Cheap Wide Whitewalls (revisited) using "White Tire Paint"

Same question. So ?

 

wash the sidewall at least 3 times with acetone - paint the tires with white latex house primer - put 3 thin coats on. letting dry overnight between coats - i ran tires like this for 3 years with only slight discoloring & NO peeling - i even curbed 1 tire & it didn't peel - needed touchup tho

 

I just noticed that this came back from the dead...so I figured I'd better chime in.

Beyond what I showed in the thread when I posted it, there are a couple recommendations that I'd follow more to the letter (as the MFR recommends). I would definitely put some miles on new tires before painting them, as I experienced more yellowing than expected, but Westley's Bleche White still did the trick.

I had absolutely no adhesion problems with the paint, and am still happy with the results. The picture below was taken at the "graffiti night" pre-show parade/cruise from this past June, still rocking the painted WWW. I think they still looked great, and no one even noticed.



I have subsequently given the tires to a buddy who is putting them on a custom coupe that he's building, and put a set of Coker's on the car. Would I, or will I do it again? Very likely. I'd like to try thinning the material and spraying the tire white...just curious, and it's an approved method of application.

Thanks for the continued interest in my (old) thread...

 

Todd : Thanks for the update
It s the kind of thread that s worth pulling from the grave

David : it s not the first time house latex is mentioned. Easy and cheap. I ll give it a try on my winter car. Thanks.

 

I found a thread where someone recommended a product called "Snow Roof" ; its a flexible thick white paint that is used to seal a mobile home or RV roof against leaks, and is guaranteed to stay flexible in all temps, not dry and crack. I ordered a gallon and it came in yesterday, but I haven't started painting yet. I hope it can make my $69 Walmart tires look like $230 Cokers..

 

the razor blade thing'y is pretty cool, I've always ground out the skinny white walls or raised letters for the wide white look. newer skinny whites don't seem to have as uniform white rubber band under the letters as some of the older tires but it still holds up better than any of the paints I've used

 

Great thread! I painted my tires with krylon spray bombs and they didn't come out too bad. I think it depends how much it's driven and where. I drove mine every day and there are very few cracks. Another trick too is using narrow whites. If you are fine with the white wall going as far as the border of the current narrow white, paint to the inside that way you use the narrow wall as a guide and you don't risk having jagged edges. It's what I did on my '63.

 

Well I am doing the "Snow Roof" paint on mine. "Goes on blue, dries white!" says the can. But after 24 hours, its still got a blue tint! I wanted whitewalls not blue-walls. Has anyone else had this problem? I just did another coat and I will do a 3rd coat tomorrow.

 

Duplicolor makes a permanent tire shine which is like a clear coat for your tire, wonder if a painted WWW sealed with the duplicolor product would hold up better?

 

I saw the website http://www.rangerpaint.com and was very intrigued with the idea, and came to HAMB to read if anyone had tried this or how well it worked. This isn't the same product, but I'd have to think it would work as well. Especially using your scribe and tape tricks.

Thanks Todd for doing this and sharing your work and results. I think the colored walls look great.

Even if someone WAS that cheap, the time, effort and cleanup involved in grinding off sidewall to get to the actual white wall doesn't seem worth it to me. Plus, the impression I get is you're not going to know where your white wall will end until you grind and generally they're not going to be a very wide whitewall.

 

Another thing about grinding off the markings on a tire to then paint. I get it, I prefer to see the smooth, white wall tire too, but don't ACTUAL w/w tires have raised writing on them anyway in white?

 

and if you got thin white walls, you do this......
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=681388