Cut mine in the back yard 2 years ago. Yes, they yellow, but all white walls yellow if you dont keep them clean. Have cut several radial brands, thin white wall, raised white letter and have always found a band of white rubber underneath. Sometimes 1 5/8" and some slightly larger. Set on the car only ran me 300.00 and that was with buying a new 4" grinder in the middle of the process.
Had them on my Impala. The guy came to my house and did them for $80. (for all 4) Thats a lot cheaper than buying cokers. They looked good but were a ***** to keep clean. Had to do them everytime I took it out or they would yellow. Westleys and a wire brush worked wonders. BTW they were raised white letter tires. He never took the wheels off the car just jacked it up and did them on the car. It did make quite a mess on the floor.
Westley does wonders! i have done some where the white underneath doesnt seam together and your left with a black line. If you take your time and shave off just the black and sand with 80 grit. you get a pretty good result. But remember you can burn through the white. Ive done it and it ****s! cheers. Its a good fix while your saving up money for the real ones imo.cheers
the rubber on the sidewall has nothing to do with the ply rating the plies are how many layers of the cording is below the rubber the rubber only protects the cords from the weather and abraision and seals in the air i have sean cars that people scrub curbs with that the rubber isgouged off to the cords so in my opinion shaving them wont hurt the integrity or strength . racing tires are so thin you can actually see the cords or plies through the rubber
i did mine about 4 yrs ago had no problems what so ever.They look great & with the money i saved i was able to go out & party it up at Atlantic city!!lol took about 30 mins to do each one with a belt sander. Jimv
There was an old guy at Paso that used to do them in back parking lot of the Paso Robles Inn during the show. He did mine 15 years ago right on the car with his old machine. I still have those tires after driving 40,000 miles on them. We use them as rollers for projects in my garage now. Lots and lots of folks do this around here, no complaints or safety issues since I saw my first one done in 1976.
Problem with the vulcanized ones is that eventually one or more will come loose or split and look like old floppy Port-a-Walls. Never buy them again...
i had my dimondback tires for 4 years they still white and their are not flopping, is just basic common sense you have to actually take care of your tire not overlook the information they provide when purchase.
I've had my Diamondback tires on my car for more the 5 years. I've driven well over 10,000 miles with those tires and have yet to see any type of whitewall damage. I've even done an autocross course with them, oh and drag raced with them on. Peeling stems from incorrect tire size on cars and incorrect air pressures. Sorry you've had a bad experience with them...I love them.
How many miles on yours? I got about 7500 out of mine and two (one front and one rear) split/came loose from the sidewall. I drive a lot all over the country and yes, I know how to actually maintain my car and it's tires...basic common sense, as you say...Maybe I got a bad batch of tires, who knows?
its my daily driver so i got close to 26,000 miles on mine, and i dint mean to ofend you (if i did) by saing is common sense, did you talked to dimondback about the tires?
We put them on another project car we are working on and they are still holding air as rollers, just look bad. I'll check with Diamondback and see what they can do for us.
They do shave the tire so they can vulcanize the rubber to the tire . Then they buff the new rubber that has just been added. I have one of the same machines that they have. They were used by retread shops originally.I'm still learning to use it. I will be doing whitewalls soon using a process that's been around since the fifties, and it's not just grinding them out. It's also not vulcanizing. Here's a vid at Diamondback
they look great when someone who knows what they're doing does them. and as far as safe goes? who said hot-rods were safe? (feel free to take this comment wayyy too seriously)
I just did mine last night... The wife loves it! I'm not sure about it though, kinda chaffes a little... Oh....wait...Walls... Oh, This is a little embar***ing...
HEY! Those look great! Mind telling me what brand those are? That's a nice big whitewall, I've been looking for something like that. The tire guy is incorrect, and it's nothing like having seat belts and not wearing them. This is a process done after the tire is already a tire, for appearance. You are carefully wearing that down, the white part is no structural integrity of the tire itself. Think about it, by your logic any soccer mom who grinds a curb every now and again would be flipping end over end on the highway in a ****** flaming crash. I have been doing it for years, and put a load of miles on the few Mercs I had them on. Tracked nice, handled speed well and looked great. Would I put them on a "nice" car? Nope, maybe in the back, they can get close but they aren't the rear thing. But for a driver? In a minute. Im going to do a few more sets soon when I go digging through the used tire guys stash near me.
they're these. the white wall is deceptively large in the pic because they are 295/50/15s, short sidewall.
Sorry to bump an old post but this has helped me see what others thought on this subject of shaved WWs. First on the list of winter jobs for my ride is sort the rims out. Picked up a good set of first production style 50's rims for it. They look way better and bolt right up. They have a bigger smoother hubcap aswell, much nicer. I'm going the same style with them and using the trim ring and new OE hubcaps with bullets as before. Like alot of folk i don't have the funds for a set of WWs, i'd love some but don't have the cash. If my car was anywhere near show standard i'd save my money to get some but my cars are never really show standard and never will be. I've seen the cutting done whilst the rims still on the car quite a few ago. The guy, spun the tire with his machine, only took just a tiny shave off the tire and painted in the white. Great to watch him do it. I'm pretty fussy with stuff and i had to say they looked really good, good solid colour and neatly done. There's guy that will do it for £35 a tire and thats with up to a 2 3/4" WW. He can also supply checked part-worn tires with any wall you want and if different colours. They were £250 for a matching set. Even with fitting charges of the tires for me both are an option i'm thinking about. I spoke to those that run them and normal WW tire care and checks on pressure seems to be the feedback. Needs to be done to older tires with al least 3-4K 's on them due to the oils in the tire still coming out the rubber. Makes the WW discolour if done on new tires. I heard concerns but not that anyone has had a direct tire malfunction due to this process, has anybody here known of this? Regards Dan
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