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
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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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