VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1933-1936 Tire size and supplier

What is the correct tire size for my 1933 Chevrolet 5 window master? Who supplies the tires etc. for this car?
Thanks Don

Hi Don,

Supplier unknown, but according to the 1934 Chevrolet Engineering Features book, available online at GM Heritage Center on page 54, shows a comparison chart for 1933-34 tires and 1933 it is 5.25X18.

Most of the tires I've seen in the past were marked 5.25/5.50X18.

Roger

Try Lucas Tire or Coker Tires

I purchased a set of 5 whitewall tires for my 36 Standard from a large tire distributor in Tenn. After 5 years of mostly heated and air conditioned garage storage, these tires have very discolored whitewalls which do not clean to any acceptable degree. This manufacturer has suggested that possibly "sanding" the whitewalls with wetpaper would clean them up. This does not work, as the issue is the "leaking" or bleed-through of the black tars is the problem. It is my thought that the quality of the rubber is in question. With hundreds and hundreds of dollars invested, and no manufacturer recourse, I will soon turn them around to have blackwalls. Possibly others have had good luck, but this was a large disappointing purchase for me. Just my personal experience.

Jim,

Try some lacquer thinner on a rag to remove the yellow. If it works, as it did for me, it's a short term fix and will require re-doing again later.

Jim, I think blackwalls are more period correct for the '36. If the buyer then could afford Whitewalls he would have purchased a Caddy.

That is not an isolated case as a friend had the same problem from the same Tenn. tire company and they suggested as you posted to wet sand them. While they did look better after sanding they in no way were what they should have been and soon began to discolor. It's a shame that they will not stand behind there product, but it's their reputation that will suffer.

I thought the masters were whitewalls and standards were blackwalls. I know a few people that had the same yellowing issue. I used rubberized undercoating on a yellow set I had but gave them away before I tried them on my car.

I use a product spray on rinse off called BleachWhite..Pep Boys-- OReillys..

Basically the 5.25/5.50X18 is the available tire size. This double size works fairly well, however if you have spares in the fender(s) and have a rear mounted spare with the metal cover, you will experience a situation where you have to let some air out in order to mount the tire(s).

[quote=blue38]

I use a product spray on rinse off called BleachWhite..Pep Boys-- OReillys.. [/quote
I have had great luck with BleachWhite, been using it for years, cleans up black walls good too! You can get it at Wallmart and many other stores.

Originally made by Westleys, Bleche-wite works excellent IF your tires are made correctly. If they were not correctly "cooked" when made no amount of Bleche-wite or any other product will correct the problem.

STEVE, HANG THEM OUT TO DRY AND SAY EXACTLY WHICH TIRE COMPANY YOUR TALKING ABOUT TO ***SAVE OTHERS THE SAME GRIEF *** @!!!


MIKE..........

I have previously vented my frustration in the Vendors and Suppliers forum which is where this discussion probably should be. Just search Coker Tire. While their products may be equal to others it was the customer service that disappointed me most.

I have heard the same from others as well about their disappointing customer service.

No , I think this discussion Steve should be out here for all to see .

The only thing that hurts these guys from shedding their responsibility is when their wallet doesn't have any money in it anymore.

They only hear and respond when they have to . I personally am fed up dealing with these types of clowns, yahoos, ding bats and pseudo businessmen , because unfortunately there is way to many of them who treat us like crap and laugh at us . Because they can get away with it.

My solution, you do not even want to hear about it and most likely would have me placed in the penalty box on this site.

mike............

Hi there,
I have read all the reply's and one thing occurred to me and had not been mentioned...........

has anyone thought about " Painting the white walls" , yes simply painting.
another thought is using white vynal spray paint, used for car interiors and other bits.
There are many technically cleaver products out in the market place these days.
Give them a go?

Peter

If I or anyone else is buying whitewall tires and paying good money for SUPPOSED QUALITY.

Do not think anybody wants to visit disneyland and MICKEY MOUSE those new tires with paint.

After you buy the tires in USA and adding a premium of 25 cents on the dollar exchange, throw in shipping and brokers fees, then get whacked again with auzzie VAT tax of 15% ?

That's a lot of bending over to pick up the soap, you just dropped a fair chunk of money on tires you want to or have to paint..........really !! I have some swamp land in south florida you might be interested in.

mike...............

I agree that for new tires and hard earned cash you should get what you paid for. Peters suggestion may have some merit if the tires are older and need a little (or a lot) of upgrading. If the swampland has a boat launch it just might be the place to be as it is snowing again here.

Has anyone read about how tires are made these days? That brown crap that is coming out of your tire is some kind of Ozone or UV protector from what I understand. You might read more about it on the web. From what I have heard, you can clean them with a product called "oil eater" which worked great for cleaning up my friends white walls that had the same problem. You might also look into getting some stuff call 303 I think, when I was trying to keep my tires clean from that brown crap I read some were that this 303 would help to keep them from letting this brown crap out. And yes the rubber is designed to let the brown crap out, from what I have read.

I think I started this discussion about Coker Tire......didn't mean to hijack the original poster's question! The Bleche White product does a little...not much. The problem is as one person stated the brown stuff oozing out of the cooked rubber....there were several products listed that I think I will try. Lacquer thinner does a little, but not enough. I agree that whitewalls were probably over the top for 1936, but darn, they look good! I will try to locate the products and try them out. I'll report back.

If you like whitewall tires and you pay good money for them from a "reputable" company, you should not have to search the world for a product to undo a problem that the tires should never have had in the first place.
I have had WW tires on my '35 Standard coupe for 40 years. I've gotten really tired of them and will go with black for my next set. I like the more period correct look of black. I will correct the color of my wheels during the tire change. It will radically change the appearance of my car and I am looking forward to that as well.
I especially don't like WW tires on a restored pickup truck but since I don't own all the pickup trucks and I'm not the one buying said tires, it is not my decision to make. I can enjoy looking at the truck and ignore the tires.
There was, at one time, a restored '36 1-1/2 ton Chevy in Northern Indiana with WW tires. That one was hard to take.

MIke

I use black wall tires on my 1936 car and truck. As I recall white wall tires first came out in the 1950's. I never recall having ever even seen a white wall tire before then. All "white" tires were on some very older cars. Like in the Teens. None were on the road back then.
I like staying original. Black wall tires are for me!

I also prefer the black wall look in prewar cars and trucks.

My plan for my '31 cabriolet is to keep it simple and not succumb to the common switch to wheel-welled fenders , twin horns and wide whites. I just might go with the one tail light, but more likely two for the sake of being safe.

As for the availability of whitewalls in prewar cars, here is a showroom photo from 1931 showing a car with whitewalls. Whitewalls are both outside and inside. Also notice the Body by Fisher on the desk and the drip pan under the brand new car.

Whitewall tires of that period were double whitewalls (both inside and out). That is the way that whitewall tires were made in back in that era. I read somewhere that single whitewall tires were not available until sometime around 1939 or thereabouts.