Aircooled VW South Africa

Truing to decide if i should put white walls on or not. The front wheel has just got masking tape on to look like a white wall. What dose every one think?

That is a matter of personal taste. Different people will have different opinions on that. Do what looks good to you.

Personally i do not like whitewalls at all, i think they look silly. Think your camper will look much better without them.
Maybe not as bad looking on an old battered Chev3800, Valiant, or Ford.
But, that is only my opinion.

I agree with Dawie
but if you do want whitewalls, then get tyres which have proper whitewalls, not this plastic POS that cuts into the tyre or bends in the heat and looks worse than the masking tape

Definitely white walls

I'm with whitewalls as well. I had a set of atlas whitewalls a while ago on my beetle and it just made the car. You get good ones and crap ones. So beware. Buying the original coker wides would put you back about R10 000.

Im for the white walls too. Im not sure where Tony got his hands on plastic ones but the Atlas or Omega ones are top class... made from virgin rubber and last quite a while if fitted correctly.

A lot of misinformed opinions about white walls are derived through ignorance or people not wanting to listen on how to fit them. When fitted to a tyre with a big side wall then no problem. White walls are made for tyres with high side walls. Perfect profiles are 80 or 70 high. Anything else and you will eventually have hassles. Low profiles are not recommended as the 2.25inch wide white wall gets too close to the hot road surface and added to the extra heat from a turning tyre eventually leads to the lip of the insert slowly disintegrating and eventually tearing away.

Another no no is fitting them to a buckled wheel... how ever slight it might be. Also don't fit to a rim with a damaged lip... you wont get the insert to lay flat on the tyre. This is vital when you consider that the insert only adheres to the rim and tyre through pressure. An old tip I picked up was to use a bit of petroleum jelly... yes Vaseline between the insert and surface of the tyre. This helps to keep the heat caused by friction at bay. Buying Coker tyres are extremely expensive and fitting Firestone CV 2000 taxi white walls are cheaper but still dear at just over R1000 each.

Only worry is that if you have tyre failure. .. side wall damage or a blow out... you must buy a new tyre. If you fit inserts you can just swap them out.

Lastly white walls look the part and this cant be achieved in any other way. And at around R800 from Nizaam on this forum you cant really go wrong.

It does not look silly but rather gives that finished off look that will definitely suit your camper.

But the choice is still yours to make. At least now you have a more informed and balanced bit of data to decide from.

Muds

White walls

Sorry Muds, but I would have to agree with every thing you said on the white walls, but would, with respect, not agree with the application of any form of lubrication, not even talcum powder, as it is as you said, only the friction that holds the white wall in place.

When fitting, you must make sure that all surfaces are totally clean, and dry, do not allow them to put soapy water on the tyre, or white wall, when fitting.

This is very important, else they will start spinning on braking or pull away. also make sure your tyre is always inflated correctly, as running on a near flat will damage the white wall.

Hope this helps

Herman

Muderick wrote:Im for the white walls too. Im not sure where Tony got his hands on plastic ones but the Atlas or Omega ones are top class... made from virgin rubber and last quite a while if fitted correctly.



An old tip I picked up was to use a bit of petroleum jelly... yes Vaseline between the insert and surface of the tyre. This helps to keep the heat caused by friction at bay. Buying Coker tyres are extremely expensive and fitting Firestone CV 2000 taxi white walls are cheaper but still dear at just over R1000 each.

My opinion comes from looking a cars with the white wall inserts which have been used a white, not fitted the night before a show
IMO the taxi tyres are the best way to go, if they can survive overloaded taxis they can survive a bus. Plus, how much is your life worth?

Hi,
I have the Rubber inserts as pictured above. Came on the Speedster I bought, and I like the look with them on. I have re-fitted them to newish tyres without a problem.
I also think it depends on the overall look of the car. Naturally they do suit older looking cars, and with certain colour schemes. It's a choice thing.
On the Kombi, I don't think it looks right. I think big round Dome Hubcabs will suit it better as the Kombi is already white..

Good luck with the Resto project.

I'm all for the White Walls, just gives it the Refined look.

Herman:

retrovan wrote:...This is very important, else they will start spinning on braking or pull away. also make sure your tyre is always inflated correctly, as running on a near flat will damage the white wall....

we are talking ACVW's here....hehehe, mine's pull-away aint never gonna spin the rims in the tyre! Must get my engine to someone who can "cook-up" that kind of magic!

I have 14" & 15" Omega sets R1050 shipping R40 extra, made in ITALY.

retrovan wrote:This is very important, else they will start spinning on braking or pull away. also make sure your tyre is always inflated correctly,
Herman

Hi Herman

There is no way that the white walls can or will spin as the inserts are secured between the rim and the tyre. If yours does, then you fitting them wrongly

Also, I still maintain that once fitted correctly, a bit of Vaseline under the insert keeps heat at bay and lengthens the inserts life. I speak of experience, having used these inserts for more than 10 years.

@ TonyZ... my opinion comes from personal experience mate. Not from looking at other car's inserts or the internet. Also my suggestion about CV2000's as the next best thing, goes with the proviso that the white wall band on the CV 2000 white walls are only approximately 15mm wide. You do not get the same effect as you would with white wall inserts.

Thats why, not many Volks who use CV2000's go for them, and the fact that they are not worth the extra expense over normal non white wall CV2000s.

Muds

Morning all, some advice on tyres for my 1976 Baywindow please..

I want to go for white walls, with the wide band, not the narrow band like on the taxis.

Firstly, what is the correct size for my kombi and is this the size that everyone here uses or do you change the profile?

If I understand correctly from the information on this post I need to buy good quality tyres with a 70 or 80 profile and then buy seperate white wall inserts?

Please give me recommendations on tyre make and sizes please.

Hi Jack,

the WIDER whitewalls are simple white, rubber rings, which get squeezed between the rim and the tyre when it's deflated. So you should have proper commercial (C) Rated tyres, and then just buy a set of white walls, and get them fitted at a tyre shop.

Alan