Simulating thin whitewalls on tires

[Mr. Metallic]

There are thin whitewall tires available in lots of kits, and Round2 has done a nice job of doing some pad printed ones in their kits, even doing some red stripes, and even blue and redline slicks. However, has anyone come up with a good method for adding thin whitewalls (or other colors) to their tires? It was suggested to buy some Gelly Roll gel pens and a circle template, but I am not getting a consistent stripe with them after trying about 30 different times. I have heard of some builders using a compas loaded with paint, wondering if I should try that? Has anyone come up with a good method for simulating them?

The reason I am asking specifically is I am trying to get the look of these tires from the late 60's/early 70's. The ones that Round2 put in some kits, and their excellent "gasser" wheel/tire pack are smaller than what i need for my SweeTee project in both height and width.

 

Edited November 2, 2023 by Mr. Metallic

[Shark]

You can get a sign shop that still cuts adhesive vinyl to cut some circles the size you want. They will have a backing sheet opposite the sticky side to hold the shape. Center it up, burnish it down, and remove the backing sheet.

[Oldriginal86]

Along the same lines, I’m looking to paint whitewalls of medium thickness on a build. Thought was to get a coworker with a Cricut machine to cut circles on adhesive backed paper to use as stencils. One circle slightly smaller then the next. Apply them to the tire and airbrush on some acrylic white paint. Would this technique work?

[64SS350]

This was shared with me, this is an amazing idea!

 

 

[Ace-Garageguy]

For doing Goodyear "Blue Streaks", I've had good results from mounting the tire on a tight-fitting wheel, then chucking it up in the lathe and cutting the groove deeper with a specially ground cutter.

Then white gel pen in the groove, followed by blue magic marker after the white is fully dry.

Sorry...no pix currently available.

[Classicgas]

Once he's back up and running, Speedway Decals has nice whitewall decals.

[Mothersworry]

Here's what I use...an old cassette player with a wheel glued into the capstan. Mount the tire, hit play, apply the brush loaded with acrylic paint.

The Talladaga and Dart tires have been done using this technique.  

[Ace-Garageguy]

1 hour ago, Mothersworry said:

Here's what I use...an old cassette player with a wheel glued into the capstan. Mount the tire, hit play, apply the brush loaded with acrylic paint.

Repurposing genius.   

[Bainford]

Yup, very clever, and nice looking results, too.

[Pete J.]

On 11/9/2023 at 11:58 AM, Ace-Garageguy said:

For doing Goodyear "Blue Streaks", I've had good results from mounting the tire on a tight-fitting wheel, then chucking it up in the lathe and cutting the groove deeper with a specially ground cutter.

Then white gel pen in the groove, followed by blue magic marker after the white is fully dry.

Sorry...no pix currently available.

Great idea!  I never thought of that.  I have a Sherline lathe and cut a jig as a guide.  I tried blue and red gel pens over white with no sucess.  The markers would have worked much better.  By the way, I had several club member ask me to make them a jig.  I will pass the magic marker idea on to them. Thanks Bill!

[peteski]

Yes, except for white and metallics, gel pen inks are usually translucent (depending on white background to show their proper color).  They work like the inks in color ink jet printers.  If applied to dark surfaces, the colors will not render properly.  Adding a white "base coat" will allow those other colors to show up correctly.

Just like printing decals on Alps printers:  they can print white ink undercoat before printing the translucent color inks, so the decal's colors will appear correctly, even applied to dark surfaces.

On the other hand, paint markers usually contain opaque paint which can be applied d over dark surfaces, But those don't usually have tips fine enough for thin stripes needed here.  The other problem is that they usually contain enamel paints which are not compatible with vinyl tire material (the enamels never fully dry on vinyl).

Edited November 14, 2023 by peteski

[Oldriginal86]

I like the spinning tire idea but found most model tires aren’t round and travel an elliptical path causing the stripe to be off-center.