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Making stock-looking whitewalls from white lettering tires

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    Making stock-looking whitewalls from white lettering tires

    Had some interest when I mentioned I was doing this in another thread. Here's the shoddily made how-to video with a before and after near the end. This was done with 295/50/15 Mickey Thompson Sportsman ST tires. I see no reason this couldn't be done with any white lettering tire, though.

    Yes, people have ground down the sidewall to make whitewalls before. However, I'm not aware of anyone doing it in a controlled way to create narrow whitewalls. Most hotrodders just grind the whole sidewall, leaving a 3+ inch whitewall like you saw in the 40s and 50s. There are also companies like Coker and Diamondback that make whitewall tires, but sizing is very limited, and most of the larger sizes are only available as the ancient, mediocre BF Goodrich Radial T/A. They also cost around 100 more than normal looking tires.

    This is time consuming, but it opens up a HUGE number of options for those of us looking to retain the factory whitewall look while upgrading performance. I'll type up a more formal how-to tonight if there is interest.

    Oh and as for safety concerns, I took off maybe 1 3rd of the total depth of white rubber from the sidewall, even in the deep outer grooves. I'll find out 100% for sure when they're on the car, but none of the fellow techs at my shop are worried about the sidewall being compromised.


    85 4 door 351 Civi Crown Victoria - Summer daily driver, sleeper in the making, and wildly inappropriate autocross machine
    160KMs 600cfm holley, shorty headers, 2.5" catted exhaust, 255/295 tires, cop shocks, cop swaybars, underdrive pulley, 2.73L gears.
    waiting for install: 3.27's, Poly bushings, boxed rear arms, 2500 stall converter, ported e7's, etc

    06 Mazda 3 hatch 2.3L 5AT (winter beater that cost more than my summer car)

    #2
    Just a ?.
    Had you considered the actual disk brake cutting head from the brake lathe?
    I don't know how it would work compared to the scrubby pad.

    It has been at least 35 years since I ran a brake lathe. Can you just use the inner cutter?
    03 Marauder DPB, HS, 6disk, Organizer Mods> LED's in & Out, M&Z rear control arms, Oil deflector, U-Haul Trans Pan, Blue Fuzzy Dice
    02 SL500 Silver Arrow
    08 TC Signature Limited, HID's Mods>235/55-17 Z rated BFG G-Force Comp-2 A/S Plus, Addco 1" rear Sway, Posi Carrier, Compustar Remote Start, floor liners, trunk organizer, Two part Sun Visors, B&M Trans drain Plug, Winter=05 Mustang GT rims, Nokian Hakkapeliitta R-2 235/55-17
    12 Escape Limited V6 AWD, 225/65R17 Vredestein Quatrac Pro, Winter 235/70-16 Conti Viking Contact7 Mods>Beamtech LED headlight bulbs, Husky floor liners

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      #3
      Went a hell of a lot better than I expected!
      ~David~

      My 1987 Crown Victoria Coupe: The Brown Blob
      My 2004 Mercedes Benz E320:The Benz

      Originally posted by ootdega
      My life is a long series of "nevermind" and "I guess not."

      Originally posted by DerekTheGreat
      But, that's just coming from me, this site's biggest pessimist. Best of luck

      Originally posted by gadget73
      my car starts and it has AC. Yours doesn't start and it has no AC. Seems obvious to me.




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        #4
        Very impressive! Turned out pretty clean!


        sigpic
        - 2004 Ford Thunderbird - 2006 Ford F150 XLT - 2018 Ford Explorer Limited - 1958 Mercury Medalist

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          #5
          Will view the video at work, but I would not be concerned about it at all, the white wall/letter is just a strip of added white rubber to get the effect. And, the classic car crowd has been grinding tires for years to get as wide a white as possible before coker was a bigger player in the classic tire field.

          Alex.

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            #6
            That actually came out really good.
            2020 F250 - 7.3 4x4 CCSB STX 3.55's - BAKFlip MX4
            2005 Grand Marquis GS - Marauder sway bars, Marauder exhaust, KYB's
            2003 Marauder - Trilogy # 8, JLT, kooks, 2.5" exhaust, 4.10's/31 spline, widened rear's, metco's, addco's, ridetech's 415hp/381tq
            1987 Colony Park - 03+ frame swap, blown Gen II Coyote, 6R80, ridetechs, stainless works, absolute money pit. WIP

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              #7
              Originally posted by jaywish View Post
              Just a ?.
              Had you considered the actual disk brake cutting head from the brake lathe?
              I don't know how it would work compared to the scrubby pad.

              It has been at least 35 years since I ran a brake lathe. Can you just use the inner cutter?
              There may be some way to do that, though I suspect you'd have issues with cutting too deep in the parts of the tire that stick out more. Keep in mind that a tire can easily be out of round more than the thickness of the sidewall. I'm also not sure I could have controlled the width and angle of the cut well enough. It's possible, but this machine is barely touched anymore and I've never worked with that particular type so I wasn't willing to experiment with my own tires and safety.

              85 4 door 351 Civi Crown Victoria - Summer daily driver, sleeper in the making, and wildly inappropriate autocross machine
              160KMs 600cfm holley, shorty headers, 2.5" catted exhaust, 255/295 tires, cop shocks, cop swaybars, underdrive pulley, 2.73L gears.
              waiting for install: 3.27's, Poly bushings, boxed rear arms, 2500 stall converter, ported e7's, etc

              06 Mazda 3 hatch 2.3L 5AT (winter beater that cost more than my summer car)

              Comment


                #8
                Originally posted by GM_Guy View Post
                Will view the video at work, but I would not be concerned about it at all, the white wall/letter is just a strip of added white rubber to get the effect. And, the classic car crowd has been grinding tires for years to get as wide a white as possible before coker was a bigger player in the classic tire field.

                Alex.
                Yep, that's the original inspiration. I saw videos of people doing the wide whites, where they'd basically grind the whole sidewall and let the white end wherever it ended. This generally left a ragged edge to the white, and something much wider than I'd run on a panther. So I thought about why these people didn't do something to not go all the way to the edge of the white, so that they could get a nicer finish. From there, the logical end point was that you could choose your whitewall width from just barely enough to erase the old lettering to a wide white with a crisp edge.

                85 4 door 351 Civi Crown Victoria - Summer daily driver, sleeper in the making, and wildly inappropriate autocross machine
                160KMs 600cfm holley, shorty headers, 2.5" catted exhaust, 255/295 tires, cop shocks, cop swaybars, underdrive pulley, 2.73L gears.
                waiting for install: 3.27's, Poly bushings, boxed rear arms, 2500 stall converter, ported e7's, etc

                06 Mazda 3 hatch 2.3L 5AT (winter beater that cost more than my summer car)

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                  #9
                  Its a great sleeper mod.

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                    #10
                    If I still had the wire rims on the car, I would want a set of those!!!
                    sigpic
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                    13 F-150 XLT 6.2 l
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                      #11
                      Originally posted by lincolnlarry View Post
                      If I still had the wire rims on the car, I would want a set of those!!!
                      I like how you think. The exact setup you see there will have wire wheel covers put over it.

                      85 4 door 351 Civi Crown Victoria - Summer daily driver, sleeper in the making, and wildly inappropriate autocross machine
                      160KMs 600cfm holley, shorty headers, 2.5" catted exhaust, 255/295 tires, cop shocks, cop swaybars, underdrive pulley, 2.73L gears.
                      waiting for install: 3.27's, Poly bushings, boxed rear arms, 2500 stall converter, ported e7's, etc

                      06 Mazda 3 hatch 2.3L 5AT (winter beater that cost more than my summer car)

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Still got WW's on my '87 GM. Finding some good ones when these wear out will be fun!


                        "Hope and dignity are two things NO ONE can take away from you - you have to relinquish them on your own" Miamibob

                        "NEVER trade your passion for glory"!! Sal "the Bard" (Dear Old Dad!)

                        "Cars are for driving - PERIOD! I DON'T TEXT, TWEET OR TWERK!!!!"

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                          #13
                          I have always wondered about this. I have yet to have the balls to do this though lol.

                          1981 Mercury Marquis Brougham 2-Door 302/ 5-speed -special blend (GMGT)
                          1987 Lincoln Mark VII 5-speed (Errand runner)
                          1989 Mercury Grand Marquis (Base Runner)
                          2007 Lincoln Town Car Signature Limited (Hustlyn)
                          2011 Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor (Down with O.P.P)

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                            #14
                            Nice job on the whitewalls! That will look very cool with the wire hubcaps.

                            Originally posted by miamibob View Post
                            Still got WW's on my '87 GM. Finding some good ones when these wear out will be fun!
                            The seller discounttiredirect on eBay is always listing a set of 4 Hankook 225/75/15 WW's for $364 including shipping....sometimes they are on sale for $343. Been eyeing these for awhile for my Towncar.

                            I've seen these Hankooks on a few cars last year at car shows...nice looking tire.
                            Last edited by Louis; 02-26-2014, 01:19 AM.

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                              #15
                              I never knew that people have been doing this. Turned out good!


                              '93 T-bird
                              '03 Silverado ECSB

                              Missed:
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