The demise of the whitewall tire

[central52]

While surfing the net and going to local tire places looking for a deal for tires for my 47 Plymouth, I noticed that most places do not sell whitewall tires anymore.

One dealer said he doesn't even stock them anymore. And, if you notice, all your cars now on the road have blackwall tires. A few exceptions with older cars.

Interesting how tastes have changed over the years. It seems as if those elaborate, (sometimes gaudy looking) chrome and aluminum wheels are the rage now.

I think a thin whitewall looks good on any car. Ed P.

[eric wissing]

There is hardly any sidewall to put a stripe on!!. I am surprised they haven't come up with colored tires. Eric

[38plymouth]

I have seen colored whitewalls and colored tread on tires. They are ugly.

[Norm's Coupe]

It's been a few years since I bought tires for our modern cars. However the last time I bought tires for my van, I wanted blackwalls. However, I was told blackwalls would cost extra (think between $10 to $20 extra), so went with the whitewalls. I prefer blackwalls on the modern cars, so thats good news. I would imagine you could get whitewalls for an extra charge now. Thats the way it was back in the 50's - early 80's. Blackwalls were always the cheaper tire then.

[PatS....]

I still can't get by the fact that back when, the only cars with blackwalls were cop cars, cabs and the "frugal" old fart down the street who refused to part with the extra 3 bucks for that tiny bit of bling.

I took my Dodge Ram in a while back to have the tires remounted so the whitewalls were OUT. Guy at the tire store thought I was nuts. I am, but that's another story.

I like whitewalls, especially on an old car.

[Captain Neon]

I have RWL tyres on my Neon and my Jeep. I think they make my Neon look faster, and my Jeep tougher.

[BobT-47P15]

Seems like around here, unless it's changed fairly recently, you can only

get whitewalls in most normal passenger car sizes. If you want blackwalls,

they just put the white stripe on the inside.

Most times, you see a late model car with whitewalls, the driver is a

somewhat elderly person.

My personal opinion is that the return of the blackwall tires was instigatged by the auto

manufacturers who probably saved a few million bucks by skipping the white stripes.

So.....the rest of the world basically followed suit.

[Plymouthy Adams]

Lot of your so called tire sholesalers are buying their stock in bulk..large orders of blackwall tires as they give him the largest profit margin..it would be a hassle to stock the various sizes in white wall, RWL and blackwall..the extra money to get you either of the other would offset his troubles..ie hthe higher price..and did you ever notice that ost these places have a small print clause saying NO CARRY OUT...they get you with the raod hazard, blance, mount, etc etc and though most all cars have aluminum wheels they are not like the earlier easier to break wheels..but they still try to gouge y9ou for extra fee in handling these rims...ROA's 90% of them anyway

[james curl]

You ought to try to get some one to install radials on a set of spoke wheels on a TR4. When I had my TR4's there was only one service station in the entire city of Austin, Texas that would mount them because they had to be hand mounted because of the knock off hubs. I have a friend with a Harley and he talks about getting tires mounted, and installed on the motorcycle. $25.00 for front and $50.00 for the rear

[Normspeed]

Some websearching can help find the whitewalls. Someone, maybe Don Undercoatney, shared a tire website that I found really helpful but I've lost the web address.

I like the narrow whites on mine but it's a newer style than a P15 or D24 and I wasn't looking for the stock look. I was lucky, I specifically wanted Michelin radials and I found mine online so I knew what to ask for locally. At my fourth local shop I found a a set of 4 ready to install.

[Uncle-Pekka]

I just received a set of Dean Alpha 365 narrow white wall radials 215/75 R15 from Vulcan Tire. They do look the same as Norm's on above. I will install them later on after having sandblasted & painted the old rims. I am VERY satisfied on price/quality rate so far. They only cost $50/each !!!

May not be Michelin class when it comes to riding comfort, but surely will beat the 20+ yrs old bias ply tires...

[Tim Frank]

FWIW, here are a few links that I have in my "Dodge" favorites list for tires and wheels. Rgds, Tim

http://www.allegiancetire.com/dbpgs/vintage/bfgoodrich.asp

http://www.wheelvintiques.com/

~and of course ~

http://www.coker.com/

[PatS....]

All of the tire stores here still carry whitewalls. If they aren't in stock at the store, they can have them on site from their warehouses in any size in an hour, including wide whites.

There are 4 or 5 national chains that have regional warehouses here.

[knighthawk]

I think most (or all ) of the tire shops can get the white walls, I put some 1 1/4 '' whites on my '55 Merc a couple years ago.... Theres always Coker and Diamondback. Which brings me to this .....Last weekend at a local carshow, I saw a car,(about a '61 T-Bird) with YELLOW narrow 'whitewalls' ! Yup! Yellow ! factory color ! The car came was bought this way from someone in Kansas City !

[Norm's Coupe]

I think most (or all ) of the tire shops can get the white walls, I put some 1 1/4 '' whites on my '55 Merc a couple years ago.... Theres always Coker and Diamondback. Which brings me to this .....Last weekend at a local carshow, I saw a car,(about a '61 T-Bird) with YELLOW narrow 'whitewalls' ! Yup! Yellow ! factory color ! The car came was bought this way from someone in Kansas City !

A lot of cars came with colored sidewalls back in the 60's. You can still get the colors. At least you can from places like Coker or other specialty tire places.

[Captain Neon]

My last three sets of Cooper tyres, I contacted the tyre store and told them exactly what I wanted and they had them brought in on their next shipment. Usually less than a week, but it is important to know what you want. I've never been satisfied settling for what was in-stock at the time. My Neon traveled on a set of Goodyear Wingfoot tyres that I never really liked for 5 years. When it was time to get new tyres, I bought exactly what I wanted and refused to settle for what was in stock.

[laynrubber]

I thought i saw on The HAMB where a fella ground down some sidewall to unveil a white wall and said that all tires have a white wall under there, the manufacture just covers it up..........

[Bodacious]

I think a thin whitewall looks good on any car. Ed P.

Oh, I don't know. I think they'd look kinda silly on my '95 Corvette with 295/35/18 and 275/40/17 tires.....

They can add an elegant touch on old original cars or on "era" hot rods for which they were intended though.

I thought i saw on The HAMB where a fella ground down some sidewall to unveil a white wall and said that all tires have a white wall under there, the manufacture just covers it up..........

That is the case with some tires but certainly not all, by any means.