This day in automotive history

[petehoovie]

4/6/1934: Ford introduces whitewall tires as an $11.25 option on all its new cars.

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Was this $11.25 Per tire???

Ford would have had to pay me to degrade my car with this option....

[51 MERC-CT]

Was the same year that Ford went to enamel paint to replace hand rubbed lacquer.
Considering that the whole car sold in the 5-$600 range $11.25 probably for the whole set.
In the '34 time period a set of blackwalls were $5-$10.

[DavidG]

With respect, WSW tires were a RPO (regular production option) back in the 1932 model year.

[petehoovie]

Originally Posted by DavidG

With respect, WSW tires were a RPO (regular production option) back in the 1932 model year.

1934 - according to Hemmings Motor Daily Newsletter 04/06/2018 > https://www.hemmings.com/newsletter/

Who to believe??? With respect, maybe you should contact Hemmings....

[Seth Swoboda]

I have no skin in the game but I'd believe the BFRC (Benson Ford Research Center) before any other source. It doesn't really matter here anyway and I enjoyed the conversation and also the photograph David posted. Thanks for posting Pete as I would have not other wise given it any thought.

[TagMan]

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Wait a minute ! What about all the people that scoff at WWW tires and call them unoriginal ????

[Seth Swoboda]

Originally Posted by TagMan

Wait a minute ! What about all the people that scoff at WWW tires and call them unoriginal ????

Hey watch it! I have them on my Avatar '31 Victoria. Just kidding. I don't get into that debate. I do think they look good on some models over other regardless of their originality, an opinion only.

[DavidG]

The photo is from the 1932 dealer showroom album, i.e. a Ford publication from 1932. It is backed up by a tire price list on file at the BFRC. I'm pretty sure that Hemmings is not in the same league as Ford's Archives as what is cited is misinformation, except for possibly being applicable to '34 models. I've done the homework and it's in the book.

I'll leave it to you to enlighten Hemmings.

[petehoovie]

Originally Posted by DavidG

I'll leave it to you to enlighten Hemmings.

No....

[tubman]

I remember seeing a photograph of a Ford new car showroom taken in 1951. You could see 5 or 6 cars, and they ALL had blackwall tires, including a convertible that was prominently displayed. I found it quite interesting. One of my favorite movies is "The Day the Earth Stood Still". In it, Hugh Marlowe's character drives a '51 Ford convertible. It also had blackwall tires. Available? Yes. Popular? Not so much, even after almost 20 years.

[MDC]

When I was a kid I saw a car with white wall tires but they were facing the body of the car, black side out. I asked my dad why someone would do that and he said white wall tires got scraped, scuffed and damaged easily, ruining their looks. After that I saw other cars like that. He never had WSW tires until the 1960’s. He said his brother tried to use white shoe polish to keep his WSW tires looking good but it didn’t work well.

[rotorwrench]

White wall tires have been around as long as tires have been. A lot of the tires in the horseless carriage era were just straight vulcanized rubber with no carbon black added. After they bleach a while, they were pretty much all white but turned yellow on the edges and brown where they met the road. They looked funky pretty quick. I think the WWW tires popularity was heightened by the high end motor cars of the roaring 20s & dirty 30s since folks with money could afford to pay a chauffeur to take care of their car and keep it looking good.

[DavidG]

The option of reversing them did not exist until 1940 as up till then WSW tires were white on both sides.