first try at wide whites

[thebelvedereman]

so I've been looking into wide whites, I want to have radials, the cheapest I found were right around $290 each, I've been seeing all these vids on YouTube about different ways to make whitewalls, so I figured I'd give it a go, I bought a decent set of 4 bfg t/a's for $50 and started today, I got 2 done, I sanded down the sidewalls like they said, but I left the letters instead of sanding them off, then I cleaned them with mineral spirits, there were 20 different ways people did the next step, some said cover the tires with painters tape then make a jig to cut the tape in a perfect circle, the one I used said to heat up electrical tape then to make your circle with that, then to overlap it with painters tape, which I did, I then put 5 coats of flex/rubber paint on allowing a couple hour to dry between coats, they came out nice, I'm going to mount them tomorrow and see if they crack, or stay together

[thebelvedereman]

I used the black wall side so if it doesn't work, I can just flip them around

[rb1949]

Keep us advised of durability, yellowing, etc. I thought the whitewall did not extend down to the area that seals the rim?

[thebelvedereman]

yeh, it should be OK, shouldn't leak, and you wouldn't see it, I'm more worried about cracking, some of the guys put tape on , and some didnt

[thebelvedereman]

if it leaks I'll just sand that part off

[1952B3b23]

This is a pretty neat idea. I'm interested in hearing how it holds up.

[blue p15]

Looks like you really did a good job!  Keep us in the loop and let us know how they work out.

[mopar_earl]

Pretty sweet. Definitely better than spending large money on wide whites and you could use high quality tires.

Earl

[JD luxury liner]

I like

really was not planning on putting whitewalls on , but now ????

[suntennis]

Ever consider getting a set of el-flapos or porta walls rim mounted white walls for around $60?

[thebelvedereman]

the tires are 235/60's and everything I've read about portawalls says if you put them on 60 series tires they won't stay secure because the sidewalls are too short, not sure, but this seems to be OK, I've been flexing them all around the past 2 days, and they seem fine, no cracks at all, I've been so busy I haven't had time to mount them yet, maybe tomorrow

[thebelvedereman]

tire failure first one perfect , second cracked as soon as I put it on, oh well I tried

[Bmartin]

Bummer, sorry to hear.  Do you think they would have held up if you did the 'white walling' after the tire was already mounted?  Mounting usually flexes the tire more than driving on them. 

[rb1949]

That's not good after all the time and work.

[thebelvedereman]

sorry I was really mad, and wanted to forget it for a while, in my opinion there were several problems, first , the tires are to big for the rims, the first one mounted right up, but I fought with the one that cracked for about 15 minutes, (235/60/15 on the stock rim) second I think I should have used the brush on rubber, I used rubber/nylon spray paint , and third I had to put over 100 lbs to get it to seat, iI'm not giving up, I just found a pair of 15x7 cop wheels, I'm going to sand the tires back down, try the brush on stuff and see what happens, here's a pic of my 48, I just painted the column and the dash then put the dash back in, hard to tell from the pics but its early sixties Mopar big block aqua with is the color I'm painting the car also

Edited June 29, 2016 by thebelvedereman

[Bmartin]

Good to hear you are not giving up.  Stock rims are 4.5" wide? 

 

Is the brush on stuff more like the rubberize white roofing paint?  I've seen that stuff get pretty shiny and it has some flex to it.   

 

 

Dash is looking good.

[thebelvedereman]

yes stock rims 4 1/2, and yes brush on is almost the same as the rubber roofing

[Don Coatney]

It will be interesting if you keep track of all out of pocket expenses to include paint, supplies, new rims, etc. and hours of labor then compare that to off the shelf pricing. You might be on to something here.

[thebelvedereman]

actually didn't pay for the rims, I had them in my dads basement since before I moved to ga 8 years ago, along with a bunch of my other Mopar stuff that I long forgot about

[thebelvedereman]

also got my new shifter in the mail today, a 68 sweptline dash shifter, I'm putting it in the radio hole, its a perfect fit, I would keep the column shift but I want to put the shift handle my grandfather made me for my first car in, its solid brass and weighes like 10lbs I pulled the pentastar off the pass fender (66 belvedere) and he machined it into the handle, I just have to get an adapter made

Edited June 29, 2016 by thebelvedereman

[thebelvedereman]

OK, here we go again, starting with a clean slate, I got my new "white wall" paint today from Ranger paint, supposed to be the best, I bought 4 more tires in a little better shape, and had them mounted and balanced on my cop wheels, and I'm painting them in the morning, hopefully I have better results, on another note, the tire that I painted that went right on has been riding in the back of my jeep for a week, and apparently the other paint doesn't like heat either, if this happens with the new stuff I give up

Edited July 6, 2016 by thebelvedereman

[Vin's 49 Plymouth]

Doesn't Kanter have some no name wide whites??

[BobT-47P15]

I bought a set of 4 B F Goodrich branded radial wide whites, size 2.15 x 15, from Coker when at the Carlisle

swap meet last year for about $250 each.  As I was there with a  car, I transported them home, thereby

saving the shipping cost.  The reason I paid a little more for the Goodriches over the Coker house

brand tire is due to a previous experience where the black bled through the whitewall, which is 

really a pain to deal with.  Maybe today's Coker brands are better than the ones I had several years ago.

 

Edited July 8, 2016 by BobT-47P15

[BobT-47P15]

Many years ago, there was a tire shop here whose owner had a grinding machine.....which would grind the black rubber

off to reveal the white beneath it.......he would widen  your original narrow white stripe.   It was not quite as wide as the

ones I have now, but it was an interesting look in my opinion.  I ran them on a 1967 Ford convertible I had at the time.

 

I called that man sometime back, and he had long since closed the tire business and had sold that grinder.  Ah well, 

you never know.........

[deathbound]

How much $ and time into this so far?