Opinions on White Walls

[Kodachrome Wolf]

It has come time to finish changing out my other pair of worn tires. I now have a full set of matching tires, all of which have white walls. On top of that, I have properly repainted my steelies with black gloss enamel paint. I don't want to scratch them up the way I did with the trim rings, so I'll likely just keep the dog dishes on without them. However, it looks a little funny with the white stripe and small dog dish. It looked fine with the body colored wheels, now not so much. I also got some old CVPI 15" full size hubcaps, and they look a little odd with the white walls too.

So I'm wondering, should I get my new tires mounted with white walls in and have the other two turned inside or get the new tires with white walls out and leave the other two alone?

[gadget73]

Not sure there are any new tires made with white walls that are worth a damn. I don't really care for them myself.

[Mainemantom]

Put the tires on with the whites facing in. Consult with a tire person regarding tire placement when you remount the older tires. With radial tires, it matters how they wear. You don't want them coming apart on a hot day on the interstate.

[Kodachrome Wolf]

Put the tires on with the whites facing in. Consult with a tire person regarding tire placement when you remount the older tires. With radial tires, it matters how they wear. You don't want them coming apart on a hot day on the interstate.

The "older" tires have only been on the car about a month at this point and probably have about 500 miles on them. I just spread out getting a full set by taking care of the worst first and then finishing off the other two. All the tires are Firestone Precision Touring ones.

[mcninetyone]

Body colored wheels, black wall tires, dog dishes would be my #1 choice
Black wheels, black wall tires, dog dishes would be my #2 choice.

[Kodachrome Wolf]

It seems like the consensus is black walls. These cars are finicky as to whether or not a white wall should be used. Some hubcap or rim combos with white walls work really well on these cars, while others don't. A turbine always looks nice wrapped in one to me but a HPP would look funny, plus I don't like those pencil thin lines they call "white walls" on the 16" rims. Anyhow, the gig is up since the original style I had going with the steelies has gone away. I'm trying to keep these steelies a bit more ambiguous for their application since they may swap cars further down the road. That's another story, however.

Body colored wheels, black wall tires, dog dishes would be my #1 choice
Black wheels, black wall tires, dog dishes would be my #2 choice.

Once upon a time, I had the 1# choice, except it's what sparked the continued use of the white wall tire on my car. I originally had the 12 spoke aluminum wheels on my car with white wall, but I don't like that style rim with or without the white wall. Ironically, they're on the car right now while the others are off for paint.

2-1/2 Years ago:


For the record, I should have never listened to my friend and got those trim rings. They tore up the lip finish and essentially required me to run those or a full size cap because of the unsightly chipping/scratching.

[DerekTheGreat]

My vote is blackwalls. Kick your friend in the balls about those trim rings lol. I went to put hubcaps on my shiny freshly painted black wheels for the Fury and saw what would happen so I said nope.

[jaywish]

I think I would go with the white walls.

[tjc78]

Unless an aero or whale has a vinyl or cloth top my vote is blackwalls. My 04 has the cloth top and I'm getting close to needing tires. The selection with the pin stripe WW (which I have now) is practically zero. I guess I'll end up with blackwalls next time.

[johnunit]

as others have said, pretty much any commonly available tire with a whitewall these days sucks. No exceptions short of going Coker/Diamondback.

I think your body-coloured steelies look good with whitewalls, but black steelies should probably be blackwall.


So to answer in full: If you're buying new tires, and going black steelies, buy a good tire that doesn't have whitewalls and have the current whitewall tire flipped white in.

Personally, unless you've been driving it really hard or something, I would not hesitate to flip the tire in terms of tire wear. If it's worn in a way that'll be noisy or otherwise objectionable if flipped, your car has other issues. We would do that at our shop without any worries.

[knucklehead0202]

Yup, with the body-coloured wheels I really dig the whitewalls, but black wheels should have the blackwall. It also frees you up for other tire choices down the road.

[sxcpotatoes]

Again, you can paint your own white walls onto any tires if you so desire. I mean I don't know if they sell smoothie tires without brand names on them or somesuch. I saw a little '98 sonoma with a half-done job, like the OLD fat-4" white wall where most of the sidewall was white.

[DerekTheGreat]

IMO the car is just too "roundy" and new car like for white walls. Those look best on cars from the era of chrome bumpers & glass headlights.

[87Topaz]

This is an excellent question as Bobby will be needing WW's on his '87 GM, down the road. They are 15's unless he changes the rims.

[Kodachrome Wolf]

This is an excellent question as Bobby will be needing WW's on his '87 GM, down the road. They are 15's unless he changes the rims.

The tires I got were Firestone Precision Touring tires. They have the 1" white wall. You can order those exclusively online. If you go to a tire store that offers the Firestone line, they probably have Affinity Touring, which have almost the same tread pattern, and seems to only be offered at a retail store. They cost about the same.

Other manufacturers that have white wall options that come to mind are Cooper Trendsetters and Hankook Optimos.