hoping rik or anthony or one of our other scholars might chime in on this one... just kinda curious as to the relative cut-off and start up eras for the different width whites... i know that for instance Sam's merc had the very wide whites on it. so thats roughly 49-50 reading kustomland, i get the impression that by around 1957 alot of the guys had gone to the 2 1/4 white. i know watson's 57 eldo had thin whites. so that puts us around 1961. so please, lets discuss whitewall tires. and era specific applications. i'm not really talking about just the era the car was manufactured, but the year it was kustomized. for instance, the hirohata merc had wide whites when built in 52(?) but later pictures of the car show it with what appear to be 2 1/4's on it. so what about a similar merc built in say 1958? was it a matter of what was available at the time, trend, or choice? had they stopped making the 3+" by a certain year? do we have any later examples of period built customs using the real wide whites? in my understanding a guy in 1959 was not building a 1954 style kustom. they were still trending forward as far as i can tell. does any of this make any sense?
This has been covered several times here on this forum, but it seems most on the HAMB ignore it. I'll give you just one example of the misuse....mags and widewhites. Mags were a mid-sixties and up deal. Wide whites were a 1960 and earlier deal. They don't go together. Yes, you will see a photo here and there to disprove it, but it simply was not what guys were doing outside the few guys who apparently did not get the memo. Guys were moving FORWARD, NOT backward. If you added mag wheels, you ditched the www's. If you had a car (any car) with widewhites and mags in 1967, you were being laughed at. Yeah...I know there are guys with www's on mags getting accolades on here, but they don't belong together....that is if you are looking to actually be TRADITIONAL.
I do know that by late '61 or early '62, all you see on featured cars are pinner narrow whites. Much better in my humble opinion....
LOL CLRusso...you are correct. In 1965/'66 I owned a '64 Impala...I bought some brand new Keystone 5 spoke mags for it...the narrow whitewalls on the car were relagated to the shed in favor of the more drag race look of blackwalls against the 5-spokes...in fact, I actually had to raise the car two inches to complete the look...the muscle car era was born and everyone wanted to look "drag-race." Whitewalls, of any width, on 5-spokes of any brand was a definite NO-NO...people would point and snicker at the car...the in-crowd shunned you...no one would associate with you at the drive-in hangout...it was that serious...that was almost akin to putting on 5-spokes and running fender skirts and mud-flaps ...it was uuuugggg-llllyyyyy...!!!! R-
I've gleaned from my research that wide whites went out of style in the late 50's. The cool thing about this forum and Rik's photo archive is you can watch the evolution of styles, from one year to the next. A lot of the big wide white stuff of the early 50's is the end of that tire scene, but it started in the 40's.
Photo archives are a wonderful resource, as you've stated....but can also be somewhat inaccurate.... for every photo in an old car magazine that was published, there were hundreds of cars being driven on the streets that weren't photographed. If you want accuracy, pay attention to the older gents on here who were there and actually saw it and lived it...in other words: Listen to the old farts on here, grasshopper...
The tires on customs usually reflected what was current on new cars. When the pin walls came out on new '61s (?) all the magazine car had them.
Will do sir. I might get run out of the village for the next comment, but here goes. So I see wide whites paired up with chrome reverse. It's a cool look, but not really era correct right? Chrome reverse wheels became popular after wide whites were in decline right? I'm not a ultra trad car guy by any means. My car is inspired by 50-55 era customs but is by no means every going to be a completely faithful build.
all I know for certain is that in 2011 wide whites are way overused by people trying to be cool like all the other guys. I think I'll put some wide whites on my S-10.
i think that a 2 1/4" WWW on a chrome wheel is trad for a couple of years (i'm guessing 59-62, but not the 3+". ed roth's outlaw had the treatment in '59 alexander bros. adonis '60/61 see mark moriarity's 55 built in '61 roth's tweedy pie had the treatment in '62 there's a good post by atwater mike in the chrome reverse pic thread that places them at '55 with the popularity surging in '57 (i know roth's cars are t bucket's for the most part, but it does show that it was being done)
So era correct, Aren`t some of the best builders in the country known for think`in outside the box. What the hell was I thinkin puttin wide whites on my car 15 years ago. I should of put 14 inch Dayton wires on it since it has Hydraulics. Silly me. I think I will leave them on to piss the people off who hate them because they are not era correct and to confuse the newbee`s. And yes I did have white walls on my S-10 when I was younger. But to be era correct, I should of put Boyd wheels on it with Pink Graphics. NOT.
Well buddy....this IS a "traditional" site. Era correct is kind of what goes on here. The original poster asked a somewhat simple question. He was answered honestlly, and accurately. Nobody gives a flyin' fuck what you roll on. If the truth hurts, maybe you can take some Midol or something...
Just responding to this guy. When I built those two cars, That would of been era correct build style. Thats why I built them in a tradional way to suit my tastes.
Era correct is one thing, but chances are if you bought new tires in 1960, they'd still be on the car a few years later if it was a car you drove to High School or work everyday.
I posted a thread about this a couple of years ago and got flamed by a bunch of self styled 'experts', most of whom were not even born at the time in question but they were keen as hell to tell me how it was. The fact that I was around at the time and my memory is still more or less intact didn't seem to deter these goons from telling me I was wrong. So thank you for clearing that misconception up. And yes I hate the look of wide whites and 'mags'. To me, along with freakin airbags, it is a clear sign of someone who does not get it. Wide whites correctly go with steelies or wires period.
To add my 2 cents, re-creating a period correct look, and putting together something you like are two totally different things. You certainly can have white walls on mags, but don't tell everyone how era correct it is. And as mentioned, there are/were exceptions to the rule, but that does not disprove the trend at the time. So, Altered, what are you working on??
bravo bad shifter! working on a 54 ford customline 2 dr sedan mild custom. nosed, decked, shaved doors, frenched head and tail lights, lakes pipes. lowered well with a slight rake. i'm thinking chrome wheels with goodyear super cushion 2 1/4" WWW.
I've never cared for those 3"+, whites,that look like they are touching the road. I like 3" MAX!!! Mine has 2 1/2",whites. I think Jeffsled's are 3".
i haven't decided on skirts. the wheel well opening is already pretty shallow. if we do go with chromies, then definitely not, if we go with caps then maybe.
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