Think whitewalls weren't used before the war?

[Dynaflash8]

For those of you who think pre-war Buicks didn't come with whitewalls or ran whitewalls, here is a photograph from back in the day.

 

[Pluto]

His first day on the job, budding mechanic Jimmy learned a hard lesson about the compression strength of peach crates.

[Alex D.]

Are those milk crates for jack stands?

[keiser31]

Some other makes like Chrysler Corporation cars had whitewalls inside and outside around 1939...

 

 

[Xander Wildeisen]

11 hours ago, Pluto said:

His first day on the job, budding mechanic Jimmy learned a hard lesson about the compression strength of peach crates.

 

He is questioning how much he is going to get paid on that tire change job, while looking at the peach crates.

[padgett]

I thought tires were originally all white and the black (tire black) had to be added to hide dirt.

[pont35cpe]

My 1936 Buick shop manual states to pull the rear axles and put 1 tablespoon of wheel bearing lubricant on the roller bearing twice a year.  Maybe that is what "Jimmy" is doing along with the new whitewall tires, he has the axles out..

[1937hd45]

Life to too short to spend time cleaning white walls, go fight among yourselves. Bob 

[Matt Harwood]

13 minutes ago, padgett said:

I thought tires were originally all white and the black (tire black) had to be added to hide dirt.

 

Rubber is naturally white. The vulcanization process turns it black and makes it far more durable. Whitewalls aren't really one or the other, just decorative. It isn't the black rubber carved off or anything like that.

[jpage]

Actually, carbon is introduced into the rubber to make it black. I have a photo of my grandfather at Fort Clark, TX in 1917 standing in front of a row of GMC motor ambulances all with big brass headlamps and whitewall tires!

[John_S_in_Penna]

I used to think that narrow whitewalls came along

in the late 1950's and became common in the 1960's.

I didn't know they existed far earlier, as shown in

this ad from the July 1923 National Geographic Magazine:

 

 

[Steve9]

Here’s a copy of the build card of my 36 Dodge. 6 WSW.

[Joe in Canada]

[gwells]

10 hours ago, padgett said:

I thought tires were originally all white and the black (tire black) had to be added to hide dirt.

 

Early tires were mostly gray, the color of the raw latex.

They became black after it was discovered that adding carbon black to the rubber compound made tires last longer.

[jpage]

Some tire companies also offered colored sidewalls to harmonize with different paint schemes. Their targets were the bigger, higher end cars of the times. There was a good article about them in one of the car publications awhile back.

Edited July 31, 2018 by jpage (see edit history)

[Xander Wildeisen]

9 minutes ago, jpage said:

Some tire companies also offered colored sidewalls to harmonize with different paint schemes. Their targets were the bigger, higher end cars of the times. There was a goos article about them in one of the car publications awhile back.

Does anyone have a picture of a colored side wall tire on a car?

[jpage]

The article showed several color schemes and artist renderings but no real photos. I don't think that they made a big impression! Sorta like early ethanol fuel in the '30's, petered out like most fads!

[edinmass]

Pre war white walls? In 1932 ALL yes ALL Cadillac cars came standard with them, black walls were available special order at no charge, and COLORED walls to match the car were available, red, blue, green, and in the later 30's orange. All early tires were non dyed white all over. Nothing special about white walls, or white tires. 

Edited July 31, 2018 by edinmass (see edit history)

[Curti]

Single sided white walls became available in 1939. Loads of cars had whitewalls prior to that but they were white on BOTH sides or completely white. I have a broshure from a tire company showing yellow side walls.    

Matt has it right about ports-walls.  Unless you are going for some weird 50-60's thing, don't walk away, RUN.  

[Walt G]

 jpage  Thank you for the compliment. I researched and wrote the article on colored side walls for Hemmings Classic Car issue 139 April 2016. All illustrations from period material. It would be hard to get a period photograph in color as black & white was what photographs were mostly pre war, and any color work was not done the same way we are used to now so the actual color shown would be not totally correct as to the way it looked (think color magazine ads of the era using photographs of cars).

[Xander Wildeisen]

Yellow walled tires are easy to get. Just buy the white ones, mount, drive and never clean.

[MCHinson]

This thread was hijacked by an unrelated question about portawalls. I have split that question into its own discussion. If you wish to comment on portawalls, please reply to the other discussion.

[Layden B]

This Model T Ford had it's picture take July 31 1915.

First car into Yellowstone Park.

[MochetVelo]

Red tires were sold in the teens & twenties. In fact, they are still made in bike sizes (see photo). Perhaps some daring tire dealer should sell them.

 

 

 

 

Edited July 31, 2018 by MochetVelo (see edit history)

[zipdang]

I think whitewalls on the big guns would make it much easier to target them for destruction. Nothing like a target on your firepower.

[Joe in Canada]

7 hours ago, Layden B said:

This Model T Ford had it's picture take July 31 1915.

First car into Yellowstone Park.

Not a 15 or earlier T anyone know what year it is.

Edited August 1, 2018 by Joe in Canada (see edit history)

[Spinneyhill]

Natural rubber is off-white. But natural rubber tires wore out quickly (soft compound) and heated up and deformed under load.  Zinc oxide was added to make them harder and wear better; it also made them bright white. About WWI, carbon black started to replace zinc oxide; it was found to make the compound even more temperature stable, harder and stronger, so the tires lasted longer. Initially only the tread had carbon black added to it, hence white wall tires. The carbon black also had the unexpected effect of adding some UV stability and slowing ozone damage.

Edited August 1, 2018 by Spinneyhill (see edit history)

[Xander Wildeisen]

On 7/31/2018 at 5:22 AM, jpage said:

Some tire companies also offered colored sidewalls to harmonize with different paint schemes. Their targets were the bigger, higher end cars of the times. There was a good article about them in one of the car publications awhile back.

Here you go. Look at the last two pictures.  https://www.ebay.com/itm/2-Vintage-1956-NOS-7-10-15-U-S-Royal-Master-Blue-Color-Wall-White-Wall-Tires/121864031823?hash=item1c5fa98e4f%3Ag%3AJFwAAOSwLN5Wld9v&_sop=7&_sacat=10073&_nkw=white+wall+tire&_from=R40&rt=nc

Edited August 7, 2018 by Xander Wildeisen (see edit history)

[PFindlay]

I'm just finishing off an old book called "Cars With Personalities"  (John Conde) and it may provide some insight here.  The book is a collection of hundreds of pictures of cars (1900 - 1982) with famous people and/or celebrities.  The kind of folks who often drive high end cars which, you'd think, might have white walls.

 

In the early years of course we see lots of all-white or grey tires.  Whitewalls seem to start showing up in the early 20s, although King George's Rolls has a nice set in 1917.  Mostly high end cars, but not exclusively, sported white walls occasionally and they were double sided. 

 

By the end of the 20s it seems like most of the Cadillacs and Lincolns shown have whitewalls (single sided) along with some other high-end makes.  But what really jumped out at me are the Packards.  This book is full of them, far more than any other make.  Yet, the first example of whitewalls shown on a Packard is 1931.  All of the many, many celebrity Packards shown from the 20s have blackwalls.

 

In the 30s it seems like many, but certainly not all, of the higher end cars have whitewalls as well as some of the medium priced cars.  By the end of the thirties they seem to show up on just about any make, but there are still many cars with blackwall tires.

 

What does all this mean?  Maybe not much.  Maybe it was still a matter of personal preference for these celebrities, but I suspect that in many of these cases the car was furnished by the dealer of factory, so it may have been the look they wanted for their cars.  Maybe they didn't like the look of dirty whitewalls.

 

So, to me, it seems like it's hard to be too critical either way ...  except maybe those 20s Packards :)

 

The book is available on Amazon for $1.49.  Not bad for 250 pages of original photos.

 

Peter