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Has anyone used the Porta Walls? I am really interested with what I know of them. I can put new Radial skins and these inserts on the car for the cost of two Coker or similar brand classic tires.

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I had a set back when I was a teenager, not very satisfactory - just a waste of money IMO. They didn't remain a really snug fit against the tire for long so they never looked like a real whitewall and if you scuff a curb it's trash. If $ is an issue, go for a set of good quality blackwalls.

They're junk!

ditto on junk!

Hi

They're okay if the car is stationary, as soon as its driven they quickly get out of shape. If you like a ruffled look on your whitewalls, they work. Go with blackwalls or modern narrow stripe whitewalls.

There is a period photo of a Caribbean convertible with narrow stripe whitewalls in the Kimes-edited Packard history, page 613. Apparently they were coming to market by that time so are period correct.

Steve

Havn't tried it in recent years. But take a scrap blackwall and cut or grind away the surfacce area where the white wall would ordinarily be. Some of the 50's and 60's tires were made white wall but a thin covering out of the moulld was cut away to reveal the white wall..

There is somekind of whitewall paint that mite still be available however i've never tried it.

As for the porta walls they are ok for strictly show. At speed they will come loose even if cemeented due to centripital force. Probably ok for 25 or 30mph.

I've had a few during the 1970's that were old tires from 40's and 50's with portawalls cemented on to the tire. They were easy to tear off by hand.

Quite frankly, i wouldn't have porta walls on any tire.

While we're on this white wall subj:
I've used the Bleachwhite brand of white wall cleaner with good results. However i've never been able to come up with my own concoction of white wall cleaner. Tried regular household bleach mixed in different proportions of water. Just can't seem to get that right. The Bleachwhite brand of whitewall cleaner is getting a bit expensive. Anyone know what the formulae is or a better solution to clean white walls??? I only have about 4 full sets of white wall tires around here and don't want to go broke keeping them clean.

When a port-o-wall is mounted you need to lightly seat the tire bead. Then us a clean rubber mallet to "work" the port-o-wall bead evenly around the rim. When a well made port-o-wall is seated properly it will cup in against the sidewall of the tire and look pretty good.
Toward the end of their popularity there were some nicely made narrow whites that fit the best. The worst were the big sloppy feeling ones.

I use Westleys and 800 grit wet or dry sandpaper for my white walls. Westleys is enough, but the sandpaper gets the outer edge and really makes the stand out.

I am in the dark sweatshirt here and in my fourth year of tire college.

Hi PackardV8,
According to a poster in the Cadillac-LaSalle Club Forum from back in 2007, Bleche Wite actually contains no bleach. It uses sodium metasilicate, an alkaline chemical with a pH of 13. This is used in cleaner/detergent formulations, mainly in industrial applications. He further states that a potential replacement is TSP, trisodium phosphate, inexpensive and available in hardware stores. This is used to clean exterior house paint before repainting, and a few tablespoons in a quart of warm water will clean almost anything. He recommends wearing gloves and using Brillo or a similar scrubber. Note that other posters say Brillo and such products roughen the whitewall surface and effectively turn the whitewalls into dirt magnets. So it's a very tough call on this.

I'm satisfied by using Bleche Wite with a common household scrubbing brush with some kind of plastic bristles (nylon?). I don't think the brush roughens the whitewalls to any great extent if at all. I wouldn't use steel wool as I've found that that can leave tiny amounts of itself on the tire and it soon shows rust spots.

Bleche White is basically sodium metasilicate solution (an inorganic soap) with some bluing. Blue makes yellow look white and was used in washing clothes and still is.
You can buy uncolored concentrate under many names. It typically comes in 50% concentrate in drums, I believe, so you'd have to clean alot of white walls. Check with a local chemical supply house that sells smaller amounts. I had bought some from a guy going door to door but it was pricey. Have to cut 50% to about 5% with water for WW. ~10:1 Don't mix it too much it'll foam up.
BW got pricey after Black Magic bought them out and was hard to find for a while. To my knowledge they stopped selling in the gallon refills, at least around here. Have to pay for the buy out some way through the customers...