Projects whitewalls or blackwalls for late 50's build??

Sadly that's, "soon to be gone coupe"
"Patiently Dreading".

 

How about chrome and crome reverse wheels?

--louis

 

Its a personal choice, actually whitewalls were always a personal choice. If you prefer black walls than black walls it is, and always has been. By the early to mid '60s you had more choices wide whites, pinners or black walls, but I don't think that pinners were an option in '59 so it is just wide whites or not and any builder of any hot rod had to decide for himself what he wanted. there was never really a rule about what kind of tires you ran. We act like there is or was but there never really was and still isn't.

If you want me personal opinion wide whites are for show rods and customs and hot rods have black walls. That is my own personal opinion, not for sale and certainly not gospel.

 

thanks for all the replies! I'm going to mull it over a bit before I drop $800 on tires... I've got a matching pair of 16's (600 and 650 that are on the front in the pic I posted) I can run for now... not my favorites and I don't think they fit the car at all but I have them and will probably run them until I get the car out in the open and figure out a direction I think the car needs.

thanks, it's just a 283...39 trans, 47 rear.

always felt the car was a bit of an oddball being a coupster... that it should really be cobbled together a bit because if you really wanted a roadster you would get a roadster not cut up a 5 window.

 

I think the truth be known there were a lot more coupes with the roof cut off than we would like to admit. The can be done well or not done well, it is a matter of one working with what they have and taking time to make it right I suppose.

Personally I guess I fall into the chicken crowd as in coupes are for chickens chicken crowd. I prefer to drive coupes. But if I had a coupe with a bad roof it could become a roadster very quick.

 

I really have no idea how well this care was done... it has several layers of different reds on it with what appears to be stock black underneath. it was channeled...doors welded shut, early 50's ford swing pedals that had chrome masters mounted on a flat firewall... floor was plywood, with lots of wood formed to make the interior work where the roof was removed. windshield posts were just flatstock chromed and bolted to a truck windshield frame. it's now a highboy with posts I built up and a 5 window windshield. doors open etc...

 

Well wood was common for floors ( and still is) and it sounds like what was wrong has been addressed by the current builder. The pics look good and that is a start isn't it.

 

I'd rather be cruising than cleaning white walls.

 

Here is a rear view of 7.50 x 16 on '40 Ford rims. Fronts are 6.00 x 16.




Although 1954 was a bit earlier than your target, my brother and I ran black 8.20 x 15 on the rear of our '34 sedan, 5.50 x 15 on front (take offs from Mr Logan's Maserati).

 

I was still running 8.00-9.00 x 15s (or 16s) in '68 or so. Guess I was just born a dinosaur.

 

This is correct, exactly. (from L.A. to Santa Clara, and all points in between!)
1959, a bud and myself built a channeled 'A' coupe, 221 flattie, '38 box, '38 X member, dropped axle, juice brakes. My bud was on a budget, had '40 Ford 16" wheels. 6.00 X 16" fronts, 6.50 X 16 rears.
Porta-walls, black car, 'Baldy' caps.
Ran 'em 'til his next paycheck, then to Tex's auto wreckers for some 15" '48 Merc wheels.
Merc wheels had two 7.60 X 15 whitewalls, ($5.00 each with tires, $3.00 each bare!)
We stopped off at U.S. Royal store, around back found two reject whitewalls, 5.90 X 15.
Nice thing about the '48 Merc wheels was the internal hub cap nubs, same as the 16s we took off.
Black paint and the Baldies ("baby moons" to the unwashed) gave it that "L.A. Look".

My '31 Cabriolet, channeled over Deuce rails (stock height windshield) had a pair of 8.20 X 15s on reversed '48 Merc wheels, (Buick outer rims, for the deep 'taper') Whitewalls, also.
Fronts were stock '48 Merc steelies with a pair of new whitewalls from VWs. I traded 2 '55 Olds Fiesta caps for them...
We had a horde of hot rods in Santa Clara at the time. There were some other rods around with black tires, but we with the channeled cars went the whitewall route.
Right then, anyway...when I built by '32 Five window, it was red (hiboy) with red everything, chrome everything else, red wheels and BLACK tires. (8.20 rear, 5.50 front)
My bud Wimpy had a hiboy '32 he bought out of Oakland. Primered with a top hood, it had black tires (6.70 front, 7.60 rear) and '57 Plymouth 'cone' full wheel covers...Looked like POOP!
All summer I tried to get him to go the small cap route, but he said "No way"...
One night his car was parked on his driveway, Ramsay and I removed the Plymouth caps and subs***uted some Merc 'ash cans' ("dog dishes")
Wimpy drove to school Monday morning, didn't even notice! Bunches of guys were telling him, "Like your hubs...look real sharp..."
Wimpy went out to the parking lot and was more than surprised...He told me he knew I did it, "Can I keep the 'Beanies'?"
Sure, Wimp.

 

Funny but I just went thru this with my roadster. From 1962 to 1957? Heck I don't know. But I went from black walls to white walls and spinners. But kept the black walls.

 

All I can say about wide whites or white walls is keep them correct for the year/era of your build. A rod or custom built in 1958 or 59 would run a narrower wide white than one built in 1950. A car built/finished in 61/62 would have narrow white walls that were out on the new cars and the latest hot lick at the tire shop just as guys do now with the big ugly wheels and tires. That has never changed, most guys from any time period who were building a car in that time period went with what was the hot lick and latest thing at the time. Some times it worked or works and some time it did or didn't.

 

About 1958/59 in so cal there was this trend toward the "Compe***ion Look" Black wall Slicks in back and 5:60 VW tires up front and White rims no hubcaps, lasted maybe 6mo's to a year, same time Scavenger s exhaust pipes hit. There is really no accurate time frame for this kind of trends because they were very local to a given city or neighborhood. Back east ran behind about 3 years it took that long for trends to creap from West to East. JW

 

Use whatever floats your boat,I've used both whitewalls and black walls. HRP

 

When I look at a desirable car/truck I don't condemn it because of the tire/wheel combination.
I look at it and mentally envision my tire, wheel, possibly color choice on it. Having owned a lot of different vehicles, I don't think I've ever not changed something on any of them.
It really is all about personalizing..putting your stamp on it.
The "look" to me comes more from the stance, with attention to period correct overall likeness (louvers, interior fabric, gauges, steering wheel, etc.).

Your car has the "look" so you can't go wrong with either choice.

 

Agreed. Too many people worry about "period perfect" yet still never achieve it. Build the car how you want and drive it.

 

Something that I will give to the whitewall crowd over the black wall bunch, whitewalls well kept always have a clean crisp look that you can't mimic with black walls.

 

Your right Beeno,If your going to run white walls they need to be clean..

The only car I have whitewalls on now is the boss lady's wagon and she does a good job keeping them looking good. HRP

 

LOL when I first bought my '58 Roadmaster in the late '60s it had wide whites on the rear and skinny whited on the front. I cleaned the fronts with an SOS pad but there was not enough beachwhite in the world to clean up the rears so I slipped into the football locker room and snagged a jar of the black stuff they put under their eyes and made black walls out of them. I ended up just turning them around.

But a style was born, I have had more cars with skinnys and black walls then anything else in my lifetime. it gives you that "I screwed with my mom's car" look.

 

Just to add creedence to "Traditional Period Correct"
Hotrods from the late '50's. If memory serves, and I was there,
the 1957 Cadillac Eldorado Broughm came standard
with little narrow whitewalls. So a late '50's period correct
hot rod could even have a 1 inch whitewall and be "correct".
I love this stuff!!!"
By the way, the Caddy had Tri-power.

 

With products like purple power & white lightning the sos pads and scrubbing are a thing of the past for me.

Spray it on and let it set for a few minutes followed by a few swipes with a stiff bristle tire brush and rinse off,they come out looking great every time. HRP

 

We used to use Brillo on my Old Man's '54 Buick Super's 4 inch white walls.
The always had an orange tone from the rusty iron in the pads!

 

LOL I had a buddy take an SOS pad to some aluminum, thought it was a neat idea ( works real well on chrome) and after one winter he had rusty aluminum. Anything soft will collect bits of steel and that's gospel right there.

 

Another thing to keep in mind is the tread & sidewall design. By the mid-to-late 1950's, most manufacturers were going away from the large 'pie crust' and zig-zag tread to smaller/more stylized ribs on the sidewalls and 'rope' tread patterns. The tire pictured below is typical of mid-late 1940's to early 50's production

These tires typify the mid-late 1950's style;

 

Mr White you work all together too hard. I think that lots of time we forget that there is more to hitting the mark than just what we think is correct.

Good catch.

 

I hope that you are drinkin that White Lightning and not putting it on your tires.

 

Haha! I'm so OCD I've been accused of ironing my underwear (right @3wLarry ?)

 

Mr Clean scrubbing pads. The bath size work great for cleaning white walls. No more Brillo pads for me.

Don't tell mommy.