White Wall Tires – Which one to choose.
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Vogue Tyre & Rubber company is still in business producing custom built whitewalls for up-market cars.
Vogue Tyre & Rubber Co.
1101 Feehanville Drive
Mt Prospect, Illinois 60056
(800) 323-1466
VogueTyre-WebsiteIn the early eighties, I had a 1958 Chevy Belair. I was looking for whitewalls with about a 2.75 inch width. I was having a hard time finding them at local tire shops, so I started calling the tire manufacturers directly.
I hit pay dirt when I called Vogue Tyre, then affiliated with Cooper Tire in Maryland. I had a long chat with a sales and marketing manager who really knew his stuff. I had been considering Vogue’s gold and white stripe model which I had seen on some new Cadillacs at the time.
He thought the combined width of the gold stripe and white stripe would give me what I needed, but would be very pricey. He then confided that I should check out Pep Boys’ Cornell brand. It was virtually the same tire, a larger white wall without the gold stripe, manufactured by Cooper, at a third the price! I doubt marketing folks would be so forthcoming now.
He also mentioned the wide whitewalls were available on special order from Lincoln and Cadillac on new cars up through the mid-seventies. They were never advertised, but they sold quite a few to older folks buying retirement cars.
I have 7.10-15 Firestones (3-1/4 WW) on my 56, I love my tire/wheelcover and stance together. I hit the nail on the head for my personal taste.
I’m running BF.Goodrich Silvertowns 6.70 x 15″. I like the look of the smooth wide white wall, it keeps the focus on the sweet hubcap.
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I am thinking of replacing my G-78 bias ply with Coker American Classic 7-10, 2 3/4 whitewalls. They advertise the tire as having a bias ply pie crust edge. I may change hubcaps to Cad somberos that I am getting ready?
Anyone have any experience or thoughts on these tires?…………Tom6.00-16, General jet-air, 4 ply, 3 1/2″ white wall.
The vehicle needs a height adjustment but you get the idea.These were posted on the Carchaeology Facebook page, and it made me think how neat it would be to see an late 1930’s or 1940’s style custom use a set of these old white wall tires with textured white wall sections. I know some of them are still being made… and these were used back in the day.
Enjoy the beauty of Customizing
I have noticed this earlier, but tires in old (handpainted) commercials look bulky and massive. Maybe that was attractive back then or that just was the way to do it 🙂
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I’ll drag this up again and see if I can get some input.
My shoeboxes were easy: G78-15, 670-15 or 710-15 bias plys on stock steelies on all 4 corners. Trying to get the right wheel/tire combo for an early custom seems a bit trickier.
I’m working on my ’41 Ford coupe and trying to figure out if I should stick with the OEM 16″ x 4″ (4.5″?) wheels or try to find others. Aiming for an early ’50s style, so tires will hopefully be Goodyear Supercushions, although I’m not sure they come in 16″ so I might end up with Firestones.
I know a lot of people say swap the 16″ wheels for 15″, maybe so. Am I mis-remembering that I’ve seen some customs running 16″ in the front and 15″ out back?
What about tire width? The stock rims are pretty slim, what size tire can I run on them?
'51 Ford tudor sedan & '41 Ford business coupe
SFCC | Atlanta | Milwaukee | Toronto | Charleston
I’ll drag this up again and see if I can get some input. My shoeboxes were easy: G78-15, 670-15 or 710-15 bias plys on stock steelies on all 4 corners. Trying to get the right wheel/tire combo for an early custom seems a bit trickier. I’m working on my ’41 Ford coupe and trying to figure out if I should stick with the OEM 16″ x 4″ (4.5″?) wheels or try to find others. Aiming for an early ’50s style, so tires will hopefully be Goodyear Supercushions, although I’m not sure they come in 16″ so I might end up with Firestones. I know a lot of people say swap the 16″ wheels for 15″, maybe so. Am I mis-remembering that I’ve seen some customs running 16″ in the front and 15″ out back? What about tire width? The stock rims are pretty slim, what size tire can I run on them?
Big A.
Here are a couple of pics of my custom truck with Lester 600×16 Tires on it. Stock 1941 Ford rims. The white wall width was 3-7/8″ Wider then many run. But that was the look I was going for.
I have seen lots of people run wider tires on these narrow Ford rims and to me they look cartoonish. Plus some shops won’t even mount them like that.
If you want to go stock 1941 Ford rims you can go to a 6:50X 16″ to give you a wider tire. Cooker as well as others usually have charts that will give you the dimensions of the tires.
And Tony is correct about the super cushion being 15″ only.
The tire size mismatch that you refer to was/is called running”Big and Littles.” usually done on hot rods but I have seen it on some customs as well. Usually the front tire is the smaller of the two. Don’t know how traditional it is for customs as the ones that I saw them on were later builds that were called traditional.
Torchie
Thanks for the info Torchie. Of course I’m familiar with Big-n-Littles on hot rods, but I could swear I read somewhere about a fat fendered custom with 15″ tires out back and 16″ up front… I’m going to have to dig though old magazines. Then again I could have dreamt it.
Those Lester 600-16’s look good, and I like the really wide WW. Was concerned they might look too skinny, but I don’t think that’s an issue.
Always loved your truck btw, I was surprised when I saw you sold it and then it was up for sale again. Man, I might have tried to sell a kidney or something to buy it if I’d known you were going to sell it. Are those Agape skirts or did you make your own?
'51 Ford tudor sedan & '41 Ford business coupe
SFCC | Atlanta | Milwaukee | Toronto | Charleston
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