Hot Rods Were mismatched white walls ever period correct?

Let me start this by saying I appreciate The HAMB and its contributors for giving me years of less than adequate sleep as I stayed up late reading the treads and articles.

Here goes. I purchased this street /strip 1963 1/2 Falcon Sprint a little over a year ago. Besides sitting under a car cover for 2 + years in the previous owners driveway, the horrendous electrical, home garage sprayed paint job, dings / dents, lack of speedometer,no brake lights , non functioning dash gauges, I really love this car.

The bones were great, with disc brakes, 5 speed, 9" rearend, 347 stroker, engine torque strap, sub frame connectors, longtubes with cutouts, traction bars, line lock and even a perfect interior.

Over this past year I've worked through most of the issues, reparing the electrical one circuit at a time, pulled the engine and trans to clean them up and fix the leaks, brakes, replace the cooling and fuel systems. I even replaced the seatbelts and added a carseat tether so I could take the 5 year old with me to the cruise nights.

So finally the question. This car is definitely a thumbs up cruiser everywhere I take it, but every once in a while I'll get someone that points out the mismatched tires. I'll admit, the Radir tri-spoke wheels with Radir 7" cheater slicks and skinny mismatched front tires wouldn't be my first choice for this car, but it has kinda grown on me. So, was this look ever correct for this car? The pictures below were taken last night at Bob's Big Boy in Burbank. Overall the reactions were positive and we got a lot of people who walked up and wanted to talk about the car. I did get the the one guy who told me I should decide.

Thoughts?

 

Hello,
That is a nice Falcon. If you like those wheels, take the whitewalls off. If you want to be somewhat So Cal period correct, then add American Racing 5 spokes. Not many (if any) ran those wheels you have on the car. If you can get similar size wheels/tires, that was the ticket in car styling. Only a few cars ran cheater slicks at the drags (outlawed soon after introduction) and they did not have much traction for safe driving on the street. But, people ran them.

Original Moxley Cheater slicks 1959 1:22 AND 1:56
Bill Moxley cheater slick at Lions...our 1940 Willys Coupe in the background.

They were mounted on Chevy rims, so they could fit either the 58 Impala or the Willys . But, we got some Bruce slicks for both and sold the cheater slicks to a friend. The Willys only ran Bruce Slicks for better traction.
Bruce Slicks 1940 B/Gas Willys
The cheater slicks did not perform as well at the drags and on the street, didn't do well in the moist Long Beach misty/foggy evenings. If a race was happening or we wanted to be ready for some races, the Bruce slicks fit under the rear wheel opening and looked stock, once the Impala had all blackwalls with stock hubcaps.

Jnaki
But early on, with the whitewalls, this is what it looked like:
The stock car class allowed practice runs with exhaust cut out pipes open, real slicks, or cheater slicks. But, during eliminations, the exhaust was capped off and the stock tires were put back on the cars. Cheater slicks look like stock, but the ruling was, it did not come from the factory like that.

If we owned your Falcon, it would be all black walls and American Racing Co. 5 spokes. That was the ticket in 1963, So Cal.

 

Here in the South I don't remember seeing black walls and white walls used on a car, I do remember a '50 Merc with wide whites on the front and blackwalls on the rear but didn't realize it utill he had a flat tire and removed the fender skirt.

Large and small white walls were popular in my neck of the woods. HRP

 

I had mismatched portawalls. Why? Cause that's the best I could do at the time.

 

What @corncobcoupe said. IF you like it, done. Styles were all over the map back them. Some looked goofy as hell, some looked cool as hell, the rest were somewhere in between.

 

back in the day people ran what they had. with a few spare bucks, a lot of guys installed "porta-walls."

 

I remember seeing cars with black walls and white walls. There were also guys who ran different types of hubcaps front and rear. I don't know if it was a style, or more a matter of what they could afford.

 

Poverty wins everytime.

 

Hey D,
Here are two sample of what was around the local scene in So Cal area where we hung out as teens. They are not the exact cars, but similar in clean looks and style. This was several years before the hi-jack style started showing up. It looks like it could win at a car show or at the drags.

We have seen several at the local weekend Cars and Coffee events in So Cal. (Still, with that American Racing Equipment mag style wheels.) It is just a classic look from the times those wheels came out back then. There were whitewall versions of the same small Ford, but if a teen had it for his/her own car (and not a family car), then the switch was made to blackwalls.

Jnaki
Good luck in your research. Here is one drawing I did for my son's first car. He wanted a small car with style and room for 4. He looked at the wagon we saw, then graciously declined. He wanted a 2 door coupe similar to his friend's cars. If we had bought that wagon, and he outgrew it, it would be fine for our alternative family car for my wife or me.
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/friday-art-show-2-7-20.1183316/#post-13438672

 

If anything I think guys ran white walls in the front. , at the drags anyway, But check out this thread.
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...id-these-become-a-norm.1180156/#post-13423804

 

Cool Falcon but to much white already, run the black walls....

 

I remember back in early 60's a guy that told someone what he thought was wrong about their car usually took an ass kicking

 

Critics swet the damnedest things, I like the way your Falcon looks!

 

Red walls are PERIOD correct, but for only 5 days out of the month...

 

Nice-looking car, man I had a '64 Fairlane in the sixties (somewhat similar car), and lived very close to where you are. That said ... my advice, attempting to be "period correct to YOUR location".
Yours is an easy (and inexpensive) fix ... just turn those rears around to match the fronts.
By 1963 1/2 in the SFV, nobody that I can recall was ever running wide whites on that (or anything any later) era of car.

 

What he said, I would go for all black walls on that car.

 

White walls back in the day were mostly seen on steel wheels; wides through '60/'61 and then thin lines until white letters came along. Although whites were run on chrome or "mag" wheels it was far from common....at least in the midwest. Of course there were exceptions. There always are.

 

A real nice looking car. With the wheels that are on the car, Black Wall Tires on all fore wheels would look the best. That is my choice!

 

Thanks for all the comments, opinions and advice.... plus the history lessons from from jnaki are great. With that said, I was already shopping for new tires because my current mismatched cheaters with Korean radial fronts (west sider woman clutches pearls) have pretty much reached end of life (2008). I kinda agree with the comment above about too much white, so putting matching white walls up front is out of the question. So I'll switch over to all black tires all the way around and probably make myself happier at the same time. Wheels will have to stay due to budget, but I think I'll try out the Coker ProTrac Street Pro in a 235/60/15 out back if I can get them to fit.

If anyone has a better idea for a rear tire, please let me know.....

 

Been said. But I’ll reiterate.
During the mid to late 60’s no one ever put wide whites on a street/strip racer.
Rarely ever 1/2 whiten and half black.
Smaller whites all the way around were about the only thing I remember seeing. And not much of it.
Nice car.

 

Back in” the period “ there was no correct....

 

Wide whites are totally wrong for any 63 that isn't a gangsta lowrider. They were already outdated in 63 except on older cars. low slung custom or old school hot rod yes, mid 60's performance car no.

 

WRONG! Correct at that time was what the hot lick on new cars was. That would have been a 1=1/2 inch wide narrow whitewall.
I got laughed at more than once with my 51 Merc coupe in 63 because it still had the wide white 7.10 15 tires on the back that probably dated to the early 50's as weather checked as they were. They had good tread and I couldn't afford new tires so I ran them. Having the right width whitewall to be one of the cool guys was far more critical then than it is now.

 

I don't know shit about white walls, but you get lots of extra points for bringing a kid to shows!

 

Well... I did tell her they had icecream. She actually loves riding in the car while wearing her pink shooting ear pro. She slept like a baby on the way home, while I couldn't wait for a couple aspirin to help with the flowmaster drone.

 

I’m saying just back in the day you ran what you could afford and what was laying around or could get you running.

 

Turn em inside out for now

 

Dont know if it was correct but there was a period where I couldn’t afford stuff that matched.

 

you have to laugh at people who think you should conform to their tastes.show them the pink slip where it says its yours.another odd thing see what happens when you ask them are you paying for it DEAD silence follows.nice car by the way.in my day most held the buggy whip in their hand of choice