Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

[Old-Nail]

I've always liked the look of White-wall or white-band tyres, I think they add a 'continental' flavour to the car be it a U.S. or European vehicle.
I then got to thinking...
When I've been in hot countries I notice the locals often cover their tyres and windscreens against the suns heat, which made me wonder if white-wall tyres were originally a device to reflect that heat in such hot climates, or simply a styling trend?

It would explain the preponderance of White-walls in US or European countries which have warmer climatic conditions, and the absence of them in the grey and wet UK, are, or were they popular in Australia too? What do you think?

[47p2]

Good theory O-N.
You may well be right
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ROVER
One of Britain's Fine Cars

[Kaybee]

Hi O/N, wide white's seem to be an American thing that became popular in the late 30's on the more upmarket cars and then gradually became fashionable on many cars thru to the late 50's. The narrow band whitewalls appeared in about '59 in the US and were also available here from around that period and were fairly common until around '70/71. We can still buy them and the wide whites over the counter here, but they are imports from the states. I'm sure I read somewhere that completely white tyres were common in the 20's for a time and that the rubber in it's natural form is white, the black colour is added in manufacture using carbon black, regards,Col.
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[Old-Nail]

Hi Kaybee,
Actually now I think back to watching those old Laurel and Hardy films the tyres on those model T's were often completely white.
If whitewalls were simply a styling excersise then it's strange that they never caught on in the UK, in the 50's many of the period ads' show the cars wearing them (obviously to appeal to the export market).
I now automatically connect whitewalls with warmer weather!

[Greeney in France]

I am going to get testicle now
A long long time ago, in a far off land....

I was told that the vulcanised process adding sulphur and carbon to a heating process make tyres not only black but highly elastic
The original tyre was just rubber and "just white" but was harder and less elastic
Early 20/30s technology was such that although the vulcanizing was innovative, it created a soft and easily scrubable side wall, so they they still used White normal rubber as side walls to stiffen them up and add side protection. This eventually decreased to just a band to protect the side wall from scrubbing and adding a little frame

Now of course it is just decoration
Sorry for getting serious
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[Old-Nail]

Good morning Greeney, that sounds like a reasonable explanation. So the whitewall did actually have a function but not the one I thought! It must simply be coincidence (or austerity) that they never caught on in the UK.

[buzzy bee]

Hi

Slightly off topic, but you can still buy completely white bicycle tyres.

I remembered my neighbour had them when I was young, we used to make skid marks and his where allways white, so we knew who had the longest mark, used to go through hundreds of tyres! hehe

Once got told off, for going to my cycling profinency exam with no rubber on my tyre in one spot, just the canvas! hehe

Cheers

Dave

[peter scott]

I think shoe spats had a small revival in the 1920s too and the white walls are a logical style addition to that fashion.

Peter

[clan chieftain]

My whites sometimes have skidmarks as well.
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The Clan Chieftain

[Greeney in France]

you can always rely on a Scotsman to lower the tone
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[Guy]

I could be wrong but I have a vague memory of the carcass of white wall tyres showing through as white when the tread was worn bald.
The next stage being the cords poking through.
Cheers
Guy

[Greeney in France]

Quite possibly as a carcase stiffener the softer more grippy stuff being the tread bonded over the top to control flex before steel belting
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[poodge]

I noticed that in pics of French,Spanish,and even Italian old fire engines,the sidewalls were often painted white,particularly in parades etc.
In any case,the "white "tyres used in the 10's and 20's seemed to be a more-or-less creamy colour.
In the 50's-60's,you could buy whitewalls that you fitted outside the standard tyre.You had to let down the tyre,fit the whitewall,then re-inflate.Fine when they were new,but when they got exposed to the sun too long,the walls would lose rigidity,and flap around like a flag in a breeze.You could hear them coming a mile away
Firestone sold a tyre in the 70's that had a thin red line on the sidewalls.(Cavallino?).They looked pretty,but were rubbish in the wet.I quickly swapped them for a set of Dunlop Aquajets for my mk2 Cortina.

[pigtin]

I seem to remember being able to buy whitewall tyre paint in the 50/60s. It was impossible to make a good job of painting it on and looked absolutely awful

[Giggles]

The number of people that moan about our wide whites on the Humber and tell us that they never had whitewalls on them when they were new! BUT Rootes loved them for promotional pictures and the like. They were an extra and I think you could pay an extra few pounds to have them.

If you're worried about get "skid marks" on your whitewalls, invest in a set of kerb feelers from Ebay, that will help prevent you scraping them on the kerbs.

I don't like whitewall flaps, we've them on the Fairlane and hate them. When the car was delivered it was the first thing I noticed. As soon as we can afford to, they will be replaced with proper ones.
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1953 Humber Hawk
1955 Ford Fairlane
1960 & 1963 Humber Super Snipe's