, or the (re)discovery of the renowned grinder/shaver technique. -Dave
My old friend Ramsay and I built him a channeled 'A' Coupe over the summer of '57. Dago axle, 221" '37 flathead, 6.00X16s on '40 Ford steelies. His Dad painted the car at his shop, (shiny black synthetic enamel) and we hastened down to Grand Auto for a set of Port-a-walls and Baldy hub caps. We covered the top with white heavy vinyl, and the car was an eye-opener. He kept it pretty clean. Sold it in '59, 3 owners later it still had the Port-a-walls! (1963)
Back in 1964 I was making $ 104.00 gross for 2 weeks in a steel mill. One thing I learned over the years, Don't matter how much you make , you always broke the day before payday.
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