Whitewalls

[Dick Carne]

Once upon a time Denman made a double whitewall (back in the 1960's and perhaps early '70's), but it is my understanding that they have long since ceased to be involved in producing either blackwall or whitewall tires. Does anyone know of a manufacturer who may be producing these?

[rprice]

I have whitewalls on my '30 Deluxe Coupe, but I think I'll change to blackwalls when I need to buy new tires. Although my car looks good in whites, I feel that the car should have blackwalls, considering the year. That's just my humble opinion.
Rog

[rprice]

I have whitewalls on my '30 Deluxe Coupe. They were on the car when I bought it. They really look nice on my car, but I still feel that I'll put blackwalls on the car when it's time to replace the tires. I feel that the black tires are more appropriate for the era the car was built. That's just my opinion.
Rog

[Gold Digger]

Two of my "A"s are black walls but my 30 roadster pickup had w/w's on it and I replaced them the same way. I'm 64.

[QGolden]

Originally Posted by Tiny

I'. What is the first thing your eyes are drawn too?

From that perspective you bring a valid point.

They do draw your eyes away from the rest of the vehicle. For me it is part of the package, I like 'em, I put them on my Motorcycles as well, but I do understand your point completely.

[FL&WVMIKE]

Sponsored Links (Register now to hide all advertisements)

I like the looks on my Roadster.
The side mount tire covers toned down the effect just enough.
MIKE

CLICK ON PHOTO TO ENLARGE - Twice

[Ian NZ]

I have 'double' white sidewall tyres on our 1932 Ford 3 window coupe, they were a authorised 1932 Accessories, and factory installed 'special equipment'.
They are not hard to keep clean, and I think they make the car standout more.

[TerryH]

When I bought my restored Town Sedan about 6 years ago, it came with blackwalls on it, and I seriously considered changing them to whitewalls at the time. But a fellow Model A club member talked me out of it, saying to keep it original looking. I just bought new tires, and went to blackwall Goodyears. I am happy with my decision, but also feel that many Model A's certainly look nice with whitewalls, so to each, his own.............I am 68.

[Tiny]

I have a friend that said in the 50's on his hot rod he would buy WW's and run them inside out (WW's on the in board side)because they were better tires but he hated the look. He made it sound like it was the fashionable way to run them

[Skeezixx]

If I had a Packard or a Cadillac etc I'd be sporting whitewalls.

But I have a humble A Model Ford (and a bottom of the line roadster at that). To run WWs would seem pretentious.

If you look at photos of the period, Fords with WWs are mighty rare indeed.

[Michael M]

But in the photo 1 of the 5 whose tires can be seen has white walls. So they were out there.

Think it was the Captain's car?

[Skeezixx]

Originally Posted by Michael M

Think it was the Captain's car?

I think they were all donated to the PD and the one with the WWs came from Barnum & Bailey. It was a retired clown car.

[BrianM]

I admire the look of fat whitewalls on Packards, LaSalles, Cords, & Duesenbergs, because that's how they came. However, Model A's never came from Henry that way, and with the skinnier tires, the whitewalls really look out of place. Love my black Lesters....

[Pictou County T & A]

My 28 Sport Coupe has WW's,
the 30 Town Sedan has blackwalls.

I'm 42 and enjoy the looks of each equally.

[bikejunk]

I have a late 30 standard tudor black on black with blackwalls. and im 50

[Domino]

1930 tudor black walls
1930 Fordor Briggs whitewalls
1930 coupe blackwalls
1930 Townsedan blackwalls

Wish I had whitewalls on the tudor as the wife seems to think they "dress-up" the car. Either way for me depending on the colors.

[DougVieyra]

71 years old. Been driving Ford Model A's (I've had about 15 of them) for over 50 years. All except one ('31 Dlx Roadster) had black walls. The '31 Roadster had them because they looked especially good on the six 16" K-H wheels, and they did come with the car when I bought it in 1965.
A big 'fashion sense' is how the wheel/tire/black fender/ body color all comes together. Most all Model A's came with black wheels (later exceptions on some of the '31 models). A black tire, black wheel and black fenders - make for a rather dull (even though 'factory correct') appearance. However, with a colored (non black) wheel (dealers charged about $5 for color in 1928-'31) to break up the black on black on black drolness, the black-wall tires don't look bad. The absolute best combination if one were to wear white-wall tires would be on black wheels, to help 'sport' up the eye appeal.
I do have a set of the correct double-sided white-wall tires (n.o.s.from a special run in 1965) for the 21" wheels on my '28 Phaeton. However, they are not mounted because when I restored the car (Duchess Blue, with French Grey pin stripe) in 1979, I opted to paint all six of my wheels the optional ($5 extra from the dealer) French Grey. I felt that the white-wall tires would detract from the beauty of the grey wheels. So I have had original black-wall Firestone (cross and tepee tread design) tires on the car since that time. I also had another set of Black wheels with black tires to help the Blue Ribbon judges feel more 'comfortable'.
My '31 Dlx Coupe (Ford Maroon, Red Stripe) , on the other hand has Black 19" Kelsey-Hayes wheels with single sided White-wall Firestone tires. I think it looks great - much better looking than black tires on black wheels. I have another set of wheels for this car - 18" Kelsey-Hayes - which I will be painting Red, to match the pinstripe color on the car. With the red wheels, if I were to follow my general rule-of-thumb, you would think that I would put on black-wall tires. However, because the 18" wheels have a smaller diameter, and the hub-to-rim spoke distance is significantly shorter than a stock 19" A wheel, and the large V-8 style center hub, with it's large 8" chrome hubcap - makes me feel I can 'get away' with having both a colored (red) wheel AND a sporty white-wall tire. What makes it even more enticing to me is that I can get (they are currently being made) the correct double-sided white-wall tires for the 18" rims.
So it all boils down to - what YOU like is what is correct ! However I do think that for some, it is important - or at least of some interest - to know what was factory 'correct', what was dealer 'correct', and what was 1930 owner 'correct'. Then one can better assess how one 'fits' into the scheme of 'All Things Ford". Which gets us back to - What YOU like is correct.

[Marklambert61]

I like them both my 30 Pickup has white walls and my 31 Tudor is has black. Both can look very nice.

Mark

[Brother Hesekiel]

I am a relatively new Model A owner, although I own a bunch 'a old cars, a Model T included, but the very first change I made to my car is take the white wall tires off, paint 'em black, and mount 'em inward. Now I don't look like a 76-year-old anymore when driving my car!






In my not so humble opinion, a Model A with white walls symbolizes a pretty boy, wearing a bow-tie and smelling the flowers, whereas a Model A with black wall tires symbolizes somebody like Steve McQueen.

I like white wall tires on certain cars, but absolutely not on any Model T or Model A.

[Ken Anderson]

I have whitewalls on my 30 Deluxe Coupe and on my 31 Vicky. Also have wide whites on my 56 Belair Convertible. I like the way they look and plan on keeping them on all of them...