The ones I’ve used on radial tires don’t lay on the sidewalls very well. Your results may vary. And the tire shops get a perplexed look on their face when you mention “portawalls”.
The new/old original unused vintage Inglewood Pos-A-Traction 10x15 slicks I found for my Mysterion reproduction were treasures but unfortunately had mis-matched skinny whitewalls so I had no choice, had to go Port-A-Walls. Perfect for that show, no go car. Put some on a Metropolitan I restored for my daughters to drive but they didn't last long. In fairness, they tires were short so the walls were a bit to big and scrubbed on the tires. They are short term solutions, don't last very long.
my 2 cents worth. I wouldn't use them again. I had them on radials bitd, and after a while they would flap. Eventually they wore a groove in the sidewall. Plus, people pick at them etc
I have never tried portawalls, but I always notice them peeling off the tires at shows. I have wondered if actually vulcanizing them to the sidewalls with some sort of cement would work.
One of the peeps a cruise night. Same day installed. They fall off or pinch out at the sight of a curve or a hard turn. there was people on the HAMB many moons ago the would sand their tire smooth then krylon fusion them white. one of the guys had them done like that for years. And he would clean them up for shows. He enjoyed saving his 1000.00 on tires and the car was cool.
is there a link for these? I have seen the 40's steel one but the are more like a disc cover between the small cap and the tire.
When they came out, there were many suppliers, & the ones from Western Auto or the Tempo store weren't high quality. If you got the ones from a parts house, they came from Barefoot (Bearfoot ?) rubber company, & lasted well if you didn't hit a curb. The width was perfect on most quality tires - the outer edge sank down into the rib molded in the sidewall if you knew how to install them ... break outer bead, place whitewall, inflate to 3 - 4 lbs & seat with rubber hammer going around 5 laps so it's just right ... inflate, scrub, enjoy.
I never had luck with the Krylon Fusion but I used Snow-Seal elastomeric roof coating for trailers and if you prep the tire right and bake that shit on in the hot sun with 4 even coats, mine lasted the life of the tires, on several sets of tires. Nothing really beats the look of brand new, real wide whitewalls. But when the budget is ultra-tight, and when wide whitewalls are a necessity to nailing the look, I think making a set is a good alternative. All of my experiences with Porta-Walls ended up in the trash. They look good when they're mounted but they go to shit extremely quickly.
Back in the early 60's riding in a mates 57 F-100 and coming down a big hill I was watching the speedo and when he hit 100 there was a hell of a racket. I nearly shit myself and thought I was going to die. Turns out he had chucked a whitewall! Talking to him about it recently he tells me that nearly every Monday morning he was in the tire service getting new w/walls fitted. Not supposed to run them with radials as radials only have 2 ply walls which flex and wear grooves in their walls. As @willys36 says , fine for show cars, low mileage cars and slow drivers. I've got them on my T-bucket as I was too cheap to buy the real thing and the car doesn't get driven anyway.
In the 50’s I remember the high end ones, had Custom in embossed letters. In 62 I bought 4 -16 inch ones for my 48 Chevy at the 88 cent store.
I've used them on 2 of my hot rods with great success on radial tires. The Panel had them for over 10 years...the '36 going on 5 years...no issues There is a seller ( portawallstore ) on Epay that sells high quality Atlas port-o-walls, in lots of sizes, for about $80-$100 for a set of 4. Although they say for tubeless tires, I prefer to run radial innertubes in my tires to avoid any slow leak issues. For under $300 you can get that WWW look. ($80 Porto's, $100+- tubes, $100+- re-mount/balance).
I run them. They will wear out the sidewalls. I just bought a new set. Bought them on Amazon. They came from Turkey. They arrived here in Missouri from Turkey in four days. These are very soft and flexible, so I hope they work out.
I love the sound of a porta-wall flying past my ear at 60MPH! They are great on bias-ply tyres that don't turn or go outside, like a museum or a wall hanging. I tried many cheap and some expensive tyre whitewall paints, they all turned to shit after a couple of months on daily drivers. I found Rustoleum matte white flexible spray (I think it is sold to spray on tool handles, etc), about 4 coats, and re-coat every couple of years works for me.
I saw them when I followed a link for the new Coker "Star" series of radials that I saw in an online ad on "Yahoo News". It was from a supplier of those tires and these were among other products they carry. For some reason, I can't find it again. A quick Google search brought up some similar products, but they were from European sources, mainly targeting Volkswagens. Knowing "Yahoo News", the ad will probably pop up again, and if it does, I'll grab the info.
Hello, At one time in our teenage years, those porta-walls were one way for folks that bought an all blackwall tire coupe or sedan to get the whitewall look without spending money for new tires. From a distance, one cannot tell the difference due to the changing look of the sidewalls in the industry choices. The designs for white walls were wide, then slightly narrower, then down to skinny white stipes on the black tires. The high end models had white walls. The business coupes/sedans came with blackwalls. So, for the teenager who could afford a business coupe/sedan, these “portawalls” were the answer. For some, there was no way that they would run a “portawall” on any tire. They associated those pep boys alternatives with “porta potties,” and laughed when they saw the add on whitewall rubber strips. Jnaki The fall of 1957-58, not all cars had whitewall tires directly from the factory... As the industry changed their designs in the whitewall availability for factory ordered cars, it was a dealer that had a choice to thrown in “whitewalls” as a thing they did to “give” an accessory add on to seal the sale of the car. But, some models came stock from the factory with whitewall tires. We had several friends who used "portawalls" and they looked fine. Maintenance was demanding and definitely one had to learn to parallel park or else the tire rubbed, causing a catastrophe in the "portawall" installation. They look great when properly installed, but one good rub did a number on the look. At the time, it was a choice. Most had whitewalls as a factory installed choice. But since we wanted a “drag racer” look, we turned the whitewall tires inside out until we could get new all black tires for our sedans. 2nd Photo is an all blackwall Bruce Slicks installation during time trials and sometimes on our Friday/Saturday night cruising era. The first photo shows the Moxley Cheater slick installation with different rim color than stock. Slicks were allowed in stock classes until they were deemed not factory installed options. YRMV
When I was a poor 20-something I shaved the thin whitewalls on my old '54 Ford into these with an angle grinder and a flap disc for free.
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