The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk White wall tires

Anybody know what the average whitewall width was being used on these old trucks in the 50's? Mine is a 51 short box. Appreciate any information someone might have.

My guess is 0"

No Advance-Design Chevrolet truck that I saw in the late-60s or early-70s had white wall tires.

There was no factory option for white walls in 1951.

If you want white walls, use whatever width suits you.

Maybe someone will post information on white wall widths on 1951 car tires?

You can get white wall tires in width's from 4" to 1/2". As Tim mentions Advanced Design trucks never came with wide whites. Cars prior to WWII usually are fitted with the real wide whites, after WWII they started getting smaller and in the 60's muscle car era they used a real narrow pin stripe white wall. It comes down to personal preference. I have a '47 Ford and I have 2 3/4" on it. If you want them put what you like on.

You guys are absolutely right! Thanks for the imput.

If your goin for a factory original truck Vick, yep the guys are
correct, but don't let the boys spoof ya.
The first stop a high school kid in the mid to late 50's would
have made when he brought home his first ride, be it a car or
truck, would have been the local Firestone tire shop for some
new rubber, see, tires dint last to long back then. And the
choice would have been wide white walls, which at the time were
probably somewhere around 3" or what ever the side wall of the
tire was.
And my big bro who graduated in '56 and I in '60 were just those
kids. Not all the trucks were used for work back then, some of
us liked them as daily drivers even back in the day. My brother
had several, one, a '36 Ford around 1954 that was painted Pink
with a white bed cover and white interior, he had an olds V8 in
it and big old white wall tires with Olds flipper hubcaps. My
first car was a '41 Caddy and yep, the first thing I did to
dress her up were, Chinese Red rims with portawalls or as
some called them, Porter Walls, Porta-walls or port-a-walls and flipper hubcaps.

Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Because of the size of whitewalls back when, they were too hard to keep clean. I'd take mine and flip the whitewall to the backside of the rim. Besides, blackwall tires were cheaper. I did have thin red lines on my 66 Chevelle Super Sport.

When the narrow white side walls became popular in the early 1960s, some manufacturers just covered up the wider white with some black rubber to get the narrow look even though the white rubber was more expensive. I worked at a gas station where I changed or fixed tires. "Curb-abuse" would wear off some of the black rubber showing the old wide white.

I bought Atlas wide whites for my '51 Chev 2-door in 1962. Really cool looking.

I could never afford white walls when I was in HS. We all used 'Porta-walls' back then but they often didn't seat right and had to reinstall them over and over. I think they are still made, but dunno if they work well with tubeless radials

Not only did I never see whitewalls on old Advance-Design trucks (late 60s, early 70s), but also I usually bought used truck-tires or the cheapest Sears Allstate 6-bias-ply truck tires (on sale).

One-time, I almost lost two wheels/tires from Sears not tightening the lug nuts.

The tires on my Mom's 1964 Ford Custom had thin white walls (two stripes).

We had a re-capping place, Higgins ReCaps, in town that had an awesome recap that held up well. I ran them most of the time and picked up one of those porta-walls when I found one and put them on my 56 coupe. Comet cleaner would make them look like new!!
Sometimes a customer would put on a new set of tires and his take offs were better than what was on my car. Usually they'd give them to me.

Wally, I worked at a service station mid 60's and they "saved" all the tires for me. Lots of evenings I did nothing for till closing time but fix tires. Back then we "broke" the beads down with "muscle" power. Whew, what a day that was.

I love this site. Kind of like standing around at the local garage talking shop! I really miss some of the stuff we took for granted back in the 60's.

Yeah, me too !

OK guys, I'm only 55 (Wow! Never thought that I would say that) so what the heck are porta walls?

http://www.portawalls.com/

Google images of Porta Walls

Or, you could just go paint 'em just like we did in the 50's, only then we bought the paint at Pep Boys for around 49cents. I got pretty good at it. Make 'em any size you want. Have fun ---

Dale

In the early sixties we did that to our bicycles. Lived in Michigan at the time, and bought the paint at Western Auto. Boy that was a few beers and years ago.

We called porta walls "Mickey Mouse white walls" in the 50s and 60s in western Washington.

They seem to have gone up a bit ....but can't buy gas at 23 cent a gal any more either...

Yeah,,,, I guess,,,,, $76.95 a set then tack on another $16 to ship them to ya; total---$92.95.

Makes ya want to get out the tire black, doesn't it?

Denny G

They were alway meant for teen age kids with no money back in the day any way. I would never buy them again

So I guess Vickraft -- the answer seems to be -- buy them as wide as you personally like, that which seems pleasing to you!, Personally, I like the widest I can buy --- I would even opt for the "gangsta" version which is almost totally white if I could get them, but that's just me -- and what I like. I can tell you, when I show my truck, I get as many kind comments on the whites on my truck as I do on the truck itself, and so far, nobody has ever asked me how wide they were "supposed" to be in the day - just "wheredja get 'em"?. Answer is, since you asked the question, there probably is no perfect answer for you , no spec, just choice. Been fun though really! Thanks ---

Dale

BTW - I too tried port-walls in the day - they were pathetic then, and I'm guessing they probably still are, IMVHO ---

Vicraft, what size white wall did you end up going with? I am going to get a set also and it looks like my two best choices are BF Goodrich or Firestone reproductions from Coker. The WW widths are 3-1/4 (FS) or 3-1/2 (BF) the price is the same.

Joe

Hope this image will give you some idea about whitewall size. Mine measure 3 1/4 inches from rim to outer edge of white. Tires are Firestone 600 x 16 bias type. Like cameo posted earlier, I get about as many compliments about the whitewalls as any other feature of the truck.

RdLessTaken/Don

http://s1291.photobucket.com/user/RdLessTaken/media/IMG_8521sm_zps03d8fa0b.jpg.html

Thanks Rds,

I changed my post, the 3-1/4 were indeed Firestones. I think they look great on these trucks. Yours is an eye catcher for sure.

Joe

What's the story behind those trucks Don? A '47, '52 and a '53?
are they yours, did you do the restoration on them, how long did
it take you or do you have a shop that specializes in restoration work?
They are all real beauties, I enjoyed looking thru the whole
batch of pictures. Really look nice against the corn and beans.

Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Thanks for the comments Denny. Like most everyone else here I'm just another nut about these trucks. We had one in the family in the early '50s and I never recovered, always wanted one of my own. The '47 was my first indulgence about 15 years ago. A friend and I did the amateur restoration on that truck. Then I stumbled upon the '53 for sale and could not resist. After many years struggling with storage for the two trucks, last year I reluctantly sold the '47 and took the proceeds and the '53 to a local custom car builder and had him disassemble and professionally redo the truck with the correct darker mariner blue and champagne interior. Everything is basically restored original except for the 235 engine and 12 volt system. The truck runs and drives great, and I call it my blue "time machine" as I am transported back to 1953 every time I get behind the wheel for another adventure.
RdsLessTaken/Don

http://s1291.photobucket.com/user/RdLessTaken/media/IMG_8521sm_zps03d8fa0b.jpg.html

We also called Port-A-Walls "toilet seats.