wide white walls

[cubbear]

I would like to put wide whitewalls on my 1958 I believe the tire size is suppose to be 800 X 14 what tire do u recommend for a nice ride?

[Dakota Boy]

my buddy with a 1960 Chevy bought Diamondback wide whites for his car last year. 14" rims. He has no complaints.

[jopizz]

Most people go with 215/75 14 radials. They are available in wide whitewalls. They are slightly smaller tires than the 800 x 14 belted. You can also go 225/75 14. A few different companies make them including Coker and Diamond Back. If you do a search you will find a number of threads with pros and cons of different brands.

John

[Dakota Boy]

https://dbtires.com/conversion-chart/

[YellowRose]

wide white walls

If you search for previous posts regarding tires, you will probably see that some have had problems with Coker white walls. I can remember comments from some who had various problems with them and switched to a different brand... Just saying...

[JohnG]

I have Diamondback radials with wide white walls, since 2004. They have been great. Of late the whitewalls have begun to come off so I have to devise some scheme for re-attaching them.

In spite of the age, no visible checking (or there is and the whitewalls are covering them up). Garaged all the time which might help.

[jopizz]

Of late the whitewalls have begun to come off so I have to devise some scheme for re-attaching them.

How could the whitewalls come off? They are part of the tire rubber. It's not possible. Can you post a picture?

John

[bird 60]

Are we talking about the Portawall Flaps? The pretend Whitewalls of yesteryear.

Chris.....From OZ.

[JohnG]

I will get a photo this weekend but, guys, they ain't part of the tire. Simply glued on. Which lasted a long time, but not forever, and 14 years is bordering on "forever".

I suspect, given the very limited market for the particular tire, this was a cost saving move.

I did use some black RTV on one area about a year ago where it was peeling; it worked well. Kind of snuck it in behind the white material then held the material in place with some duct tape for a day or so. Took the DT off and things were in good shape.

Anyway - - this was the approach Diamondback took back then to providing "whitewalls". I vaguely remember someone from the company telling me they used Michelin then. probably changed since.

John

[Deanj]

If you search for previous posts regarding tires, you will probably see that some have had problems with Coker white walls. I can remember comments from some who had various problems with them and switched to a different brand... Just saying...

Right-on! I found out the hard way. Next time I'm going with Diamondbacks.

Dean

[jopizz]

Real whitewall tires are not glued on. In fact if you cut into the sidewall of most blackwall tires it will be white underneath. There are many videos on YouTube showing how to grind down the sidewall to make your own whitewall tires. I would never do it though for fear of weakening the sidewall. I guess Diamond Back found a cheaper way to make them. It's hard to complain if they lasted 14 years.

John

[byersmtrco]

Not gonna say anything
about Cokers- But I would go another
route

[JohnG]

John & John

I think it would be fair to say what Diamondback sold me was a white wall tire "facsimile". Has the correct external appearance, but not the real thing.

Will get some pictures and details . . . .

John

[DKheld]

About 1984 my Dad put new K-Mart G-78-14 bias plys on the Tbird with Port-a-walls. You had to plan your lane changes - car was all over the road. I just figured that was the way it drove (I was used to British cars with rack and pinion steering and radial tires - you only slowed down for a curve if something was in front of you - ) He was told he had to run tubes with the Port-a-walls so we did. No trouble out of that set other than the Port-a-walls would fold back from the wind when you went down the interstate - a buddy of mine saw it when we were traveling together once - I never knew it - he said it looked really weird and I bet it did.

Scan of an old Poloroid about 1995 with the bias plys and Port-a-walls


In 2004 when I converted the Tbird to Disc brakes I installed Diamond Back Radials 215 75 14 - what a difference. Once aligned the car would track straight and no sawing on the steering wheel any more - loved how it drove.

Diamond Back does add wide whitewalls to modern tires but other manufactures like Coker are made a little differently in a one step process. My Diamond Back tires were Dayton tires. Diamond Back whitewall is vulcanized on later - if the temps of the vulcanization process are not quite right I could see the whitewall separating but same thing with a Coker or similar tire.

Here's the Diamond Back - lasted 10+ years before a belt broke.



In 2014ish when the Diamond Backs went bad I should have bought more but Summit had free shipping on Coker Classic Radials (looks like they still have that offer). Decided to try them. Liked the tread design a little better and thought it would be a little quieter than the all season design of the Diamond Backs (Dayton).

The Cokers seem to be good quality (so far) and look nice but they handle like the old bias plys on the interstate. I've played around with tire pressures ect and now that they have 5-6k miles on them they are much better but if you plan on any interstate driving I would choose something other than the Coker Classic. I bought the exact same size Coker tire as the Diamond Back and there were no other changes to the suspension or alignment so I'm sure it's just the difference in the tires. I believe Coker offers a performance whitewall tire - maybe that would be better than the Classics - or just go with Diamond Backs.

Coker .... looks fine....

tread design (from the Coker web site)


JMHO.....

John - I sure hope Coker replaced that tire without any fuss - geeez.

[byersmtrco]

Years (Decades) ago, my dad ran the Michelin's
with the pinstripe white wall. I would LOVE to
find something like that.

Re; the picture of the bubble; Those "things" weren't on my car. They were fairly new on
a (cherry) 58 Impala parked next to me. I had a long conversation with the owner. PM me for details. I wont post
anything bad. Years ago when I was in VTCA, a member had one of their tires come apart. It tore off the skirt and damaged the qtr/panel. When they tried
to warr the tire and get comp for damage to their car, they were pretty much told to go kick rocks.
She wrote a nasty article in our bi-monthly publication. A certain
tire co tried to sue vtca. Needless to say it went no where.
They did repl the tire after another battle in court, but no help with the damage to the car.