You absolutely nailed it. Used to black out the lettering, now we want it back. Hopefully manufacturers start up the white lettering. I always liked it.
not enough room on the sidewalls any more. Everybody wants the large diameter rims (UGLY) and real low profile tires with little sidewall these days. Honestly I think those short tires look like shit on a car. Never liked blackwall either always bought white letter tires when I could. And black wheels have to be the ugliest car invention since the wheel. Anyway many off road truck tires still have raised white lettering so the market is still there for them.
These issues are from the oil in the tires leaching into the paint. Rubber is a petroleum product and as such it’s oily. This is also what give tires that dull brown we strive to scrub off. The only solution I’ve seen that actually works for the DIY’er is the tire “stickers”, basically precut rubber lettering you glue to the tire.
I've always been a fan of tire letters.I had it on my last car plus my current car & it truly stands out because not that many people have them, now mine are raised but I must constantly maintain them because they are white & red, but it's well worth it
Materials and Manufacturing Processes Modern tires are primarily constructed of synthetic black rubber due to the use of carbon black for greater strength and durability. The white writing is created using a specially developed rubber compound coating that resists damage and retains its color over time. BEFORE WHITE LETTERS: WHITE WALLS Many early tire designs used rubber compounds that increased traction by adding zinc oxide. This chemical addition also happened to turn the rubber of the tires white.
Sharpie, white oil paint markers. Open it up, put it in a very fine needle tip bottle and fill out the letters. I have done Bridgestone Potenza and Hankook Ventus with great results. This tip only works for reassed lettering.
@@bultacowally Just look up the definition of recess... Simply put, the letter create a "bath" you can fill with paint to color them. Opposed to a raised letter which would stick out from the tire surface.
First -- Great-looking Trans Am ! I had an '86 model, and I miss it. - I miss the old F Bodies and Trans Am's entirely ! ** Rubber is naturally WHITE... Tire manufacturers include additives to blacken the tires. When they make white wall and white letter tires, they include a strip of the mostly-natural white Rubber (or other colored rubber) and leave the exposed edges of the letters to show. I also want white letter tires and considered this option, but I was afraid it would be a waste of time. (glad you posted this)
Oil based paints work, and will last a fair amount of time, the white letters from the factory are basically a type of powder coating which is baked on, just for ease of explanation. The reason paints don't last on tires is because of the plasticizers in the compound which is continuously off gassing. But as I've said, I have used oil based paint with great success, although again, in a couple months you will have to redo it.
I think you need to use primer first. When people paint their entire sidewalls, they put down a layer of special primer first. You need the primer to block the regular paint from interacting with the vulcanized rubber. I used the paint pens on a new set of Michelin Pilot Super Sports. I didn't use dish soap to clean the new tire walls but degreaser instead. It was the orange citrus degreaser I use to clean bike chains. That removed whatever surface dressing was on the tires from the factory that protects them during long term storage. It's been a few weeks and I haven't seen any peeling or discoloring yet. One idea I had was to buy the paint pens, cut the end off one or two, and then run a brayer ink roller like they use in newspaper printing through it. This would allow you to hit all the raised lettering on the tire in one go and do touch ups with another pen later. They brayer rollers are less than $10 on Amazon. Because the surface area you're dealing with is small and the paint in those pens is somewhat precious in terms of quantity, you'll want a small roller.
Car tire manufacturers used white rubber. If you curb rash actual RWL tires they become full whitewalls. The only white letter tires I've ever had and probably will ever have (I like blackwalls) were bicycle tires that the lettering looked to be printed onto. Neither is realistic to do at home.
I'm getting ready to do this. I have been researching this for a few weeks. I will be trying scrubbing the letters with acetone and a wire brush. I actually have a white letter tire brush for cleaning white letters. By the way, my tires are new as well. Wish me luck! The car looked awesome by the way! I just scrubbed them down, now I'll wait until tomorrow for the paint process.
@@bothetinman772 I did 3 coats of paint on my wheels and they did last about a good month before I had to repaint them. The letters wore off quicker that the emblem that was on my tires, kinda weird. The paint is still there, they just turned a very dark red. By the way, I used red! I'm gonna do them again, I liked it.
Hey what I'm doing is I am painting my letters with an outdoor Marine paint and then I am taking the flex seal and spraying it onto cardboard and then using a sponge brush after the letters have dried and I am wiping the clear coat of flex seal over that!
Why is tire lettering blue? The blue stuff is actually a soap stuff that they put on there to protect the white lettering in transport so it won't get damaged and look as good as it can look when you finally get the tyres on your car.
I was told by someone working for an OEM tire manf that the white letters, or stripes are actually moulded into the compound (vulcanized or otherwise fused) out of silicone. Never saw that coming. With the "rubber" compound being flexible, any paint or coating would have to flex with it or it will crack for sure. Good luck.
The oils in mew tires yellow it you have to let them set in the sun its best to use older tires when painting them using 2 stages of paint also helps like enamel first with acrylic over it so it doesn't leach threw
tire manufacturers don’t use a paint they used raise lettering without the black pigment rubber naturally white i’ve seen some guys use a grinder to sidewall of their tire to turn it white
Same results with me. Brand new tires, but mine where 35s. Painted them with some oil based pens but it was very time consuming, my error was I did it off the wheels. Enough said. Will never do it again!! Way too much time, but it looked bad@ss!! Cant wait to see the 17’s video!!
I used this product myself. I washed them with simple green wiped them with 99% alcohol. And did about 3-4 coats with day’s of drying in between coats. Looked great until it got to the end of the 10 mile trip. Some of it held on really well. Most of it flaked off. I just figured that I did something wrong,But then I figured we’ll over 50% stayed on.
Just got these same tires put on my Camaro. Debating doing the white letters. Yeah it's funny, I remember highschool in the 90's, I'd always have tires with white letters (Usually the BF Goodrich Comp T/A's)
I would try first washing them and then putting acetone( which is nail polish remover) on then try painting . that would takeoff the protective coating off the tire and allow the paint to stick better. Also, you should research what people use for painting the soles of sneakers because those are made with rubber compound. You normally have to do a dye process, but it might be harder because the rubber dye is going from black, which is a very dark color to white. so I would stick with doing acetone first and then putting your paint on and then adding a clearcoat but it’s going to eventually fade which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Maybe there needs to be some kind of primer to use first and some kind of sealer afterwords. I was thinking about hot wax or elmers glue outside the letters in case the brushing is not perfect, then just peel off the wax or glue afterwords.
After I watched this I thought that I give it another try with the paint. I believe that I cleaned the tires very well. Like you it looked great till I drove the truck. I found the letters in the drive way and on the road. But they were still in one piece. Okay not clean enough but why did the ones next to them stay on? Did all Four again this time after two coats and hours of drying time in between coats. The letters looked like flaking barn paint. Scraped off the paint again some was good. Did them all again. Not much better than before but some not the same amount of flakes. But when you look at them close in some spots you can see what looks like air bubbles on the surface of the tire. Not everyone and not all parts of the letters. Has anyone had better results with any product? This took weeks to do letting them dry between each tire and each coat. After the rubber paint. I went back to paint pens. The results were about the same. Like each letter was a little different and some are perfect. The truck is still in the garage.( LOL)
Flex seal will adhere better because its liquid rubber. I havnt tried this yet, but I wander if clear coating the paint will help it keep its color and last longer? just a though
Okay I’ll try that next. You would think that after like 8 coats at least on each one sanded off and then alcohol wipe down. You would think that there’s enough “base coat”
@@CSltz all the base coat in the world won’t matter if it isn’t bonded properly. You need to flam treat the rubber first, then use an adhesion promoter, then paint it, then clear it. I did mine a year ago and they still look great.
Here's a method for tire painting that you may be interested in . Since I was a little kid I liked the look of muscle cars with red line tires 'but as an adult these tires were a thing of the past and they weren't available (especially not here in New Zealand).So about 18 years ago I started to try and paint them on myself I tried a few different sorts of paint ' and adding rubberizer into paint etc 'and I had a lot of fails .But I finally came up with something that works very well and stays on and doesnt crack' and it's simple . The paint I use is automotive base coat color thinned out by at least a half with plastic adhesion promoter. Here is my process ' clean the sidewall well with multiple wipes with acetone ' spray one coat of plastic adhesion promoter on the sidewall' mask for the line ' and apply the paint with an artist's brush . This should work for your white lettering as well' although maybe not thin it out as much' to avoid yellowing. One possible way to avoid yellowing may be to paint the lettering with black paint first (same mixture as mentioned) and it would probably block off what causes the yellowing .🙂
the tires petrolients seep into the paint over time thats why tires get harder and crack the petrolients get exhausted same thing with fading black plastics you might want to try to put a layer of flex seal down first and then paint that but you said that didnt help as it is rubber like but may last longer
Great video, thank you ! White letters from the factory are not painted on. The rubber is white until black is added to the rubber mix, when the rubber is being made.
The older tires will hold white color longer ...will not work with new tires due to the petroleum.So if you clean a weathered tire they will hold...true story..been doing it for years now because you just can't get the rwl . tires!!
@@catalinselaru6233A lot of people have trouble with the white paint turning brown or yellow from the oils in the tire... I wonder if you used brown or yellow... or red to start with... if it would do better.. I have a red bike so... red is a possibility.
@@catalinselaru6233I saw quite a few vinyl appliques, that are like solid white rubber stripes or patterns, that come on an application sheet (like a transfer tattoo), and then you use rubber cement to glue and fuse them to the tire, much like you would fuse a rubber patch onto a tire with rubber glue (chemical reaction between the two). They're expensive though... you can get them in custom letters and different colors, patterns, or white wall stripes. I might buy a quart of liquid rubber and try it out, or look around for a strip of pure white rubber waterproofing seals that could be fused with a rubber cement chemical reaction. A strip of thin pure white rubber should not be too impossible to find, and then it's just a matter of fusing it to the tire and cutting it to length, and testing out if it stays on at 100mph. You'd get crisper line edges with a strip of solid silicone rubber seal strips real I'm thinking.
I had the same Idea found At Amazon haven't tried it. Thought you might be interested. PlaidFX Metallic Flexible Acrylic Paint Ideal for Pliable Surfaces and Cosplay Costumes, Non-Cracking or Peeling, No-Tack, Durable, 3 oz, Gauntlet. The other idea was white gel fingernail polish.
Don't know what the big deal is with you painting your tire lettering. I used white Sharpie paint pen on my Goodyears still look great after 2nd year. Was quite easy too didn't even have to take tires off.
You absolutely nailed it. Used to black out the lettering, now we want it back. Hopefully manufacturers start up the white lettering. I always liked it.
not enough room on the sidewalls any more. Everybody wants the large diameter rims (UGLY) and real low profile tires with little sidewall these days. Honestly I think those short tires look like shit on a car. Never liked blackwall either always bought white letter tires when I could. And black wheels have to be the ugliest car invention since the wheel. Anyway many off road truck tires still have raised white lettering so the market is still there for them.
@@bultacowally agreed
These issues are from the oil in the tires leaching into the paint. Rubber is a petroleum product and as such it’s oily.
This is also what give tires that dull brown we strive to scrub off. The only solution I’ve seen that actually works for the DIY’er is the tire “stickers”, basically precut rubber lettering you glue to the tire.
I've always been a fan of tire letters.I had it on my last car plus my current car & it truly stands out because not that many people have them, now mine are raised but I must constantly maintain them because they are white & red, but it's well worth it
Materials and Manufacturing Processes
Modern tires are primarily constructed of synthetic black rubber due to the use of carbon black for greater strength and durability. The white writing is created using a specially developed rubber compound coating that resists damage and retains its color over time. BEFORE WHITE LETTERS: WHITE WALLS
Many early tire designs used rubber compounds that increased traction by adding zinc oxide. This chemical addition also happened to turn the rubber of the tires white.
Sharpie, white oil paint markers. Open it up, put it in a very fine needle tip bottle and fill out the letters. I have done Bridgestone Potenza and Hankook Ventus with great results. This tip only works for reassed lettering.
WTF is reassed lettering???
@@bultacowally Just look up the definition of recess... Simply put, the letter create a "bath" you can fill with paint to color them. Opposed to a raised letter which would stick out from the tire surface.
I plan to do the same. Could you perhaps share how long Sharpie lasted on the Potenza? Thnx 👋🙂
First -- Great-looking Trans Am ! I had an '86 model, and I miss it. - I miss the old F Bodies and Trans Am's entirely !
** Rubber is naturally WHITE... Tire manufacturers include additives to blacken the tires. When they make white wall and white letter tires, they include a strip of the mostly-natural white Rubber (or other colored rubber) and leave the exposed edges of the letters to show.
I also want white letter tires and considered this option, but I was afraid it would be a waste of time.
(glad you posted this)
Oil based paints work, and will last a fair amount of time, the white letters from the factory are basically a type of powder coating which is baked on, just for ease of explanation. The reason paints don't last on tires is because of the plasticizers in the compound which is continuously off gassing. But as I've said, I have used oil based paint with great success, although again, in a couple months you will have to redo it.
I think you need to use primer first. When people paint their entire sidewalls, they put down a layer of special primer first. You need the primer to block the regular paint from interacting with the vulcanized rubber.
I used the paint pens on a new set of Michelin Pilot Super Sports. I didn't use dish soap to clean the new tire walls but degreaser instead. It was the orange citrus degreaser I use to clean bike chains. That removed whatever surface dressing was on the tires from the factory that protects them during long term storage. It's been a few weeks and I haven't seen any peeling or discoloring yet.
One idea I had was to buy the paint pens, cut the end off one or two, and then run a brayer ink roller like they use in newspaper printing through it. This would allow you to hit all the raised lettering on the tire in one go and do touch ups with another pen later. They brayer rollers are less than $10 on Amazon. Because the surface area you're dealing with is small and the paint in those pens is somewhat precious in terms of quantity, you'll want a small roller.
Car tire manufacturers used white rubber. If you curb rash actual RWL tires they become full whitewalls. The only white letter tires I've ever had and probably will ever have (I like blackwalls) were bicycle tires that the lettering looked to be printed onto. Neither is realistic to do at home.
I just ordered tire stencils from tredwear, they reccomend using a spray paint that bonds to plastic, using 5 or 6 thin coats
I'm getting ready to do this. I have been researching this for a few weeks. I will be trying scrubbing the letters with acetone and a wire brush. I actually have a white letter tire brush for cleaning white letters. By the way, my tires are new as well. Wish me luck! The car looked awesome by the way! I just scrubbed them down, now I'll wait until tomorrow for the paint process.
How did things go for you? I’m wanting to paint my new motorcycle tires before I mount them.
@@bothetinman772 I did 3 coats of paint on my wheels and they did last about a good month before I had to repaint them. The letters wore off quicker that the emblem that was on my tires, kinda weird. The paint is still there, they just turned a very dark red. By the way, I used red! I'm gonna do them again, I liked it.
Hey what I'm doing is I am painting my letters with an outdoor Marine paint and then I am taking the flex seal and spraying it onto cardboard and then using a sponge brush after the letters have dried and I am wiping the clear coat of flex seal over that!
Weird, I didn't get notification for this video. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for watching!
maybe need to apply a clear coat after the paint to put a protective layer after the paint so it can be washed?
Why is tire lettering blue?
The blue stuff is actually a soap stuff that they put on there to protect the white lettering in transport so it won't get damaged and look as good as it can look when you finally get the tyres on your car.
Did you clean the tire area where you painted good. Windex toothbrush. The oil comes from the tire itself.
Forealz I'm 53 and going nuts looking for raised white letters ,so I'm this is my option...gotta have it
I was told by someone working for an OEM tire manf that the white letters, or stripes are actually moulded into the compound (vulcanized or otherwise fused) out of silicone. Never saw that coming. With the "rubber" compound being flexible, any paint or coating would have to flex with it or it will crack for sure. Good luck.
The oils in mew tires yellow it you have to let them set in the sun its best to use older tires when painting them using 2 stages of paint also helps like enamel first with acrylic over it so it doesn't leach threw
You have to wire (brass) brush the area then acetone
tire manufacturers don’t use a paint they used raise lettering without the black pigment rubber naturally white i’ve seen some guys use a grinder to sidewall of their tire to turn it white
Same results with me. Brand new tires, but mine where 35s. Painted them with some oil based pens but it was very time consuming, my error was I did it off the wheels. Enough said. Will never do it again!! Way too much time, but it looked bad@ss!! Cant wait to see the 17’s video!!
I used this product myself. I washed them with simple green wiped them with 99% alcohol. And did about 3-4 coats with day’s of drying in between coats. Looked great until it got to the end of the 10 mile trip. Some of it held on really well. Most of it flaked off. I just figured that I did something wrong,But then I figured we’ll over 50% stayed on.
Just got these same tires put on my Camaro. Debating doing the white letters. Yeah it's funny, I remember highschool in the 90's, I'd always have tires with white letters (Usually the BF Goodrich Comp T/A's)
Thanks for saving me the time
I would try first washing them and then putting acetone( which is nail polish remover) on then try painting . that would takeoff the protective coating off the tire and allow the paint to stick better. Also, you should research what people use for painting the soles of sneakers because those are made with rubber compound. You normally have to do a dye process, but it might be harder because the rubber dye is going from black, which is a very dark color to white. so I would stick with doing acetone first and then putting your paint on and then adding a clearcoat but it’s going to eventually fade which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Maybe there needs to be some kind of primer to use first and some kind of sealer afterwords. I was thinking about hot wax or elmers glue outside the letters in case the brushing is not perfect, then just peel off the wax or glue afterwords.
This years Trans am is a Gentleman’s sports car.
After I watched this I thought that I give it another try with the paint. I believe that I cleaned the tires very well. Like you it looked great till I drove the truck. I found the letters in the drive way and on the road. But they were still in one piece. Okay not clean enough but why did the ones next to them stay on? Did all Four again this time after two coats and hours of drying time in between coats. The letters looked like flaking barn paint. Scraped off the paint again some was good. Did them all again. Not much better than before but some not the same amount of flakes. But when you look at them close in some spots you can see what looks like air bubbles on the surface of the tire. Not everyone and not all parts of the letters. Has anyone had better results with any product? This took weeks to do letting them dry between each tire and each coat. After the rubber paint. I went back to paint pens. The results were about the same. Like each letter was a little different and some are perfect. The truck is still in the garage.( LOL)
Good video
That sucks. The white letter tires fit. I remember having them flip the tires around so I could have all black on my 95 Trans Am
how about spray paint over letter stencils
Tire wet will definitely change the color, also I herd if the tire is brand new it change the color, but the main reason is tire wet
the secret to paint pens is to dab it on little by little and ive had it last 6month visibly even after blasted by car wash
Flex seal will adhere better because its liquid rubber. I havnt tried this yet, but I wander if clear coating the paint will help it keep its color and last longer? just a though
Have you tried Liquide Electric tape. Works amazing..
Perhaps do a test not on rubber. Perhaps it’s the Sun that is causing it to lose colour.
How about outdoor furniture spray can?
I read, as a tire goes down the road, chemicals in the rubber are activated and released.
Why have I only been thinking in the lane of just paint pens? I'll just use a brush and then seal the paint with clear coat
My stepfather is an expert painter, he says to use an undercoat before applying the actual paint.
Yep, the chemicals in the tyre are leaching through.
Okay I’ll try that next. You would think that after like 8 coats at least on each one sanded off and then alcohol wipe down. You would think that there’s enough “base coat”
@@CSltz all the base coat in the world won’t matter if it isn’t bonded properly. You need to flam treat the rubber first, then use an adhesion promoter, then paint it, then clear it. I did mine a year ago and they still look great.
Here's a method for tire painting that you may be interested in . Since I was a little kid I liked the look of muscle cars with red line tires 'but as an adult these tires were a thing of the past and they weren't available (especially not here in New Zealand).So about 18 years ago I started to try and paint them on myself I tried a few different sorts of paint ' and adding rubberizer into paint etc 'and I had a lot of fails .But I finally came up with something that works very well and stays on and doesnt crack' and it's simple . The paint I use is automotive base coat color thinned out by at least a half with plastic adhesion promoter. Here is my process ' clean the sidewall well with multiple wipes with acetone ' spray one coat of plastic adhesion promoter on the sidewall' mask for the line ' and apply the paint with an artist's brush . This should work for your white lettering as well' although maybe not thin it out as much' to avoid yellowing. One possible way to avoid yellowing may be to paint the lettering with black paint first (same mixture as mentioned) and it would probably block off what causes the yellowing .🙂
the tires petrolients seep into the paint over time thats why tires get harder and crack the petrolients get exhausted same thing with fading black plastics you might want to try to put a layer of flex seal down first and then paint that but you said that didnt help as it is rubber like but may last longer
Cooper cobras are white letters and they a classic muscle car tire
DuPont tire paint first then apply lettering paint .?!
Seen it all stickers,paint,,,etc..been there done it all.. just stay with your ugly black walls..no headaches!!
zinc oxide is thw trick and easy to purchase
Great video, thank you ! White letters from the factory are not painted on. The rubber is white until black is added to the rubber mix, when the rubber is being made.
put clear coat over the paint it will last a lot longer
Its new tires
The older tires will hold white color longer ...will not work with new tires due to the petroleum.So if you clean a weathered tire they will hold...true story..been doing it for years now because you just can't get the rwl . tires!!
Er, that doesn’t explain brand new tyres with white letters!
@@officialWWM er,duh!!
@@mikesecondo2254 you are claiming you can only paint older tyres…clearly, you are wrong…
@@officialWWM yeah... I'm always WRONG!!!
White liquid rubber !!!
Did it work?
@@choppergirl For me, yes !
@@catalinselaru6233A lot of people have trouble with the white paint turning brown or yellow from the oils in the tire...
I wonder if you used brown or yellow... or red to start with... if it would do better.. I have a red bike so... red is a possibility.
@@choppergirlNot paint. Liquid rubber. White liquid rubber.
@@catalinselaru6233I saw quite a few vinyl appliques, that are like solid white rubber stripes or patterns, that come on an application sheet (like a transfer tattoo), and then you use rubber cement to glue and fuse them to the tire, much like you would fuse a rubber patch onto a tire with rubber glue (chemical reaction between the two). They're expensive though... you can get them in custom letters and different colors, patterns, or white wall stripes.
I might buy a quart of liquid rubber and try it out, or look around for a strip of pure white rubber waterproofing seals that could be fused with a rubber cement chemical reaction. A strip of thin pure white rubber should not be too impossible to find, and then it's just a matter of fusing it to the tire and cutting it to length, and testing out if it stays on at 100mph. You'd get crisper line edges with a strip of solid silicone rubber seal strips real I'm thinking.
plastic dip brush on
Primer
I had the same Idea found At Amazon haven't tried it. Thought you might be interested. PlaidFX Metallic Flexible Acrylic Paint Ideal for Pliable Surfaces and Cosplay Costumes, Non-Cracking or Peeling, No-Tack, Durable, 3 oz, Gauntlet. The other idea was white gel fingernail polish.
Don't know what the big deal is with you painting your tire lettering. I used white Sharpie paint pen on my Goodyears still look great after 2nd year. Was quite easy too didn't even have to take tires off.
Thanks for the tip. I may try again with the sharpie.
Did the white sharpie work ?@@SavingSally