What kind of glue/adhesive for two piece rubber/vinyl (?) tires?

[Speedfreak]

I've got a Austin Revell kit I'm gonna be working on soon that has two piece rubber/vinyl tires, what would be the 'preferred' glue for those? Thanks!

[Ace-Garageguy]

The only stuff I've ever seen that would work on those was a special vinyl adhesive that came packaged with replacement split-boots for CV joints in front-wheel-drive cars. I don't know what the stuff was. Good luck.

EDIT: It was probably something like this...WELD-ON ® 4784 Vinyl Cement
Clear, medium bodied, fast setting, high strength solvent cement for flexible vinyl, leather, acrylic, butyrate and kydex.

Edited June 17, 2014 by Ace-Garageguy

[Speedfreak]

Thanks Bill! I've seen, (I had at on time) some stuff at Ace Hardware that is a glue to repair 'tennis shoe' soles etc,..... it dries and sticks real well and is flexible. I think they call it 'Sole Repair' or something and I bet they still have it. I'll check the stuff you mention as well Bill. Thing is, those tires I mentioned actually look good if you do them well. Then of course there's always the new AMT Custom & Competition M&H slicks

[Kit Basher]

Hey Gene, I think the stuff you're talking about is called "Shoe Goo". I've never used it on tires (just shoes), but if it will stick to the tires it should work well. It's really sticky and when dry looks a lot like the stuff they make model tires out of.

[Speedfreak]

Hugh, I think you are absolutely right about the name of the stuff. 'Sole Repair' well I was close, I've used it on tennis shoes with rubber soles before, it's worth giving it a try.

Edited June 17, 2014 by Speedfreak

[rmvw guy]

Thanks guys, I am getting ready do the same thing on a Revell Thames panel truck. The tires do look great. I have used two part epoxy in the past but, I think I will try the Shoe Goo. It does work good on shoes.

[jwrass]

You could try Black Silicone gasket sealer. Permatex has it in small tubes (I got mine at NAPA) It sticks to everything.

I have used Shoe Goo on my beater lawn mowing tennies and it has worked great! I second what Hugh said.

[rmvw guy]

Update:

I tried the shoe goo on my two piece tires yesterday. This was on a Revell Thames Panel Truck issued in 1995. First off the tires did not come off the rubber sprues well. It left flat spots with no tread, ouch. The glue was a mess, trying to use it sparingly with a toothpick made a lot of little strings of glue. Out of the tube the hole was too big and allowed too much product. Maybe I should have used a pin to make the hole. The cost was $4 and change for a 1 oz. tube from Meijer, I only paid $5 for my model at a swap meet ( That's my negative way of looking at things my Wife always gets on me for.) Oh well, maybe I will need a pair of shoes repaired in the near future to offset the cost.

My advise, find another set of one piece tires.

[Speedfreak]

Ron, I'm laughing with you, not at you! I thought all this through and decided against the Goo. I've got an extra old set of those slicks if you need them, they're not perfect but you should be able to clean them up fine, they're already glued together. PM me if you need them.

I'm gonna try some stuff I got at HL the other day, it's Aleene's 'Clear Gel Tacky Glue' it came in a pack of 5 little bottles with 4 different types of Aleene's glues. I'll post the results. If it doesn't work out I'm lining up other options.

[rmvw guy]

Thanks Gene but they were the small front tires that I worked on, not the slicks. These seem to be hard to come by for me, maybe because I don't build many gassers. I have some older Revell tires from about 50 years ago I will be using.

I have used the black silicone gasket sealer mentioned above by James on another project. It almost looks like you could make your own tires from it from a mold. Maybe for another day. Good luck with your project.

[Mike_G]

Super-glue works fine on vinyl tires.

[Speedfreak]

Thanks Gene but they were the small front tires that I worked on, not the slicks. These seem to be hard to come by for me, maybe because I don't build many gassers. I have some older Revell tires from about 50 years ago I will be using.

I have used the black silicone gasket sealer mentioned above by James on another project. It almost looks like you could make your own tires from it from a mold. Maybe for another day. Good luck with your project.

Thanks Ron, bummer on the tires, but, it's part of the modeling experience. I thought about the gasket sealer, but, nah. I'll probably end up using super glue, or , regular Model Master glue, I'll do some experimenting with the Aleene's Clear Gel.

Super-glue works fine on vinyl tires.

I knew there had to be something simple to this. thanks Mike.

Edited June 20, 2014 by Speedfreak