when? white painted fenderwells

Late 50's and early 60's we would paint the fenderwells white and then put amber lights under there to shine on the flipper hubcaps at night. Cops would write tickets for the lights---law was no lights on side of car NOW THEY ALL HAVE THEM!!!I guess we were way ahead of our times.
Thanks for bringing this subject up---made a lot of memorys come back for me (of course by tomorrow I won't remember typing this!LOL)

 

Remember painting the wheel wells white on my '57 Chevy while in HS. Black car, narrow white walls and baby moons. This would be mid 1960's. Saw it in the car mags. We thought it was "cool" then but what did we know?
Still have those baby moons! Wish I still had that shrunken head...

 

I think it would probably work.....the only thing that might be a down side is that could have that, " I crashed through the front window of Johnny Rockets and came driving out the other side and this is what happened" look. So try to excersize some restraint when doing it.

 

X2.. along with white / light gray firewalls, engine compartments and interiors, eh? Upholstered fender wells and running boards, or white painted inner fenders and frames are for show cars / trailer queens. Gary

 

I like the look personally, if you have put a lot of time and detail into your suspension/underbody etc, it sets it off.

 

I painted the wheel wells white on my 53 Chevy when built it a few years back. I built it in the late 50s early 60s style and after some looking found it was fairly popular in that era.
BUT, as some others said, sanitary is the key word. I personally think it may be a little much with the flames but like i said, thats just me.
My car is copper and white, nothing else.

Aside from that, i love the look!

Tony

 

In the 70's, some guys painted their undercarriages white, jacked up the rearend to expose the white differential housing, and strapped trailer lights on the axle housing. Some guys even put their girlfriends name on the pumpkin.
We use to tease a guy that had his girlfriend, "Diana", painted on the rearend told him he spelled "Dana" wrong.

 

I remember lots of cars running around Dearborn Michigan in the early 60's with white wheel wells. I really loved the colored clearance lights ,that cast an erie glow at night. Still a few guys coming to cruise nights with white wheel wells. It was cheap and easy to do.

 

I am restoring a 1953 Buick Skylark and on some darker colored exterior, they had white fender wells. On light colors they had red wheel wells.
I remember painting the entire undercarriage on a friends 40 coupe for the 1958 Autorama. Paul Hatton striped it in red.

 

I used to paint my fender wells white on my lowrider back in East L.A. all the way into the late 80's. sometimes guys would put red or green lights in the wells as well. hard to keep clean but cool as ****, I think you can still see them in my avatar

 

(with props to hotrod1940), what is the consensus WRT the '53-54 Skylark ?

 

ive been thinkin of this for a while...

super glossy wouldnt be TOO hard to wipe down every day or so

 

Painted my '64 impala wheel wells in '67 but like most here didn't last long.. took a can of spray paint a week to keep them looking cool...

 

Did my 50 Chev. in 1960, also had blue trailer lights in wheel wells. Lowered in front and raised in the rear.

 

I don't know when it became common place or trendy but my dad in his twenties (during the 1950's) painted the wheel wells white and installed Christmas lights for a neat effect. This took place in the East.St.Louis area by the way.

 

I have no dates to offer but I can say that my 56 in my avatar had white inner fenderwells when I got it in the mid 80's.

 

It was quite the rage when I was in hi school in the mid 60's, but seemed to fade by the mid 70's.

 

They were still painting fenderwells as well as ounkins ans suspension white or a worse color up into the '70s depending on where you were. I always thought it was an offshoot of the upholstered fenderwells of the customs car crowd in the early '60s.

I like my stuff to blend so as a rule I avoid painting anything other than the shiney part a color. Not to say that I haven't done so but as a rule I try to avoid it my self.

 

The 41 Ford pickup that was my dads had the frame painted white by my brother in the 1970's. It is mine again (long story elsewhere) but I actually like it that way and may leave it. When my dad painted wheel wells white in the 1950's it was for one reason....the Christmas lights. White was the only way to get a good effect. And you're right about the 70's thing, painting pumpkins and about everything else was definitely commonplace but I will admit that painting brake drums behind spoke or slotted wheels always looked great to me especially when the color complimented the body color.

 

Other than the Stahl racers I cannot recall ever seeing a car with white wheel wells. Ugly then still ugly. JMO.

 

it looks rad, late 50's early 60's. Alot of the old timers said it was kind of a compe***ion to see who could keep the wheel wells the cleanest....kind of a show off thing to let people know how clean your car is....but it looks *****en, love white painted frames and suspension parts too

 

My 51 Merc came with truck side marker lights up under the fender wells and some of the white paint left from a previous life when I bought it in 1963. The lights were amber in the front and red in the back wheel wells but the wiring was cut when I got the car. In the late 50's on of my buddies older brother got his hands on some white road paint that held up pretty well in the fender wells of his 49 Plymouth rag top.