Technical TIRES, Make your own Wide White Walls

ive been grinding white walls for years! on the curb out side trying to get as close to the yard as i can. it turned a full set of thin whites into 3' whites. but i thought it was bad unsafe. thanks for the truly helpful post. i will grind some white walls this week. this is the winning tech post.

 

I did it, today I made the thin whitewalls into 1 3/4 inch whitewalls... Easy!!!!

 

Jeff, That was great tech! Love the video. I never really thought about it until I watched your video. Then I remember a girlfriend I once had that drove an old Torino with white letter tires and the pass side was always scraped into a 3" wide white. I used to get pissed and I ended up painting them flat black. Rods and Customs should have wide whites not Torinos! LOL

Great tech Thanks alot

Hotrodderman

 

thanks for thvideo man i hae read alot about this but was always skeptical thaks jake

 

... up !!

 

ALONG THE SAME SUBJECT:
IS THERE ANY WHITE PAINT THAT I CAN APPLY TO BLACK WALLS, THAT EFFECTIVE, APPEARS TO CREATE WHITEWALLS ?

 

There is a white rubber paint used in roofing that people have used. That might be enough search terms for it to pop up a thread for you

 

Has Anyone tried. Flex Seal ?

 

I think that’s the white paint I was talking about

 

Hello,

When we were young and liked whitewalls, since our dad had nothing but big whitewall tires on his later, Buick Sedans, that is what we knew. Every time we saw his Buick sedan, since 1946 and it was a blackwall tire fastback, the next set was pure whitewall tires all around. To him, it showed a step up in looks. His friend had a Cadillac and they always had whitewall tires.

But, I rememher helping him hose off the whitewalls and scrubbing them with some cleaner like Ajax and a wire type Brillo pad. Then hosing it all off to show a nice clean white wall trim. He was proud when he saw how it looked on his fastback. After another set was necessary for the 41 Buick fastback, it ended up blackwall for the rest of the years we had the family/daily driver car. The whitewalls were too expensive for the tight budget.

So, they were blackwalls, until he got a new 1949 Buick Roadmaster and that came with whitewalls of a large kind.

Now, the weekend whitewall tire washings began again. It was fun to help our dad wash “his” car.

Jnaki

Finally, we got out of the whitewall tire cleaning help mode. As he had his car washed and detailed when he could get it done in Los Angeles. It was not until my brother got his first car, that we went back to the old Ajax cleaner and real Brillo pads for a nice clean white wall tire(s).

But, soon after a set of new whitewalls and the process of cleaning them constantly, we turn them inside out due to the cost of new tires, and used them until it was time for new tires. With the new tires, we switched to all blackwalls as the hot rod/drag race days started.
No more whitewall tire cleaning on any of our hot rods or daily drivers.
Blackwalls have been on our daily drivers including several sedan deliveries.

Note:

What we learned in the early whitewall days… it takes tons of work to keep them clean. Any kicks, curbs, road objects and plain old dirt makes marks on the whitewall surface. Constant cleaning is necessary to keep them clean. Even high pressure spray booths sometimes does not get all of the marks off. So, hand washing, cleaning was necessary. One other thing to take care of and taking up some valuable cruising time. Some of my friends used white paint to create their own whitewalls, but that lasted several days. the daily road grime started the destruction process and then the white came off for good.

We eventually found out that the blackwall tires were less expensive, but had the same quality and looked better with all types of rims. From mags to chromed ones to spoked wheels, black made the wheels stand out. YRMV


Thanks to @themoose for a great impression on my 58 impala with new blackwalls (trued to roundness), every spoke/rim tightened, Loc-tite process and balanced/aligned to perfection.

 

I have used Rustoleum matt white Peelkote. Clean the sidewall with wax and grease remover, and you need to spray a few light coats. The first couple of coats will look like there is no colour going on, but it does go white as you keep going over it. They may go a bit beige after a while, but a couple of new coats brings them back.