Whitewall widths also evolved, from 4-3/4 inches on the famous Firestone Balloon tire in the 1930s to eventually stepping down in size. As a rule of thumb, cars produced before 1954 had 3-inch and larger whitewalls, while 1954 through 1956 generally used a 2-1/2 to 2-11/16-inch whitewall. Another downsizing happened in 1957, as most American car manufacturers transitioned from 15-inch wheels to 14-inch wheels, and this resulted in a range of 2-1/4 to 2-1/2 inch whitewalls. This is especially important to understand when selecting tires from the Coker catalog, because there are often multiple whitewall width options on popular bias ply sizes like 670-15 and 710-15. In 1962, a major transition happened, as wide whitewalls were phased out of most regular car options, being replaced with one-inch whitewalls. These too, would eventually shrink to 7/8-inch, 3/4-inch, 5/8-inch and so on, until the whitewall all but disappeared from mainstream passenger cars, with the exception of luxury sedans. As tire manufacturers discontinued wide whitewall tires in the 1960s, the molds were often sold to foreign manufacturers, or simply placed in storage. Enter Coker Tire Company, a Chattanooga, Tennessee, based tire shop that had a side business in the antique car hobby. Coker Tire sought out those discontinued molds, hoping they could someday put them back into production. What Coker Tire didn’t realize was that these efforts would eventually create an industry all its own and reach customers in many segments of the automotive world. During the 1970s and 1980s, Coker Tire originally catered to the bone stock restoration crowd, especially among the pre-World War II generation of cars. The tire market changed drastically when Coker Tire introduced the world’s first wide whitewall radial tire in 1994, as it was a turning point for classic cars, Hot Rods and customs. This was a tire that offered the old school sidewall with modern radial construction, and it really put Coker on the map. The tire featured a true whitewall radial construction, which required a revised mold and several additional steps in the tire building process, compared to regular blackwall passenger car tires. The Coker Classic wide whitewall radial is still a favorite in the collector car hobby, with fitments for classic cars, Hot Rods, customs and even classic trucks. IMITATION WHITEWALLS In the early days of car customizing, enthusiasts had a couple of choices for imitation whitewall tires. You could paint the sidewalls white if you were a high school kid on a paper route budget. If you had a couple more dollars to spend, you could buy a set of portawalls, which are white rubber inserts that rest between the rim and the tire bead. Portawalls give the appearance of a MECUM.COM // 103 whitewall tire from a distance, but you can typically see that it was not actually part of the tire at close inspection. Tire customizing has been around for a long time, and it still occurs in the specialty tire market, although it is not something we would advise. Modern day tire customizers are a little more sophisticated, but the companies that offer imitation whitewalls still don’t have the tried and true construction that stands the test of time. Their method involves taking an existing blackwall tire and adding a whitewall to it by grinding the sidewall down and bonding a strip of white rubber to the tire. The major hazards with any tire modification include unnecessary and extraordinary heat cycles, as well as reduced material thickness. If you have a sidewall puncture, even on your daily driver, the tire is typically deemed unfixable, so the idea of grinding on the sidewall to apply an imitation whitewall isn’t exactly confidence inspiring. It’s easy to see why various types of imitation whitewalls have come and gone. None of the methods are comparable to manufacturing a tire with a whitewall from day one. When it comes to safety, durability and good looks, it’s hard to argue with the advantages and long-standing heritage of a real whitewall tire. Coker Tire’s process is labor-intensive, and it’s not quite as automated as one might think. Handcrafted, genuine whitewall tires might cost a few bucks more than your average tire, but true whitewalls are anything but average tires.
