Interestingly, most 1960's whitewall tires were made as described. The black
wall counter parts could be seen to have a ridge that was left covered with a
thin layer of black. This ridge was deliberately built into the tires, so that
it could be easily removed to create the "white wall" look.
Unfortunately, the purchasers of the black wall versions, who rubbed the curb
frequently while parking, ended up with a mix and match set of black wall and
white wall tires.
Paul
In a message dated 4/10/2004 8:39:05 AM Eastern Daylight Time, JCantor791
writes:
>
>
> Mr. Bell brings up a good point however Diamond Back's process is a bit
> different. The grinding they do is only to remove the lettering and other
>texture
> on one side of the tire (they don't do both sides as you don't need white on
> the inside plus it is illegal to remove all DOT numbers). They don't make
>any
> change in the nominal sidewall thickness. Then a section of white rubber is
> vulcanized onto the tire which actually INCREASES the sidewall thickness.
>
> BTW, I don't believe there is any white rubber left in modern tires - it's
> too weak. If you make a cross section of a modern tire - probably going back
>15
> years - you'll find that it is black all the way through.
>
> Jeff
> '56 Sedan
> Trenton, NJ
>
>
> Date: Fri, 9 Apr 2004 20:03:13 -0700 (PDT)
> From: W Bell <cbody67tx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: IML: blackwall to whitewall
> Reply-To: mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> --0-468649387-1081566193=:14863
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
>
> I first read of the whitewall conversion back in the 1970s, when having
> whitewall tires was a status symbol of sorts and expected to happen on
>upscale
> vehicles. It seems that a piece of white rubber was in the sidewalls as a
>normal
> part of the tire structure. On normal whitewalls, it was thicker and went to
> the surface.
>
> What some new car dealers would do, to make a few bucks, was order the cars
> with blackwall tires and then find a local vendor to grind the black rubber
> down to the layer of white rubber. It did not look as good as the regular
> whitewalls did, but it was still a "whitewall tire" when done.
>
> One question was raised about taking that much rubber out of the sidewall of
> a tire--at that time, bias ply tires were the norm. The reply was that not
> that much rubber was removed so there should be no problems. That was also
>back
> when a 8.55x14 tire would typically weigh about 28 pounds (by the old Federal
> Excise Tax on tires, at 10 cents/pound).
>
> Now, fast forward to the modern P-metric radials. If you go into the
> manufacturer websites where they might quote tire weights for a given tire
>size,
> those tires that used to weigh 28-30 pounds are now weighing about 24 pounds.
> If
> you see a modern tire that's blown out and shredded the sidewall, it's very
> obvious where that weight might have been taken out of the tire.
>
> Personally, knowing how thin those sidewalls are now, compared to earlier
> times (even for radials!), I would not put "made" whitewalls on anything I
>had.
> On the other hand, I suspect that Diamondback is fully aware of those issues
> and might choose the tires to do that to with a high degree of care. They
>want
> you back as a customer and can not stand any problems that might prevent
> that. In looking at the cut-a-way illustrations on many tire manufacturer
> websites, I don't think that white layer of rubber is there in all cases, as
>it used
> to be, or nearly so thick.
>
> As with any other tire vendor, I suspect that which rep you speak with might
> make a difference. Key thing is that you get what you desire at a reasonable
> price for what it is.
>
> Enjoy!
> W Bell
>
>
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