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Wed Apr 12, 2023 8:27 am

johnshenry wrote: On the brink of ordering a set of the Autobahn Whitewalls for my '57. Dead thread for a year .... anyone since have some driving experiences on these?

I have them on my 57. They are great tires. I drove the car up to Solvang for the show last year which is about a 250 mile round trip. They drove pretty nicely. The car is not a high mileage car so it doesn’t have any slop in the steering. The car tracked straight and drove like a dream. The one characteristic that is due to the slenderness of the tire, is that they will catch grooves. However, they feel very planted and corner very nicely compared to bias ply tires. I will be getting another set for my 54.

Wed Apr 12, 2023 11:37 am

lardawge wrote:

I have them on my 57. They are great tires. I drove the car up to Solvang for the show last year which is about a 250 mile round trip. They drove pretty nicely. The car is not a high mileage car so it doesn’t have any slop in the steering. The car tracked straight and drove like a dream. The one characteristic that is due to the slenderness of the tire, is that they will catch grooves. However, they feel very planted and corner very nicely compared to bias ply tires. I will be getting another set for my 54.

Thanks. I just ordered a set. I have been running on a set of Firestone wide whites for the last 20 years (~19k miles) and they were used when I got them! Time for a new set of sneaks......

Wed Apr 12, 2023 11:44 am

lardawge wrote: johnshenry wrote: On the brink of ordering a set of the Autobahn Whitewalls for my '57. Dead thread for a year .... anyone since have some driving experiences on these?

I have them on my 57. They are great tires. I drove the car up to Solvang for the show last year which is about a 250 mile round trip. They drove pretty nicely. The car is not a high mileage car so it doesn’t have any slop in the steering. The car tracked straight and drove like a dream. The one characteristic that is due to the slenderness of the tire, is that they will catch grooves. However, they feel very planted and corner very nicely compared to bias ply tires. I will be getting another set for my 54.

Looking nice ...

Wed Apr 26, 2023 1:38 am

Mine, on my 58.

Fri May 12, 2023 8:10 am

I know that this thread is about the blackwall tires, but......

I ordered a set of the 3" whitewalls and have them on my oval now. They came with a thin blue paint/coating of some kind on the white walls. WTF??? Lacquer thinner or Carb cleaner barely gets this stuff off! Soapy water, Windex or Mineral Spirits won't touch it. And it takes tons of work to just get one area white with the solvent, never mind using a toothbrush to get it off all around the lettering. And solvents can't be good for the rubber. Anyone experience this and/or find a way to clean the coating off??

Fri May 12, 2023 8:35 am

johnshenry wrote: I know that this thread is about the blackwall tires, but......

I ordered a set of the 3" whitewalls and have them on my oval now. They came with a thin blue paint/coating of some kind on the white walls. WTF??? Lacquer thinner or Carb cleaner barely gets this stuff off! Soapy water, Windex or Mineral Spirits won't touch it. And it takes tons of work to just get one area white with the solvent, never mind using a toothbrush to get it off all around the lettering. And solvents can't be good for the rubber. Anyone experience this and/or find a way to clean the coating off??

Bummer John! Hopefully someone will reply with an easier than we thought clean-up trip for that blue protective coating. Did you try a question to the supplier/manufacturer?

Bill

Fri May 12, 2023 8:41 am

At some point, can someone post the tire size for the blackwalls for the Beetle, and if possible, could someone who has one on their spare tire/rim, or can easily jack a corner up in the air and take a tape measure and run it snuggly all the way around the center of the inflated tire tread and give us a measurement? Thanks!

I'm debating getting a set of five for an Oval Kabriolett I'm working on, can't decide whether I want whitewalls or blackwalls... I also wish they weren't quite so expensive plus the cost to ship 'em.

Bill

Fri May 12, 2023 9:24 am

BulliBill wrote:

Bummer John! Hopefully someone will reply with an easier than we thought clean-up trip for that blue protective coating. Did you try a question to the supplier/manufacturer?

Bill

Yes, I just e-mailed them from their website.

Fri May 12, 2023 9:25 am

They replied already:

"Hi John,
I would not use paint thinner to remove the blue. Paint thinner will damage the tires. The blue coating is soap. Usually just spraying water with a hose and a mild scrubbing pad or rag will do.

Thanks,"

I'll try it with my pressure washer and report back.

Fri May 12, 2023 9:31 am

johnshenry wrote: I know that this thread is about the blackwall tires, but......

I ordered a set of the 3" whitewalls and have them on my oval now. They came with a thin blue paint/coating of some kind on the white walls. WTF??? Lacquer thinner or Carb cleaner barely gets this stuff off! Soapy water, Windex or Mineral Spirits won't touch it. And it takes tons of work to just get one area white with the solvent, never mind using a toothbrush to get it off all around the lettering. And solvents can't be good for the rubber. Anyone experience this and/or find a way to clean the coating off??

This thread is not for Blackwell tires Whitewall tires are welcome to post there pictures of them as well..this tread is about the brand autobahn tires in general black or white we aint racist here lol ...

You have to Scrub those white wall blue protective coating ..try using sos pads...I use to have white wall tires and hated them ..do to the fact I would scrub them but in a week or so they would yellow and back to scubing them. white wall tires need a lot of Maintaining ..so I said nope can't be doing this lol and said with the he'll of this no more white wall tires for me ...but to all reach its own.. I've give respect for folks who have them and who can and like maintaining them ...

Fri May 12, 2023 9:37 am

BulliBill wrote: At some point, can someone post the tire size for the blackwalls for the Beetle, and if possible, could someone who has one on their spare tire/rim, or can easily jack a corner up in the air and take a tape measure and run it snuggly all the way around the center of the inflated tire tread and give us a measurement? Thanks!

I'm debating getting a set of five for an Oval Kabriolett I'm working on, can't decide whether I want whitewalls or blackwalls... I also wish they weren't quite so expensive plus the cost to ship 'em.

Bill

Autobahn tires specs
■ Brand: Autobahn
■ Product number: AB-001
■NEW / "Bias Look" Radial Tire
■Tubeless
■【Diameter】: 652mm
■ [Total width]: 145mm [Tread width]: 96mm
■【Speed Rating】:S (180km)
■【LOAD INDEX】:79 (437kg)
*TYPE-I '53~ & K.Ghia '55~ manufacturer specified sizes.
*TYPE-I '53~ & K.Ghia '55~ This tire is the best! !
◎It is a recommended product◎

Fri May 12, 2023 9:49 am

I've emailed the folks who make and sell those Autobahn tires and asked for different sizes in the past ..do to the fact I wanted a smaller size 4.50x15 tires to be exact for a lowered vws .i wanted the same stock look as the autobahn stock tires but in a smaller size so that the car has all the same tire brand ...I was told that they would be interested in making them but first they are gonna see how these stock autobahn tires sell and if they go well on the market they would look in to any size demand but they liked the idea of the 4.50x15 size for lowered vws since everyone/ everybody has or is lowering there vws....

Fri May 12, 2023 12:15 pm

Well FYI, water does NOT remove this blue "soap". Not even water from a 2300 PSI pressure washer after leaving the tires wet for over an hour. NOT happy about this, those tires cost stupid money. I have e-mailed Performance Plus and asked what they can do about this.

Fri May 12, 2023 12:22 pm

johnshenry wrote: Well FYI, water does NOT remove this blue "soap". Not even water from a 2300 PSI pressure washer after leaving the tires wet for over an hour. NOT happy about this, those tires cost stupid money. I have e-mailed Performance Plus and asked what they can do about this.

You have to put some muscle in the scubing water by them self won't work you have to scub them ....there are YouTube videos in folks cleaning and scubing them white wall tires ..some have that blue protecting coating some are cleaning the yellow as well but there are plenty of videos on youtube ..that's why I step away from them white walls to much work and head aches ...

Fri May 12, 2023 5:54 pm

[email protected] wrote:

You have to put some muscle in the scubing water by them self won't work you have to scub them ....there are YouTube videos in folks cleaning and scubing them white wall tires ..some have that blue protecting coating some are cleaning the yellow as well but there are plenty of videos on toutube ..that's why I step away from them white walls to much work and head aches ...

No, it takes WAY more that scrubbing with this stuff. The pressure washer held 1" away started to remove it, but I was afraid of damaging the rubber. You can't even scrape it off with a fingernail. A plastic type brillo pad took it off on the smooth areas, but there is no way to get the blue out of the lettering and logos with that. I spoke to a salesman on the phone who said the he sees people at their shop using warm water and dish soap and a cloth, multiple times, and gets it all off. Not this stuff. This is embedded in the rubber.

Will call them back again tomorrow. I should not have to spend HOURS scrubbing brand new tires that are nearly $300 each.

Fri May 12, 2023 6:00 pm

johnshenry wrote: [email protected] wrote:

You have to put some muscle in the scubing water by them self won't work you have to scub them ....there are YouTube videos in folks cleaning and scubing them white wall tires ..some have that blue protecting coating some are cleaning the yellow as well but there are plenty of videos on toutube ..that's why I step away from them white walls to much work and head aches ...

No, it takes WAY more that scrubbing with this stuff. The pressure washer held 1" away started to remove it, but I was afraid of damaging the rubber. You can't even scrape it off with a fingernail. A plastic type brillo pad took it off on the smooth areas, but there is no way to get the blue out of the lettering and logos with that. I spoke to a salesman on the phone who said the he sees people at their shop using warm water and dish soap and a cloth, multiple times, and gets it all off. Not this stuff. This is embedded in the rubber.

Will call them back again tomorrow. I should not have to spend HOURS scrubbing brand new tires that are nearly $300 each.

Dang sounds like that stuff Penetrated real good to the white wall I would return them and get black wall tires instead..why deal with a mess and time scubing them ..

Mon May 15, 2023 7:23 am

Garage Vintage in Japan has been responsive, asked for pics and details via e-mail. Messaged both them and Performance Plus Tire today, asking for a new set of WHITE wall tires and that they pay for unmounting the blue ones, in installing the new et. Will see where this goes. As long as they are responding, I will defer writing any reviews at this point.

Disappointing.

The pic below shows an area around the "5.60" numbering that I hit with a 2300PSI pressure washer about an inch away from the rubber. It did get most of it off, but I would be concerned that it would damage the rubber. The sprayer will carve wood at this proximity. I scrubbed the whole area with a tire detail stiff brush and warm soapy water prior to that for several minutes. You can see how the coating is all down in the fine lettering.

Mon May 15, 2023 9:01 am

That's not good! I sure hope that Garage Vintage stands up to the issue, as I'm considering a set of five of their tires for my '57 Kabriolett project. It will be interesting to see how the company resolves this issue. It sounds like the protective blue coating is WAY too protective and will not release or remove? Not good for the tire purchaser... I assume that they do not spray this blue protective stuff on their blackwall tires, only on the whitewall tires...

I'll be watching with great interest! I would not be interested in expensive "bluewall" tires.

Bill B

Mon May 15, 2023 9:06 am

I was just wondering maybe if you were to drive your beetle and warm up the tires and than wash them it would help ...maybe the warmer tire would help release the coating ....but than again who knows if that would work ...ether new tires or like I said before scub them with s.o.s pads ..s.o.s pads do scuff up the white wall tires a little bit ..but that's how alot of folks clean them .....well that's how folks that I know been cleaning theirs for years ....

Mon May 15, 2023 9:35 am

I'd never use a pressure washer to scrub off the blue, but it shouldnt take that much effort.

I use the blue no scratch scotch-brite