White Wall Tires – Which one to choose.
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Since the early days of Custom cars one of the most chosen tires for a Custom Car was the white wall tire. Around WWII a lot of stuff was hard to find, so a lot of Custom Car went to black wall tires, but most of them switched to white wall tires as soon as they came available again. In the 1940’s till about the mid 1950’s, the most wildly used white wall tires where the once with the wide white wall inserts. The reason was simple, that was the tire choice of most of the higher end cars, and the one off coachbuilt customs.
After the mid 1950’s the white wall sizes went smaller and smaller. In the 1960’s the white wall sections were sometimes built up from two or three smaller strips of white, sometimes even in color.
I have received a lot of emails from people asking me what the best white wall tire was for their car. Or more specific what a certain historic custom had for tire size.
So… I figured it was time to spend a thread about this.. and hopefully we can make it a really big thread with as many white wall tires and info about them as possible. I will start with sharing some white wall tires I have been photographing over the last couple of years and with the brand name and size info added. I will also add some places where you can buy the white wall tires and perhaps later ad more info.
This way we can create a place where people who are in need of info on white wall tires, and need to know how a certain tire would look on a certain car get their info. And help them chose the best tire for their custom.
Please feel free to share your photos of white wall tires, preferably with tire size and what ever info you can think of. The more input the better. Sadly I’m unable to give the width of the white walls on most of the tires at this point. So if you know the width of some of the photos already in this thread, or one the new once you want to post. Please add the info.
Places to buy your White Wall tires
– Coker Tire 1317 Chestnut St · Chattanooga, TN 37402
– Classic White Wall Tires 975 North Elm St. Orange, CA 92867
– Diamond Back (Radial white wall tires) Conway, South Carolina 888.922.1642
– Kelsey Tire 1190 East Highway 54 Camdenton, MO 65020
– Wide White Tires Fallbrook, CaliforniaThis video from CokerTires shows how the white wall tires are made… by hand.
Lets get started with two Barris Customs.
The Sam Barris Mercury had a set of Firestone 7.10 – 15 tires. (below)
The Ayala / Barris built Wally Welch Mercury has GoodYear 6.70 15 tires (Below)
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Andreas Åberg’s New Panaramic Ford has GoodYear Super Cushion 7.10 – 15 (below)
Palle Johansen’s 1947 Cadillac has GoodYear Super Cushion 7.10 – 15 (below)
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Bert Gustafsson’s 1941 Buick has Firestone 6.50 – 16 (below)
Tim Kirkegaard has Ford 6.00 – 15 double sided white walls on his 1939 Mercury (below)
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1936 Dodge uses GoodYear Super Cushion 6.70 15 (below)
The restored Jack Stewart 1941 Ford uses GoodYear Super Cushion 7.10 – 15 (below)
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1936 Ford uses Firestone 6.00 – 16 (below)
The Dick Dean 1951 Mercury uses GoodYear Super Cushion 7.10 – 15 (below)
This ’29 Model A has a set of Firestone 5.60 – 15 on the front, not sure what there is on the back though (below)
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Another really great thread. It is a brave soul who goes with black walls . Only a select pre war look suits that look . . But when they do I love it. Nevertheless, I think a Custom isn’t fully dressed unless it has two tone shoes.
Restored Hitohata Mercury (smaller size white wall than others shown before) GoodYear Super Cushion 7.10-15 (below) (Note: original Barris version of the car used different tires and white wall size)
The photo below shows the tires on the Hirohata Mercury in 1953.
1936 Ford Convertible Ford 6.00-16 (below)
1955 Chevy The Aztec Remington G78-14 (below)
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Another good side view of a GoodYear Super Cushion 7.10-15 as used on the Barris-built Snooky Janich 1941 Ford. (below)
Firestone 6.70-15 with an one inch white wall insert. (below)
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Rob Radcliffe Shoebox Ford uses Goodyear 6.70-15 with a 4.25″ whitewall. (below)
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Original 1940’s ” FIRESTONE ” double sided white walls were originally made in NEW ZEALAND in there factory for U.S.A. Under the ” S ” for FIRESTONE is says
” MADE IN NEW ZEALAND ” ” Lucas Classic Tires ” in LONG BEACH had N.O.S DOUBLE SIDED W.W FIRESTONES…… These were stored in dark by LUCAS CLASSIC TYRE shop in L.A in 2010 who had 3 sets of 4 original tyres left from the 1940s NEW OLD STOCK and in perfect order. $160 each. Tyres have ” MADE IN NEW ZEALAND ” on the side wall. Reproductions don’t.Hi Rik !
Thanks for a great subject thread in the intricate details of custom cars . As many other cars , the wheels make or brake a car , very much so in custom cars , wide whitewall bias ply tires I think the only way to go for traditional custom cars ! Dual side whitewall tires , mindboggeling ! My father in law said he asked customers in the sixties if they wanted the whitewall on the outside or inside so they didn’t have clean it , what a waste but that was on every day cars in Sweden !
WolfNice work Rik,
Man I could have really used this a week ago!! Just put my order in for a set of 16 – 6.00 Generals Jet Airs for my 40 convertible. I’ve been collating my own stash of white wall photos (from the hamb and such places) but finding the actual tire size can some times be difficult. This thread is a godsend, thanks!
Do you have any photos of the General brand tires in use?
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