An early trick
about the 50s custom was to
change striped tyre to WhiteWalls-
That time the whitwwalls was going away, the car industri began to
deliver all new cars with only
posibillity as a white, or colored stripe at the tyre. The tyre
industri then also see the majority change of style, and the whitewall
tyre began difficult to get, of the lower sale on theese.
Because of that the customizers looked around for other ways to get the
refined whitewalls to stay on their tyres. And sulotion was
grinding!
At every tyre with white stripe on the industri had to put white
rubber on the side, then was black rubber covering the parts who should
not be white. So, when grinding the black portion of rubber of, the
white colored rubber comes trough.
The wideness of the total white area is different from
tiremanufature to another, but everybody have it.
Also are some tyretype gone with a uneven end/ start shape of the
rubberlayer. Also the edges are a little diffuse on some types.
When getting the black rubber of, you have to be careful not to
grind trough the white rubber, and precaution of the uneveness om
start/ end points. Therefore the best way is to grind it in a sircular
shape ashored to be inside of the white layer. And be careful grinding
the flange against the rims, this could give leaking points of air!
Heres how mine shaped up: |
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Put
the tyre on the rims, because it seemed easyer to grind with som
stifness of tire. (inflated )
And it was!
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Grinded
the side down with paintremove disc, who dont excess as hard and much
as the "stoned" type.With this , and only light pressure its easyer to
get a even layer
without grinding marks.
The earlyer stripe is grinded flat to the surface of tyre, before
grinding further out and inside of this.
All grinded flat with no edge against the black rubber, using long
movement to just grind into the outer part of the white layer. |
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After
finish with the disc, regular sandpaper was used to get
a
more even finish.
Sorry, but on the picture it realy seems that the whitewall edges are
very rough, yeah, some roughness is it, but this picture lyes a
little.
Edges are later trimmed with black/ white ink. |
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Finished result!
Yeah.This
´s looking goood!!
And the pricetag was a lot lower than the cost
of a whitewall tyre!
When working grinding be careful not to take to much at one time, and
keep the grinding direction same way to not mess up the white with
black meltet rubber. |
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Here you can see one of the problems who are on some of the
fabricators, the white rubber start/ stop dont align!
On my testtyres only one was like this, and the ends are not so far
off, so belive it can be adjusted with some ink. |
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On the car it realy shows off!
It
did look great!
No more paint who cracks and fade,
no loose whitewalls who cracks or tores apart!
Just plain white rubber. |
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Its
possible to get loose wallsides to buy, but on radials theese have a
tendence to begin cracking on outside part. Perhaps the white
rubberrims are to easy wrecked of the weather, or the radials weaker
sides are giving to much movement, but normally it should be possible
to have theese to be okay for a season or two. They are
clamped between the tire and rims, to hold´em on.
More about the grinding tip & testmonials could be found at Jalopy
Journal H.A.M.B in their Tech section, with also a videoclip
showing the process.
Another tip from an aussie, was using shoepaint. The paint is very
flexible, and least some time before needs restore, IF, the tire
was good
cleaned, and some thinner used maybe,before masking up for the paint.
In my own test with vinylpaint, this cracked as soon as the tyres get
weight of car,specially on the white part..
Testet with some shoe
paint, and yes, its flexible enough, dont seem to faint and keeps shiny
white, at least one month.
Trouble is to lay on
enough color to cover up the black
rubber.
Further review later...
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