Thinking of buying a new set of 5.50x17 whitewalls. Either Lester or Firestone. Does anyone have any preferences? Thought I read some where that the Lesters go yellow and are hard to keep white. Does any one have experience with them?

I would prefer the Firestones because the white walls stay white and they run a little larger in the 5.50X17 size.

Thanks Gene .I will take your advice.

Not so fast, RD,

While Gene may be right on in his opinion, and the durability of the whiteness is surly a big concern but it is not the only one.

Question: Who is the manufacturer of the Firestones?

I have a new set of BFGs on the grey 41 and it took enough lead weights to balance them that some flat ones had to be pasted to the flat part of the rim.

Get some assurance, that if you put the car on the road, that the tires will be balanced enough to stay out of the ditches or not shake you to death.

I have a set of Lester's on the old 50 Chevrolet Convertible and I haven't noticed any yellowing greater than any other tire. They have been on a long, long time and are rotten now.

I'm told that the Diamond Backs are excellent in keeping white with very little yellowing over time.

Just saying,

Charlie

Even the tire guys are lazy these days. It was common years ago that if you found a wheel/tire combo that needed a lot of weight you'd experiment with moving the tire to a different position on the rim and try again. Or try that tire on another rim instead to get the worst tire on the best rim. It required some thinking and actually caring about what you were doing.

The rim is often out of balance as well as the tire and if both heavy spots line up you need a lot of weight.

I used that trick when mounting and balancing the tires on my '37. I was pleased with how well it reduced the amount of weight needed.

Note that I also just bubble balanced mine. That was all they used for many years so I decided to give it a try. Given the lower speeds we drive these cars I figured it was not worth the cost to dynamically balance them. I have been pleased with the results in the 2400 miles I have driven the car.

I have Firestone whitewalls I bought from Coker a few years ago. The whitewalls still look pretty good. I clean them with the Wesley Bleche-Wite (yes that is the way it is spelled on the container). My assessment is that the durability of the whitewall depends on who was actually making the tire as well as the materials and process they used at that time. I really wonder how many real manufacturers vs suppliers there are for the tires we buy. It would not surprise me if some of the production was off-shore

The one issue I have is that the 6.00-16 whitewall will not fit into the spare tire storage space under the decking in the trunk. It is too thick. The best I can determine is that the whitewall is a layer they add to the black-wall tire during the molding process.

From what I can make out, the only 5.50x17 whitewalls available are the two brands I mentioned. The Firestones are $28 dearer than the Lesters and I wonder if that is reflected in the quality?

I would say yeas. I had the Firestones on my 1934. The member I sold the car to over 10 years ago replaced the Firestones with Lesters. They get yellow, don't look as good and look skimpy. I would not hesitate to spend the extra mone for the Firestones. Mine were about 20 years old when he replaced them and they still looked better than the OTHER brand.

Thanks Gene. I am going with the Firestones.

Hi Rd, I have whitewall Firestones made in New Zealand on my '36. They still need occasional cleaning.I only balance to 80% on the balance machine. That places the heaviest weights on the rim and avoids damage to the paint removing and adding weights whilst aiming for 100% balance. I powder coated my rims "Namib Sand colour" something of a beige colour and still these guys will damage the paint removing and installing conventional clip on weights.

Bubble balancing is all that is needed with the narrow wheels. With the use of wider wheels of late dynamic balancing has become a necessity.
Tony

I have used black wall Firestones in the past and have found them to quite good. I only wish that the Goodyear Diamond treaders were available in 17" as I think the Firestone tread pattern is a bit dreary. Those Kiwi Firestones must have some age on them by now but they were an excellent wearing tyre,

The GoodYear Diamond thread were never used on Chevrolets in the 1930's and look out of place on a Chevrolet. The Firestone in actually a 1940 and up Firestone tread desigh but look OK and do wear well.

Would love to find a set of any brand tire 175x70R13 in blackwall for my '60 Corvair. Have found a brand or two but would have to turn the whitewall to the inside. Coker only makes WWW. Anyone shed any light on this? Ed Bittman VCCA#47508 Dade City,Fl

I am in the process of mounting new Firestones on my '35 Standard. I bought only 4. I was sure the new ones would not fit inside my metal cover for the spare. I was right. My old tires from the 70s, Garford, Allstate, etc were too fat but not too large (O.D.). I will remount my old spare and leave it under inflated so the cover will fit.
On the plus side, my new, taller, tires should get me down the road a little faster.

Mike

I am also only buying four Firestones plus one Excelsior 4.75/5.00 for the spare. The Excelsior will fit inside the cover fully inflated. I did this on one of my other car. It is a little loose but I added some high density foam to take up the space. A little like having a space saving spare.

Hi Ed,

Try the Tire Rack for tires for your Corvair. They show a 175/70-R13 General Altimax RT43 as one of the choices in that size. Yes, it is a black wall. I just put s set of those in the 195/60-14 size on my Miata and really like them. Smooth ride, low noise, anmd good handling for every day driving.

Tire Rack

A 1.75 is too narrow for a Corvair. I had 2.05 X 70 on mine and that width was just adquate. They used a 6.50 bias and had 5 1/2" rims

I just thought I would attach this advert from July 1931 showing what we call Goodyear diamond tread pattern on a 1931 Chevrolet.

That is correct. 1931 was the last year Chevrolet used Goodyears. After that they used Goodrich and US Royal.

When I purchased our '31 Coupe it still had a US Royal spare tire with a Schrader metal valve stem in it. Just a point as to how original the car was.

Was the metal valve stem straight or curved and was it centered in the rim or offset? I have the straight center mounted valve stems on my 32 and they are a pain to check or add air.

The stems are straight and in the center of the rim. I still have one that has never been used.

Because this thread is still active I want to update an earlier statement I made.

I was having trouble getting the 6.00 -16 whitewall to fit in the storage area on my '37 Master coupe. The key word is "was".

Thanks to some encouragement from Tim I spent some time really looking at the situation. What I determined was that the white-wall Firestone tire was only about 9/32" wider than the black-wall Uniroyal that did fit. That sure did not seem like enough to cause a problem.

The key was that the wider sidewall profile of the white wall tire extends further towards the tread. This wider profile was hitting the stop bracket that is fastened to the bottom of the trunk floor. This prevented the tire from sliding forward far enough allow the hold-down bracket to align with the hole for the hold-down bolt.

The interesting part is that an easy fix already existed. There are 2 sets of mounting holes drilled in the trunk floor to change the position of the stop bracket. All I did was move the bracket forward to the next set of holes and everything fits great.

Rusty
That was an easy fix. Sometimes you need to look outside the box and the solution jumps up and punches you in the nose, been there done that.
Tony

Hi Tony,

I'm waiting for Gene to tell us why there are 2 sets of holes. My guess he will find the information in some bulletin or engineering record.

My guess is one set is for 6.00X16 tires and one set for optional 5.50X18" wheels/tires.