I painted the side walls on my panel last year because my wife wanted wide white walls but I didn't think I would like them. I didn't want to spend the big bucks for a new set of WWs only to regret it until I could wear them. First, I used white roofing paint, looked good for about two days before they turned brown. I then applied interior/exterior primer. I bought the kind you would use to cover fire damage and the like. The can stated on the side that you could paint asphalt without bleed through. It worked pretty good if you take your time and apply two coats. It by no means looks as good as real WWWs but from 5-10 feet away they don't look too bad. If you're going for a low buck hot rod look go for it. If you're trying for a points winner save your money and buy real WWWs
I've done them with Snow-seal too (the white rubberized roofing coating) and the key to keeping them from getting brown is to really clean each tire with laquer thinner before painting. Like really, really scrubbing them out. It'll take probably 4 coats to get them to cover, looks like shit after the first coat but looks good when you're done. You can sand the lettering off of the tire with a DA first if you want them to look more realistic. I'm guessing the Icelandic stuff is just roof coating in a different can.
The white roof paint is what I used the first time. I washed the side wall real good with laquer thinner, still turned brown in two days. The blocking primer seems to be working pretty good. Now that I've had the old tires painted I think I them and as soon as I can scrap up the $$ for a new set of WWWs I'm going for it.
Who's it hurting? Just don't read them. It's not like this board is dead and there aren't hundreds of other post to read.
I picked up an old can of "Tire Wyte" at the antique store. Always wanted to try it out. It just sits on the shadow box in the living room.
Rubber paint works good... You must clean about once a month, and I touch up before a 'Drive-In' night. The best paint I have found is 'Union Process' Rubber Ink...#801 silkscreen...comes in a few colors too. www.unionprocess.com Also did this... On my '75 Eldorado I tried the Port-a-walls...but they would loose shape and made a flap that looked very tacky...so I decided to go with real WWW. The price of new ones was crazy, and since I had decent tires already... I ground off the thin layer over the white rubber. The Eldo is FWD, so I jacked it up (and blocked)... Put in reverse...(lower gears) Idled it way down... And put a 40 grip flapper sanding wheel on my Milwakee polisher...about 700 rpm. After all the white shows thru, I polish it with a small 3M abrasive pad on a air grinder. Each wheel took about 5 minutes...you have to move each one the the location you have jacked up. Heres a video of it in progress... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPsZATp4I7E http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPsZATp4I7E
i painted them on my T using fusion paint, lasted about 3 days before it started to flake off! I ended up grinding my narrow whites into WW's & it came out great!! Picture on the left is the painted WWW's Pic on the right is the ground WWW's JimV
I painted mine 3yrs ago with BASF Uno single stage car paint with flex additive. cleaned them with alcohol, scuffed them with a red scuff pad used Bulldog adhesion promoter and sprayed them. they have a bunch of little cracks and look old but have never peeled.
I used "THIN" coats of flat white spray paint, like krylon or a high end paint. I think the trick is in the prep work. scuff and degrease em good. They have to be "OLD" DrY tires cause newer tires have oils seeping through them. and remember....as few thin coats as possible. you dont want any build up. it's worked for me! Check out my Caddy.
Get some white letter tires and use a grinder to carefully grind or sand down to the white, it is already there on raised white wall tires. It is a dirty smelly job, but, you will get your wide whites.
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