White Wall Tires – Which one to choose.
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Michael Ramirez send in his favorite tires. BF Goodrich Silvertown 6.70-15 (below)
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REMINGTON G78-15 ” CUSHION-AIRE ” POLY-4
SOLD BY COKER TIRE UNTILL 2006. DISCONTINUED MAKING THEM IN MARCH 2006. Asked the main guy at Coker tire Bakersfield why they stopped producing them and he said they simply did not sell very many and were out sold by FIRESTONE 20-1.You could still buy Remington 13 inch tires with a 1/2 inch White Wall for MERCURY COMETS & FALCONS up till 2009. Then they dried up In the San Francisco / San Jose area as all the little Mexican tire shops horded them for there LOW RIDER pals.
The REMINGTON G78-15 is not a very good tire, There side walls seemed to crack real easy and I got sick of replacing them. In my opinion NOT A GOOD TIRE….!
And that is a stray bullet hole in the drivers side front windshield of the Falcon from a Gang Shooting in my street….Happy im was not in the car as I would of got shoot in the face….!!!!! ….LOL….
Tony Miller send me an email with some of his thought for this white wall tire topic…
(From Tony Miller)
Hi, Rik!Regarding whitewall tire widths — many guys who are into traditional customs choose the super-wide whites, 4″ or more. IMO many of these cars look wrong that way, because by 1954 the width was coming down. I grew up in the ’50s, and the mid-width WWs (2 1/2″ or less) were definitely the preferred style in Southern California.
My mom bought this ’54 Merc new, and passed it on to me in ’56:
Although that picture was taken after the car was mine — probably in ’56 — the tires are the original OEM 760-15’s. I don’t remember the brand of tire, but they may have been Firestones. The sidewalls were probably 3″.
I got this ’57 Olds brand new, and again these are the tires that were delivered on it. You’ll notice that it sits on a rake, which was the fashion in my area, and has different size tires front and rear. If I recall correctly, they were 800-14 front and 900-14 rear, and I’m pretty sure these were Firestones too. The whitewall width was already slightly narrower in ’57 than the “transitional” width that came on the Merc:
No doubt my preference is driven by my observations from the ’50s, but I prefer these mid-width whites to the superwide ones from an earlier era.
Take care
TonyEnjoy the beauty of Customizing
GoodYear states that their, 6.70-15 Super Cushion with a white wall size of 4 -1/4″ whitewall was built from ’45 to ’52.
and that the Goodyear 6.70-15 Super Cushion Deluxe with a white wall size of 2-11/16″ whitewall was built from ’53 to ’57.
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Love my 7.10-15 Super Cushions. Took a long time to find them, since Coker didn’t carry them and I didn’t even know the name of the tire. Just how it looked from old pics of some of the Barris built cars, like the Matranga Mercury. Three small ribs and then a gap and then three small ribs… At that time, nobody understood why that crazy Swede wanted pics of the tire side, so they faxed me pics. The whole paper was black, ha ha… Finally found them and me and Wolf, who also is a tire fetischist like me, was screaming with joy! Now everyone is all over the internet and don’t understand why people couldn’t find things 20 years ago. Well, let me tell you kids a story of when internet was not in common use… Say what? Before Google, there was nothing….
I’m thinking about running either 7.10 ‘stones or 7.10 super cushions on my Merc.
So here’s my questions for those running Firestones:
Do you run tubes? I’m assuming you do.
Can they be run with tubes on a more modern rim? (chevy rally rims)
How do they drive?
Any problems with blowouts?
Any problems in general?And here’s my questions for those running Goodyear super cushions?
What do you like/dislike about these tires?
Any problems with them?
Any problems running them on newer modern rims?I like to drive my Merc alot. I am rebuilding her after having a radial tire blow out at 70 MPH and striking the guardrail, so I’m a little leery of tires right now (espically at $220+ a tire).
Mike Jang send us these two photos of the Diamond Back II 205-75-15 2.5 inch wide white wall he is using on his 1951 Mercury.
Mike’s comments about these tires: After using various tires over the 25 year ownership of my car, I like the whitewall whiteness and ability to stay white the best. Also as a non trailered car, these modern radial tires are very low maintenance.
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I have always been fascinated by the white wall tires on the So-Cal Plating truck. I have seen them on a few other early customs, and on classics as well. Even on new restored classics. But so far I have not been able to find out what they are. I cannot read the markings on the tires in this photo either. Anybody knows what they are?
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They are Vogue tires. They also offered triple ring whitewalls in the 60s which apparently were a popular dealer dress up upgrade.
Just for interest the 57 Eldorado brougham had the first low profile tires in the industry. They were the first narrow whitewall a well down a good inch in width to just about every other make.The tires were even branded with Eldorado Brougham writing on the sidewall. How Custom is that?Thanks Quentin.
Very interesting stuff on the Vogue tires. Very odd looking tires.
The images above come from an intersting article on The Old Motor site.
Internet pics
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