Watching an old Highway Patrol show and they were in a tire warehouse. All the tires were wrapped in paper and stacked. Got me to wondering about why they were wrapped. Looked uo tire wrapping Whitewall tire - Wikipedia. and found some interesting facts. From completely white tires through white side walls. Per the article tires were wrapped to protect the white from getting scuffed before selling. Interesting history article, well to me anyway.

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Wherever my mind isn't
Jim

Gangster Walls.

'49 Merc with WW's and a link to Coker WW tire timeline

The History and Timeline of Whitewall Tires

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Used to be they were all white walls. If you didn't want them they just mounted them to the inside. I think white walls are out of style, yes?

Believe it or not but in the 50's ( and 40's?) you could get fake whitewalls. A thin white disc that would go between the rim and tire. For Tubed tires, not tubeless.

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Sceva
OGCA SWCA NRA

I had Porta Walls on my 1952 Chevy. Not sure there were any tubeless tires back then.

Protecting the not-black surfaces is why...I worked for General Tire and Goodyear several years...The stacks of tires in the showroom (three flat and top one upright) were always placed on circular cardboard or fiberboard spacers to keep the lampblack in the tires from penetrating the floors...During my years with Goodyear the Goodyear Double Eagle of the 70's was the only one still paper wrapped to protect its distinctive patterned whitewall with gold stripe (we didn't sell many of these premium tires)...I remember the paper being similar to S&W vapor paper to prevent surface oxidation since they were likely to stay in storage on the upper tiers of the tire racks for years before sale......Ben

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Cogito, ergo BOOM!...

I run WW on one of my Harleys, the 07 Road King. A pain to keep clean. Often contemplate replacing with black.

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Through parental experience I learned that white walls/raised white letters and student drivers don't mix.

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I spent toooo much time with Westley's Bleche-Wite scrubbing mom's white walls on her Buick... of course I got my driver's license in that car... big sister has it now... it is a really cool Buick... 1972 Skylark Custom convertible... it didn't look like this when I drove it.. sister hot rodded it a bit...it runs in the family

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My old hot rod came with white walls, I was never crazy about them. Tires were originally made from natural rubber which is white, they learned to add carbon to the white rubber in what was known as vulcanization which turned it black and extended the life of the tire. True white walls have the white rubber poured into the mold then the black stuff added on top. The tires on this '51 were made by Coker and are bias ply. They suffered from delamination of the white part, I contacted Coker and they basically said T.S.

They belong.

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Sure you did

Couldn't you just turn them around. :-)

73,
Rick

The best was Wesley's Bleche White, but it was only slightly more toxic than Love Canal (now there's a period reference for you). They changed the formula many years ago and I haven't seen it in quite a while. The EPA ruined it. Probably a good thing.

...Should I get a set of white wall tires?...
Are ya' gonna' cruise the miracle mile?...
Billy Joel

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I guess we were too poor to buy a dedicated whitewall cleaner when I was a kid. I had to use a Brillo pad when cleaning the whitewalls on the family car in the '60's. They did a good job, but it sure twernt easy!

The only tires I remember my dad buying were always white walls, for our Chevys, and later our Pontiac. He always mounted them white wall inside.

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Heavily armed old man.

Brillo pads work well for cleaning whitewalls. I, and everyone I knew, cleaned their whitewalls that way back in the day. I haven't had whitewall tires for a very long time.

[QUOTE.. big sister has it now... it is a really cool Buick... 1972 Skylark Custom convertible... it didn't look like this when I drove it.. sister hot rodded it a bit...it runs in the family[/QUOTE]That is a cool car. Is your sister married? Just kiddin about your sis but that is an absolutely cool car.

Back in the early 60's a friend and I installed "Port-o-walls on his 1954 Ford pickup. We was cool.

Back in my youth I had a 1939 Ford convertible Hot Rod. Souped flat head V-8 that was fast but could not out run an Olds Highway cop. Got a ticket for doing 85 iin a 35 zone. Had to sell it because of too many tickets. By the way it had whitewalls. Bought a new Ford pickup and never got another ticket. Those were the days.

All the Harley's I owned came with white wall tires. When they were new they looked terrific but as they aged, they became a maintenance headache trying to keep them white.

Back in the day some of my cars came with modified whitewalls (much thinner portion was white) but when tires were replaced, I just went with the black wall tires.

We just looked at new bicycles yesterday and some of the retro cruisers are being delivered with whitewalls.

I recently watched "The Godfather" - Again. I noticed the 1940s-50s cars had wide whitewalls.

I like wide whitewalls on some bikes. Pictured is my Road King up at Laconia, NH bike week back in 2014. I remember as a kid my father getting new tires for his F-250 with whitewalls. He didn't like the look and colored in the whitewalls with one of those permanent magic markers.

Larry

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I had always heard an old saw about running white walls on motorcycles and early cars like Model A's was that it gives you a little more protection at night from getting hit from the side, for those vehicles without the advantage of side running lights. I don't drive my Model A at night, I just don't.

I remember Goodyear raised white letters also had a factory coating applied to letters that you had to scrub off for customer what a pain!