Sem vinyl dye

We used that Sem paint on the interior in my dad's '31 Model A. The stuff has held up really well for over 3 years (even on the steering wheel). I was just wondering, has anyone ever tried that stuff for painting whitewalls? I can't afford Cokers, and portawalls just suck. I'd love to know if the SEM vinyl dye might work. Anyone?
Bryan

 

I was thinking about trying it to make redlines. But for wide whites, snow seal is a lot cheaper. The homemade wide whites on my '55 Dodge are at least 3 years old and still look like the day I made them. Even tried Westleys bleach white on them and it worked good, cleaned the white without hurting it.

Go to your local home store and get a tub of white elastomeric roof coating. Clean your tires really, really thoroughly with laquer thinner, scrub them with rags until they stop pulling up brown. Then brush the white on, you'll need at least 4 coats. I use a skinny whitewall so I have a reference line. They look like shit after the first coat but by the fourth they look really nice. Stays flexible and doesn't fade out, it's made for outdoor use (it's a roof coating after all). If you've got the time and you want to go the extra mile, use a DA sander to sand all the lettering and shit off of the sidewall of the tire before you paint them, they look more professional that way.

This pic was taken a few days ago and the tires were done about 3 years ago. They might have some greasy finger prints on them since I haven't detailed the car yet.



I'll just add that I've done the tire grinding thing and it works but I feel better about doing it this way, I also tried the Krylon Fusion but it chipped off after not much use, and Portawalls don't last either.

Also I'll mention that I love Coker products and have their WWW's on my '52 Buick but for some projects I can't justify (or afford) the cost.

 

Hey, thanks! Those look pretty damn good to me. That's about what I had in mind too (1½"-2" whitewalls). I'll give that stuff a try. You used just a regular paint brush?
Bryan
http://bryanscomet.blogspot.com

 

Yeah, I just used a regular paint brush. A tub of this stuff is like 12 bucks and is enough to do 200 tires if you really wanted to, it's cheap to buy. PM me some pics if you try it.

 

Vinyl is way different than rubber. I've not tried what you are asking about (SEM), but I think it would lead to plasticizer migration, and you would be disappointed.