cutting your own white walls in tires

The pic where the white goes all the way to the wheel??

 

Thanks for all the helpful replies. To all the people that think it hurts the tire: do a search for this subject as it has been covered extensively in the past year and a half. It in no way adversely affects it and you will realize this with all of the success stories. I was just wondering if there was a better way to do it, but it can be done. I might make my own machine using an electric motor to spin the tire. Thanks again to all the helpful replies.

 

but, uh.. what if it's not white under the black? or are they all white? I think this thread is awesome especially if I can make new $30 tires into $130 looking wide white tires. I wouldn't be so paranoid about putting miles on my wide whites then.

 

I gave that tire-grinding a shot recently, because I was looking for 235/60/15-tire with a white ring on it. Since they don't make these I wanted to know if a regular white letter tire could be changed into one.
My comments upfront;
-incorrect tool for the job
-incorrect tire for the purpose

pics;

 

I did some Dunlop Rover ATs, raised white letter, the raised part is white rubber, it can be ground down to the same level as the rest of the thin white veneer without a problem. If your tires safety relies on a 1/16" sheet of black rubber applied to the outside, you are indeed using the wrong tool for the job, and the incorrect tire for the purpose.

To all the people who have never done it, yet still have a comment, STFU, and realize that not everybody has $600-$700 for new bias ply WWWs.

Seems like those who have done it are positive, those who haven't, aren't, hmmm

 

If I had a better brand of tire to test on, and a better, more stable way of placing the grinder, I have no doubth I would have 'converted' a set of tires for my car.
But I noticed irregularities in the white part in this tire and also the black smeared onto the white again, caused by grinding 'the wrong way'.
I wasn't sure I would want to put the grinder in a 'new' and better brand tire with the chance of trashing it like the one above.

Based on that I've now ordered a set of 4 tires (235/60/15) with a dual 3/8" white line from DiamondBack.

 

why so fast? what about maybe spinning it for a few hours with an electric motor and an arm with nothing more than a big *** file or alluminum oxyd sand paper. It would take it down slow but it would be even right?

 

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5766&highlight=white+wall

 

That might work I guess.
oh yeah I rotated the tire by hand in the pics during 'grinding'.

All went well when grinding from the white-area to the black, but otherway around gives smears in the white, which would have to be sanded out.

In the last pics I decided to check how 'deep' the white-area was.
I've also got a real white line tire which I cut in half so you see a cross-section of it.

 

Over in the UK we would open a can of real beer instead. Mind you, it would probably be warm.

 

I keep my PBR in the lettuce drawer, B*** and misc. double bock on the top shelf of the fridge. We get pisswater in a fizzy bottle here and they call that guinness, its a crime.

PBR is great, cause you're not sad if you elbow the can onto the ground.

You should toss the Lucas fridge and enjoy the 20th century pleasure of cold beer.

Cheap beer from the grocery store, and whitewalls from Pep Boys, otherwise I wouldnt be able to afford gasoline!

 

the article in OSR was actually mine...I think they jacked it from the web...it was also in the NTBA newsletter thing.

i've done a few and here's my observations...

1) just like the article says, you will NEVER get anything that even remotely resembles a coker or diamond back.

2) depending on the tire, you never know the continuity of the width of the white under the black. one of the pics a few post back shows that. and also, you can never be sure of the depth thickness of the white either. if your over zealous you can kill a whole bunch of effort real quick.

3) the thing to do if'n yer a brave one is to go finer and finer to get a super smooth finish....finish wtih cleanser.

i'm working on a setup that uses an electric motor and a friction wheel to spin the tire and a grinder motor and a stone to do the cutting...not sure how it will work..but i still think the manual procedure works fine if you want to go thru the effort.