Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Making stock-looking whitewalls from white lettering tires

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    #16
    Originally posted by Louis View Post
    Nice job on the whitewalls! That will look very cool with the wire hubcaps.



    The seller discounttiredirect on eBay is always listing a set of 4 Hankook 225/75/15 WW's for $364 including shipping....sometimes they are on sale for $343. Been eyeing these for awhile for my Towncar.

    I've seen these Hankooks on a few cars last year at car shows...nice looking tire.
    Thanks for the info - I'll keep it in mind!! I think PEPBOYS (not my favorite place) carries them but may be a special order.


    "Hope and dignity are two things NO ONE can take away from you - you have to relinquish them on your own" Miamibob

    "NEVER trade your passion for glory"!! Sal "the Bard" (Dear Old Dad!)

    "Cars are for driving - PERIOD! I DON'T TEXT, TWEET OR TWERK!!!!"

    Comment


      #17
      Found some time tonight to make a written how-to. Watching the video first will help orient you a bit.


      To start with, disclaimers:

      I've done this once. This is all very experimental. If you do it wrong, you can ruin a perfectly good tire. I cannot 100% guarantee all white lettering tires work for this, but can see no reason that they wouldn't. Furthermore, I'm just a young enthusiast dicking around in my spare time, and can't guarantee that there aren't way better ways to do this

      Use safety gear. Goggles, tie back loose clothing and hair, all that fun stuff. You're going to be using stuff that can cut skin and break bones and all that fun stuff without even slowing down. Don't let your interest in getting the tire right jeopardize your safety.


      What you need:
      brake lathe (a car with it's drive axle raised, and put in reverse may be a substitute but for god's sake be careful)
      tire machine (or brake lathe capable of going at >30RPM)
      angle grinder
      assorted sanding and prep pads for angle grinder
      clean rags
      your favourite rubber cleaner


      Step 1:
      You need a smooth surface everywhere you intend to grind on the tire. Knock down the raised white lettering and any significant other raised portions that it lines up with. DOT markings, tire size, etc.

      Getting it perfect isn't important here, just down to more or less flat with the rest of the tire.

      With the tire at 5-10 PSI, to hold a shape but not blow up lethally if you compromise it, go around with a fairly aggressive sanding pad on your grinder and sand off everything where you want your whitewalls to be. Once you're satisfied that nothing will 'catch' on the grinder when you have the tire spinning on the lathe, it's time for step two.


      Step 2:
      Mount your wheel on the brake lathe. I was able to get it centered using a cone shaped attachment, but you'll have to see what works for you, just like mounting a brake disc or drum. Don't turn it on until you're sure the wheel is secure, as you're dealing with serious torque.

      If there is a convenient pad on the brake lathe to rest your arm or tool, mount the tire with the white side facing that way. If not, you want the white sidewall facing out, and to find a bench, chair, whatever to brace your arm against. Keeping your hand still is key.


      Step 3:
      Turn the lathe on/start the car. With your arm well braced, start to grind using the edge of the grinding disc on the outer edge of where you want your whitewall to be. To start with, I just made this the upper tip of the existing white letters. This is to establish a clean, smooth edge of the whitewall.

      Using just enough pressure to keep the angle grinder on the tire all the way around, hold the grinder on there until you see the a solid white line form where you're grinding. You may have to stop a couple times to check how deep you've gone. When you're done, you should have a neat white line all the way around the tire where you want the outer edge of your whitewall to be.

      Below is my tire at that stage. You can see I made one groove too close to the wheel rim, and had to make another right at the outer edge of the white lettering. You'll never turn the white lettering to black, so any smooth whitewalls must be at least the width of the white lettering.



      Repeat the above for the inner (close to the rim) extreme of where you want your whitewall to be. Go until it's all white all the way around the tire in that groove, but not any farther. Stopping to check if you're deep enough is better than going too deep

      You should now have two very narrow white grooves around the tire. If you're going for very narrow whitewalls, they'll be at the upper and lower tips of the white lettering the tires came with. If you're satisfied that the distance between these two narrow grooves/lines is the size of whitewall you want, it's time for the next step

      Step 4:

      Now you've got to 'fill in' the spot between your two narrow grooves with more white. Spin the tire up again on the lathe. This time, use the main flat face of the angle grinder pad, not the edge. Just grind down in between the two grooves until you see fairly consistent white. Be sure that you aren't touching anything outside the grooves, as white in the wrong place isn't reversible. Patience is key here, this is not a fast process. Expect to spend at least 10-15 minutes per tire grinding like this. Stop frequently to see your progress.

      Attack one side of the area at a time. Have the edge of your grinding disc just touching one groove, and the other lifted a bit above the other groove. Use enough pressure that the grinder isn't bouncing off the tire, but not much more.

      If you now have a whitewall with lots of black spots, lines, etc. but two fairly crisp edges, you're ready for the next step. Here's how mine looked at this point



      Step 5

      Now is where the tire machine (or slow lathe setting) comes in.

      You'll have noticed by this point that the quick spinning tire hides all the small spots of black still showing. This is where you clean all of those up.

      Start by vacuuming or using an air blower to get all the rubber dust off, and cleaning the whitewall thoroughly so you can see what still needs more grinding and what just has black smeared on it

      If you have a tire machine, move the finger/arm that you pry against to remove tires into place a couple inches above the wheel, roughly one inch inwards from the wheel lip. This is where you can brace yourself for good control of the angle grinder.

      Spin the wheel. With very light pressure on the grinder, aim forthe spots that are still black as you go around. If you're getting more black smearing, clean off the whitewall again and also clean the grinding pad. You may also want to go to a less aggressive pad at this point.

      Final touchup can be done with a firm scrubbing with a clean shop rag, and then cleaning the whitewall with any nice rubber cleaner and another clean rag. You can even use the rags and some elbow grease to get the very last of the black spots off. Make sure there's no rubber dust or other debris in the grooves (if they're still deeper than the inner parts of the whitewall) making stuff look uneven.

      You should now have whitewalls of the size and placement of your choosing (within some limitations) on whatever white lettering tire you chose. And assuming you already had all the tools, all you've spent is time and a couple grinder pads. Sweet, right?


      85 4 door 351 Civi Crown Victoria - Summer daily driver, sleeper in the making, and wildly inappropriate autocross machine
      160KMs 600cfm holley, shorty headers, 2.5" catted exhaust, 255/295 tires, cop shocks, cop swaybars, underdrive pulley, 2.73L gears.
      waiting for install: 3.27's, Poly bushings, boxed rear arms, 2500 stall converter, ported e7's, etc

      06 Mazda 3 hatch 2.3L 5AT (winter beater that cost more than my summer car)

      Comment

      Working...
      X