My grandpa was telling me about when he was a kid, instead of whitewall tires there was a white ring that got pinched between the tire and rim of the wheel and gave a false whitewall? I think he called them falsies? any ideas and if they still make these would be appreciated. thanks
Goggle "Port-A-Walls". Some swear by them. Some swear at them. Personally, if, repeat IF, installed correctly they look just fine. And, after all, that's what white walls do...LOOK fine (on some cars).
They are called "Port-A-Walls" and you can get them from a few places. Lucas Classic Tires comes to mind. The previous owner put them on my ol' Buick but ditched them as soon as I could. They just look hokie to me...
They were horrible. If you touched a curb they ripped and even if you didn't they would sometimes disintegrate as you were driving down the road. It was also hard to get them evenly placed around the wheel so you sometimes had to keep breaking the bead and redoing them. That is one part about nostalgia I am happy to forget. Don
"Falsies" are pads added to a bra to make boobs look bigger...lol. The add-on whitewalls were called Port-A-Walls. Yes, they were pinched between the lip of the wheel and tire. They had a tendency to curl up so they wouldn't stay nice and flat against the tire. I think they're still available.
They may not be the best thing in the world, but if you're on a budget like most of us they will get you by. I ran some on my VW. They actually didn't look bad. They lasted about 2 years here in the desert before they started looking bad. http://www.mooneyesusa.com/shop/product.php?cPath=188_238&products_id=1870
I pulled it off a few years ago. A Makita and a small wire wheel brush. It helped to touch them up with a brush and some Rustoleum Plastic Paint.
the spare in my t-bird was a badly blown old biased ply it had a wide whitewall on one side and a narrow whitewall on the other i thought that was wierd then i got to looking at it close and the narrow white was a portawall so i removed the wasted tire from the rim and kept the portawall and hung it in the garage for a conversation piece and garage art
I ran "port-o-walls" on my bird for about a year and a half. I got them from mooneyes for about $15 a piece. they look pretty good, too....But they don't last long at all. My falcon is my daily driver. In the time I had the port-o-walls, I had to replace them one at a time (as they cracked around the lip of the rim...or flew off on the highway). I ended up buying a total of 8 of them, before I ditched them, altogether. My advice to you would be to just save up for a set of Coker whitewall radials. That's what I did. Posted from the TJJ App for iPhone & iPad
Don't run them with radials, they flex altogether differently, they will rub until they cut the sidewalks out of the radial or the radial will cut them off every 100 or so miles, every time I headed for a leads led spectacular show I'd get there with two or three left... They sucked.
Real white walls on my bike but Portawalls on my trailer. I don't think I'd run portawalls on my car but on a trailer with bias plys that only gets used a couple times of year they work great. Doc
Port-a-walls worked a lot better on bias ply tires, that is what they were designed for. The side of a radial flexs too much. I went the buffed whitewalls also. I bought Sears Guardsman Plus tires with a 5/8" whitewall and then buffed them to a 1 1/4" whitewall. I left the outside edge alone for a nice crisp edge and buffed toward the center, untill I ran out of white.
During the Big War You could.nt get tires.........let alone whitewalls ! I remember my Dad spending an entire Sat. Afternoon, Painting, Yes Painting whitewalls on His Ceedan.......Special ruberized paint, I'm pretty sure. Quote: There was A Time, I could'nt do anything wrong. Now, there's a TIME, I can't do anything right. Smokey
i run port-a-walls on my falcon. been on the car for almost 3 years. one is now starting to spilt but still on.it depends on how you treat them they can last.
They also have a white wall paint that works awesome if you take your time and follow the directions on applying the stuff a lot of builders use it to do really wide whites as long as you keep them clean they look nice or apply more paint or touch them up with a white paint marker you can by the stuff on eBay for like $50
There was a guy at Billetproof last year and he had one of those grinding machines that turns blackwalls into whitewalls. He was doing a couple of cars and they came out pretty good. I hadn't seen anyone do that since 1964 when I worked at a Ford Dealership. Every week a guy would come in with one of those and do all the used cars on the lot. The dealer could get more money for a car and it would sell faster if it had whitewalls on it and that was the cheap way to do it. Don
Lots of guys that hate them and have no emotional attachment to them. I just remembered that I bought porta walls, baby moons and beauty rings before I got my first car registered. I had to wait for proof of insurance. Most hotrodders from my generation were not affluent like today. Mine were the thin strip white wall type WWWs were going out of style. I have some in the cabinet as we speak. Talk about early hot rod dress up parts and leave out porta walls is an injustice. The guys that poo poo them were never there. I was working a union high paying job at the time making 2.30 an hour. I was shitting in the tall cotton. I still remember looking out the dining room window at my 58 Plymouth in the back yard with the porta walls waiting for the tags to come in the mail. They have a special place in my heart. I put them on my sport coupe because they remind me of the old days. I guess you had to be there. And besides WWWs are just too expensive. Funny how guys go gaga over Cal Custom valve covers which don't make the car a slit second faster and then criticize porta walls. I have a stainless steel polished cover on my generator too. A period dress up piece.
I installed hundreds of them in the sixties. Here's how and they look great long as you don't curb them. Break only top bead-place porta wall between tire and rim- using NO lubricant slowly inflate tire while using a mallet wrapped with cloth etc so as not to scuff porta wall to pound on porta wall next to the rim. Circle the wheel repeatedly with the mallet until desired pressure is attained. This will seat it flush and it won't loose the look unless you curb it! If it doesn't work for you, you did it wrong. No lubricant is key.
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