The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Driveline Will old steel wheels (40's) accept tubeless radials

I don't think there was a box to check on the option list for whitewall tires but a dealer certainly would have sold them if requested. I doubt any farmer or tradesman would ever have spent the extra money on wide whitewall tires for a work truck. The same is true for pickup beds finished out like a fine piece of furniture rather than correctly being painted black.

I've never seen a period photograph of a pickup truck with whitewall tires.

It's a nostalgia thing where people think they had whitewalls or that they should have had whitewalls, so many people install them on their trucks today with the notion that that's what they looked like in the old days. Model A Fords were never offered with whitewall tires, either and dealers were forbidden by Ford from even installing them, yet virtually every Model A you see today is equipped with wide whitewalls. They're restored the way people think they used to look rather than how they actually looked.