White Wall tyre sizes

[Garry]

I have been going over all the sales literature I could find for the period 1963 - 1965 to see what white walls were being fitted or showing in the pictures. They appear as wide whitewalls in most pictures where fitted with WW.  I also noted in the Pagoda Style book that Paul Bracq in his styling images as he developed the shape, used what appear to be very wide white wall tyres.

I have been searching for some months for new tyres for my Light Blue (334) 230SL that hopefully will be back on the road by Xmas and have finally come upon some tyres that have 2 1/2" white walls similar to those on the Bracq drawings and ordered 5 for my car.

Does any one else have the wide whitewalls?  Would love to see any photos of them fitted.

Garry

[mdsalemi]

Garry, the wide white walls would be nearly impossible to find in a stock tire.  I do have many Bracq renderings of the Pagoda, and in nearly all cases the car is fitted with wide white walls.  There are also some vintage photos from the Daimler archives that I'll send you with the wide white walls fitted.  I think you'd have to have them custom made, through someone like Diamondback Classics.  I'll get the photos together this comng week.

[Garry]

Coker makes a 2 1/2 inch white wall that are selling here.  cannot get 185 but can get 195/75/14 which have the following measurements

 
Size               WW Width   Construction   Load Capacity   Tread Width   Section Width   Overall Diameter
195/75R14    2.25              Poly/Steel   1400@35 psi       5.48                7.96              25.51

[Jordan]

Garry, would love to see pictures of your car once you have the gangster whitewalls installed.  I have never seen another with them, except for the advertising from the 60's.  I have the thin ww's and always wondered how the car would look with the wider ww's.
Marcus

[Garry]

I have ordered five and if I don't like the look I can just turn them inside out.  Agree, have never seen anyone with them on.  Maybe it was just an advertising thing.

Either way it will be Xmas before I get it all together for a photo shoot.

Garry

[Flyair]

The tyres look definitely different to what I have seen so far on Pagodas. But one has to live adventurously 
Also I will be among those looking forward to see pics of your car with these tyres
Stan

[KevinC]

Based on MB literature that I have seen I would tend to agree that when the 113 was first introduced, the wider whitewall was shown in brochures at the very least. It would be my guess that somewhere around 1965-1966, the whitewalls were narrower at about 1" or so. I have one early and one mid 60's 230SL brochure and the whitewalls shown wider in the early piece and narrow in the are the later one. Interestingly, the whitewalls seem to be closer to the rim than they are on today's tires.

[getsmart]

Hi Garry,

I've seen a black 280sl (or maybe it was a 250sl) around Melbourne (in fact its often parked in the building here in my office at the Docklands) with fake white walls (also known as, "white wall inserts", slap-ons, Mickies, etc..) and I'd have to say they look magnificent (from a distance anyway until one realises they are slap ons ). Look forward to seeing whether you buy some and if you do what you end up with and of course, taking a look in person !!! Hope you're enjoying the pagode fest in Europe

Cheers, joe

ps.. and from another forum ..... paint them yourself ?

Whitewall paint:
http://www.rangerpaint.com/products/white-sidewall

http://www.callieskustoms.com/Callie...TirePaint.html (this link is broken)

Instructions:
http://www.mbzponton.org/valueadded/other/tirepaint.htm



DONT USE reg paint!

Quote:
There is a liquid in the paint which makes it softer and easier to paint which is partly made of thinner. But the main secret behind the formula is a fluid we put into the rubber which keeps it from getting completely solid. Actually the paint gets only 50% solid-hardness, preventing it from cracking on the moving tire. If you apply a small amount of the paint on a plastic film and peel it off after it is dry, you can stretch it like a balloon. That is why it tolerates the fast rotating radial tires, which will destroy all other paint. We also put titanium into the paint to minimize the effect of sunlight on the colour.  

[Garry]

I actually have a set of the white wall flaps, sometimes called White Wall inserts for my Kombi. They look good and what you would expect on a Kombi but not for a Pagoda

http://www.thebusstop.com.au/busstore/products/79/694/white_wall_flaps_14_inch_set_of_4_-_end_of_line/

 In the Kombi, the balance is all subjective given that it takes about 90 seconds to get from 0 - 60mph and any out of balance could be accounted for as just normal Kombi shake, rock and roll.
I wanted to get genuine ones for the Pagoda  which I have now sourced but awaiting completion of my engine rebuild which is taking a long time due to the need to source parts from around the world as the work goes on.

[Norm]

Hi Garry,

Don't forget the always entertaining 230 SL Introduction video.  The car is presented with wide white walls, black walls and, towards the end of the video, what I believe are 3/4 inch white side walls.

Norm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIuo82fubVA&feature=player_embedded

[Garry]

Hi Norm,

Had forgotten about that video and the wide white walls.  It will be an interesting exercise as I have never seen the wide ones fitted to a car in the flesh. I think it will be either you love them or you hate them, not much in between.

Garry

[mdsalemi]

Garry,

Here are some photos from one of the Daimler archives with varying widths of WW tires.  Should give you a good idea as they are all photos and not drawings.

[Garry]

The last photo looks like it has a Pininfarina  designed hard top on it. Very similar to the 230 that was totally modified by them.

Garry

[66andBlue]

Garry,
you are close, it isn't the Pininfarina but one of the mock-up models that were made for the Daimler board to look at and decide which one they wanted. Luckily, as we all know, Barenyi's Pagoda roof won out. All the different models for the board had the gangsta-style whitewalls but they are rarely seen in later company photos.  
The car at the Geneva car show where the new W113 was introduced already had the Continental tires with the narrower band similar to the one at the US introduction shown in this photo:

[Kemal]

www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fEWAc85ed8

 

[Garry]

If I had not already put my wide white walls on before watching that,how much more convincing do I need