Appropriate Whitewall Widths...

Is there a guide somewhere to the whitewall width for a particular year of car? The judging handbook speaks of deductions for an obviously incorrect whitewall width, but one needs to know what that would be.

On the '62 Special, I currently have radial blackwalls of the appropriate size...they work fine, but a couple of guys have said it makes a Buick look cheap since back in the day only the really cheap cars had blackwalls.

I'm also considering getting another set of wheels for the Wildcat and putting bias ply tires on it for future judging consideration so as to not lose the mandatory deductions. It makes it tougher to consider ordering tires blindly without knowing what it is I want to order.

Thanks.

Give Coker tire a call. They are happy to spend time answering your questions and seem to be very knowledgeable regarding what was/is correct for a given year and model car............Bob

Derek, you might look at some of the vintage car print ad websites (i.e., plan59.com) and see how they look there. You might have to guess a little for the correct width, but you can probably get closer that way.

Blackwall tires were the "standard" tires with "whitewall" tires being optional on most everything back then. It was not until the "Euro Craze" (in the earlier 1980s) invaded Detroit that blackwall tires became more popular. I was looking at some vintage car vids on YouTube and one commenter asked why Detroit could not build cars that rode like they did in the 1950s rather than the hard-riding vehicles we have now (which do corner much better than the earlier cars, though).

Back in the 1960s, when Middle Class America was headed toward prosperity (OR wanted people to think they were!), having white wall tires and full wheel covers was an indication of that (rather than hubcaps and blackwall tires). If it was whitewall tires and hub caps, you knew they were trying to look prosperous on a budget--even on pickup trucks.

I suspect that the majority of the whitewalls you can get now will be sized for more the middle 1960s than otherwise. That was the width that seemed to be standardized into the 1970s and beyond. The "different" whitewalls were the multi-stripe for specific vehicles and model years of said vehicles and even gold or red in color. The earlier 1960s might have had a little wider whitewall, but the middle 1960s width looked good on the earlier cars too.

Just some thoughts,

NTX5467

Derek,

Before I sold our 62 Skylark, I was thinking about putting correct bias ply's on it. I can't remember where I found the info, but the correct width should be 1". I still have the original spare tire on our '63 Electra and it too is 1". When I restored our '64 Skylark, the correct whitewall width was also 1", so I am guessing that would also be correct for your '66 Wildcat as I don't think it changed all that much through the '60's.

Thanks Tom...that should at least get me on appropriate tires for those cars.

I wonder why it is difficult to find documentation on the whitewall width...sigh.

Here is a picure of a 66 Wildcat sitting on it's original tires with around 5K miles on it. It will give you a good idea of what the look should be.

Thanks Keith. Here's mine, so I guess it isn't too far off (radials mind you)...perhaps a bit thing, but the angle is different.

Keith, thanks for posting that picture of the orignal '66 Wildcat sedan. I thought of that car right after I posted my response.

Don't call Coker..I just did & all their alleged, so-called, "tech" putz could tell me was, "One inch or less, that's all I can tell you."

I do not vouch for the accuracy of this info. I only report it. I ran across this on the net somewhere and published in the Nov. 2014 issue of my monthly, ad free newsletter, Car Collector Chronicles -

Traditional Whitewall Widths

ERA WIDTH

Pre-1954 3" whitewall or more

'54 thru '56 2 1/2" - 2 11/16"

'57 thru '61 2 1/4" - 2 1/2"

'62 thru '64 1" whitewall or less