White wall tires

Hi I was trying to find white wall tires to have them in my 53 Roadmaster but the only ones I found where in the states and the cost of bringing them to Mexico rise theyre price in almost 60% and added to the cost of the tires really give me a head ache does any body know if maybe theres a product to paint the wall of some radial tires or something like that so that I could have white wall tires in my car or should I start filling my under bed whit some money to buy me the tires thanks.

The problem with trying to "paint" whitewalls on blackwall tires is that it'll come out more white-gray than white, not to mention what you'd use to mask it off (i.e., a stencil or pattern) before you painted it. Some friends have used latex house paint to do some temporary "white letter tire" effects, but you'd have to be very careful to have it look good up close.

Now, what you CAN do is look for some "port-a-wall" add-on whitewalls. These were popular in the '50s as a substitute for buying real whitewalls, so they would be "period correct" for your vehicle. I think that as you mount the tire on the wheel, you lay the port-a-wall on the outside of the tire before you inflate it to set the tire beads against the wheel rim. Then you air it up as normal, with the port-a-wall being held in place between the tire's rim and the tire by the internal air pressure. These would be "wide whitewall" width too.

I think the name came from the fact that they could be moved from car to car (portable) if you might trade cars and didn't want to pay the extra money to get real white sidewall tires or you needed to buy new tires and bought normal blackwalls instead. Others might know more about this little bit of trivia, though.

You might find some of these "port-a-walls" in some of the automotive nostalgia websites (I don't know of any particular ones right now) or possibly J.C. Whitney's website. Might put "port-a-wall" into Google and see what happens.

End result, the "look" of whitewalls at a lesser price, even imported into Mexico. Might even be a vendor/manufacturer for them down there.

Enjoy!

NTX5467

There are several sources for "porta-walls" as I checked on them for my Buick a few years ago, I did not get them though as they can not be used on radials! When I worked at a dealership in St. Louis there was a man who came around to The Used car lots to detail the used cars and he would paint on the whitewalls, It looked good but I don't know how well it held up or what paint he used.

SEM Vinyl And Plastic Color Coat (Aerosol Can)...I used this to touch up a damaged area on one of my daily drivers. 2 years later it still looked good. Also I painted and area on a junk tire on one of my parts cars as a test and it still looks good after 3 years.

Willie

Thanks for that information, Willie! Where can that product be purchased?

Thanks,

NTX5467

Thanks for the information I will try to find this product here in Mexico an make a test to make sure that I apply the product in the proper manner will post some photos after having this done thanks a lot.