You can still get them. I have them on my beetle. Takes some skill,to install but nothing beats a true whitewall

I read somewhere that when white wall tires were really popular in the 1940's and 50's , tire manufacturers would manufacture all tires as white walls with a thin layer of black rubber over the white wall. When a customer ordered white walls (quite often) the black would be ground off creating a white wall tire. I also remember my dad buying a new Pontiac in 1962 and he thought he was at the top of his game when he ordered the car with Vogue white wall tires (thin white wall).

Yeah, I remember when the narrow whites came out. I always thought they looked preppy, while the wide whites looked old school. The narrow ones are much easier to clean!

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

They really seem to "clean up" the car's overall image, especially with those painted hubcaps.


Car looks "fresh & well maintained" with those things. I like it. I'm sure it took some nerve initially...very cool


My first job was a gas attendant at a Standard Oil Gas station / 3-bay shop.


Learned to mount and static balance. My first customer tire change ended with white walls on one side and black on the other. I was so worried about the balance job that I didn't realize the tires were reversible whitewall / black reversible. Nobody else at the station noticed my bumble job either.


Customer drove the car home and his wife asked why the interesting choice of whitewalls on one side...He came back and went all white wall. And I received about six months of ribbing from the other pump jockeys and shop mechanics.

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1986 300SDL 440,xxx

They still do that if the tire has white lettering that's not painted on, in fact. Lots of hot/rat rod guys still make their own white walls by grinding off the black layer.

-Rog

I also remember when using Port a walls that after about a year of use, despite constant cleaning, they would turn brown. I always suspected they were absorbing some sort of oil from the tire.

Yes, it's almost certainly the antiozonant, which is what causes tire bloom (the brownish tint all tires get after awhile). Comet does wonders for black tires. Not sure about white walls though.

-Rog

Having been alive and active in the car world in the era of Port-a-walls I can assure you that they didn't stay put all that well. It was not unusual to see someone going down the highway with a Port-a-wall flapping around their rim. You would also sometimes find them laying in a ditch, sad and dejected after being thrown from their formerly happy home. Some guys would contact glue them in place but I don't know how helpful that was.

I remember being shocked that the tire companies cheaped-out and started putting a stripe instead of "real" white walls - though I did get used to it. As I worked in a Buick dealership, virtually all of our customer's cars had WW as anything else was cheap and sleazy. We sold a few tires so I installed a number of WW, balanced with a Hunter spin balancer (they worked great!).

Comet works OK on WW but Wesley's Bleech-White kicked butt - spray on, let stand, and scrub lightly for sparkling WW. I don't know if Wesley's is still available but probably not because it WORKED!

Ah, them was the good ol' days........

Dan

Looks great. I really wanted these for my 300td but needed an in stock option. Next time...

86-300sdl,
You know I sat on the idea of white walls for about a month while I had my car disassembled doing my head gasket. I finally pulled the trigger lol.
Usually I get one of two looks in traffic if someone looks up from their phone and sees my car. Either a thumbs up and a smile, or a wtf happened to that car look haha!! I've never been at a gas station filling up and didn't get asked about them. Before my car had just normal black side walls, and it seemed invisible to most. If it had the aluminum wheels I probably wouldn't have gone the white wall route. I need to get on ebay and get some curb feelers!!


The local Mercedes dealer loved it too which I though was odd, they usually seem snoody when I go there to buy parts. I took it there to get an alignment.


Ive heard of Port-a-walls but ive never seen them used before.


97 SL320,
My wife sang that part of that song to me when I picked her up after I left the tire shop!

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"It's what non-car people don't get. They see all cars as just ton-and-a-half, two tons of wires, glass, metal and rubber. That's all they see. People like you or I know, we have an unshakable belief that cars are living entities..... You can develop a relationship with a car, and that’s just what non-car people don't get."
-Jeremy Clarkson

My thinking is these old diesels only look good when they are clean.


And yours looks Clean!


When my old SDL is dirty nobody says nada, however when buffed out I get lots of compliments.


Now...I have some suggestions to improve the filling station experience:

• Pick up a full length fake fur coat. The more hideous the better.
• Matching hat with a leopard print band
• Big plastic chromed sunglasses. Elvis style.
• Borrow someone's standard poodle named Lipstick, spray it pink, let it ride to the pump with you.

Hilarious!


Don't get me wrong...jeans and a t-shirt are plenty...but only now could you pull it off.


Someday I may find a light colored w123 with the hub caps. First order of business will be those tires.


Nice ride there amigo!

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1986 300SDL 440,xxx

Now you need a new driving suit.

i love a car with a sense of humor. well done.

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'77 240D, 504H, OM617.952, etc.

I think those white walls look great!

Don't think they would be as stunning with bundt wheels. The white hubcaps make the difference.

Wouldn't work for us up here. After our first snowfall, there is sand and otehr crud on roads. My white 300D look awful. Carwash tomorrow!

My memory might be going, but I seems to recall that if we didn't want whitewalls, they just faced them inwards!

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Graham
85 300D,72 350SL, 98 E320, Outback 2.5