I'm sure this has been discussed before but a search didn't help me. I want to buff the lettering off a tire sidewall. Has anyone had any experience? Then I want to paint the sidewalls, any ideas on type of paint? I know acrylic lacquers used to stick well, is anything better?
Bobby Alloway used to sand smooth and buff the sidewalls of all of his cars, so one year at the Grand National Roadster Show, I asked him what his method was because I really like the look. He said that he used to use red Scotchbrite wheels on an angle sander to get the letters and other things off, and then use different abrasive compounds on a buffer to get them to shine. He said that it's a really messy job. As far as what paint, I'm not sure on that. What is your intent (to make whitewalls, redlines, add a tire manufacturer logo, etc)? You see tire paints advertised that claim to hold up, but it's a tough thing to accomplish. On rubber, the oils can leach out of the tire and stain the paint from the inside out, and the UV ray kills the outside surface of the paint. I'm very interested in what information comes back on your paint question.
A buddy of mine just painted the sidewalls on his A using, at my disclosure, snow white roofing sealer from Home Depot. They actually turned out really nice. Just have to make sure you thoroughly clean them first. As far as the sanding there are many videos on youtube showing the different ways.
Here is a small article I did a few years ago: My '64 Galaxie is built to look like a 60's stock car would look like. I am using modern Bf Goodrich radials for a nice ride, but the blackwall lettering does not look right, and it really bothered me. My solution was to sand the sidewalls smooth to get a nice un-cluttered sidewall. A little experimenting on an old tire led to this process shown here. You will need a dual action or "DA" sander, and a few discs of 80 grit paper. The 80 grit may seem coarse, but on the "DA", it leaves the sidewall really smooth, finer grits do not give as good results. This process will not harm the tire in any way, as I have done it on several cars now with great results: Here is the tire with all the lettering visible: I leave the air in the tire as it it far easier than sanding on an un-inflated tire. If you have some really nice wheels, you may chose to mount them on some junk wheels just in case you slip with the sander and end up sanding your wheels. You really don't want to get right up next to the rim, so just be careful. You basically start sanding on the lettering, and let the sander do the work until the lettering is gone: This is the progress after about a minute: This is after a few more minutes. You want to sand down until the letters are gone and no more, though it is really hard to do any damage to the sidewall using the "DA". I go ahead and lightly sand all the way around the sidewall so it all has the same texture, which ends up nice and smooth: I removed all the raised lettering, but chose to keep the tire size, serial numbers and well as the D.O.T. markings, though you can remove it all for a really smooth look. The edge against the wheel needs to be gone over with some Scotchbrite to knock the glaze off and give a nice uniform appearance: I used 5 sanding discs to do all 4 tires. It takes about 20 minutes per tire. This process works well on radials or bis ply tires.
Cool, I was going to white wall some radials I had and getting rid of the lettering will make it look way better. I too have been told the white roofing paint such as Snow Seal. There are guys selling small cans of whitewall pait out but they're not paint manufactures which tells me they're just repackaging marking it up a couple hundred percent.
I've used Krylon Fusion, as well as regular paint for both lettering and white walls with great results.
"IF" you don't want to do it yourself , you can have Diamond Back tires do it. "IF" you would like to try it yourself , get an old used tire "freebie" at your local tire shop, and just give it a try. They will let you go for it and then return the tire to their recycle pile when you are through experimenting. Regards, George
many people put the car on jack stands let it idle in reverse and take a grinder to the sidewalls as it spins around. super dirty and dusty but you can get white walls from a white lettered tires this way.
George- Regarding your attached pictures: Did you do those yourself? In the second picture, is the "redline" raised or inset into the sidewall. I can't tell from the picture. I have been wanting to make a set of redlines, and I'm really interested in your pictures. If not, can you give us a ballpark figure on what Diamondback charges for this service? Thanks, Alex
I can shed a little light on white wall painting. I bought some shit on the internet FOR painting tires it was garbage. I could wipe it off with my hands after it was dry. But for the life of me I can't remember what it was called. Round 2 I used some acrylic house paint? Not bad but noy great either cracks when its dry and doesn't stay on great . I helped fix a friends roof with some white roof patch stuff that layed on smooth and was very flexible when dry so I think this might be the ticket (don't know what brand? ) so I go to one of tje super stores and get white roof patch . Now this stuff painted on like cake icing never layed on smooth and started dicoloring in spots poopy brown..but stuck to the tire great. . My good friend painted his tires with this stuff called plasticoat it comes in a can or spray can sold at homedabutt. Its been on his car for 3 years with no cracks looks great although at has yellowed over time, he claims it washes up white with a little bleach and water.. I bought 2 cans of plasticoat for my next white wall mission . Sorry I can't help with exactly what I used . I can't get pis on this post but in my Lola album on my profile page I put a pic of the roof patch I used and the can of plasticoat.. I still think the roof patch would work just not what I used..the nice thing about painting them on is you can go as wide as you like . Good luck
I just called them today and asked about smooth sidewall blackwalls and they told me $50 per tire less (might have been $52, I forget) than the prices shown in their catalog since the catalog prices I asked about were listed for whitewalls. They said just about any tire they offer can be had in whitewall or blackwall. Catalog link: http://www.dbtires.com/2013_catalog/2013_DBTiresCatalog_Web_Lo.pdf
Step One: Buy and install tires that dont look like the South end of a donkey running North. Step Two: Kick back and laugh at people who made their own resulting in epic failure.
Diamond back classics can smooth any tire for $50 and they do a flawless job perfect for paint. I have use krylon fusion with stencils and it seems to work great. When they get dirty i used some water and deanatured alcahol to clean them. I have tried smoothing tires myself only to chew them up badly with the grinder. Il never try again i rather trust DB
When I spoke with DB Tire I did a double take and even asked twice to make sure, and the message I got was that smooth blackwalls are $50 LESS than the prices in their catalog since prices shown are for whitewalls.
Got a set fro DB Classics - BFG Radial T/A's. They provide a great product. Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
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