# Adding white letters to black tires??



## guinnesspeanut (Sep 25, 2009)

To make whitewalls is relatively simple, a white ink or paint applied to a rotating tire, but what if you want the letters too? The only way I can think of to do this would be to have a stamp made.. like the ink stamps you see in craft stores.. There are a few crafters around who could be commissioned to do this, and, with the difference being a mere scale inch or 2 between the tire sizes, one stamp should work for all of your tire sizes.. Decals may be an option, but I have no idea how well they'd stay on, or if they'd be too shiny to be realistic. Any thoughts on the subject greatly appreciated.


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## Ralphthe3rd (Feb 24, 2011)

FWIW- Tyco used to sell aftermarket tires with white lettering. BUT, with extended handling and occasional tire cleaning, the lettering eventually rubs off. And personally, I don't think YOUR lettering would fare any better (my .02¢)


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## NTxSlotCars (May 27, 2008)

There are decal sheets available for this. I have some and they dont work very well.

Your best bet would be a photo etched copper stamp.
At this scale(HO) it may take several tries to get the etching right.

Maybe a stencil?


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## Joe65SkylarkGS (Feb 15, 2010)

The decals look good. I brush on some clear coat to keep them on. They don't stick well to silicon or rubber. They look great tho. Shelf queens only too. I never tried running them.


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## old blue (May 4, 2007)

I used the front AFX tires with the raised letter Goodyear lettering as a stamp. They come out backwards and a little blurry but you get the effect on the track. RRR had some really nice ones but I am not sure he makes those anymore.

Old Blue


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## alpink (Aug 22, 2010)

*outside the box*



old blue said:


> I used the front AFX tires with the raised letter Goodyear lettering as a stamp. They come out backwards and a little blurry but you get the effect on the track. RRR had some really nice ones but I am not sure he makes those anymore.
> 
> Old Blue


_Capital idea - what!_


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## old blue (May 4, 2007)

I also tried taking the AFX front tires, applying paint to the lettering and stamping them on a sheet of plastic and then stamping the rear tires on that. The Goodyear is no longer backward but it does tend to blur more in the transition.


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## slotcarman12078 (Oct 3, 2008)

If that tire trick worked well, it might be worth checking into a customized rubber stamp company to see if a stamp could be made. A simple jig could be made to hold a tire, and rig up the stamp handle with a screw with the head cut off so you could attach it to a drill press. Presto!! You're a white letter tire manufacturer. This process could be used for all the different brands of tires.

Consider this possibility too.. If the properly sized tubing can be found, the same process should work for making white walls, red lines, and all the other colors too! It will simply be a matter of applying the paint to the tube end, lowering the tube in the drill press, and applying the correct pressure to the tire to imprint the paint without smearing it.

The next trick will be finding paint that will stick to silicone, and that stretches with the tire so the letters and stripes don't turn to crap when you install the tires.


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## tabcomary (Jun 2, 2010)

.....
The next trick will be finding paint that will stick to silicone said:


> The thing that sticks best to silicone tires, is a compatible silicone. In the course of making whitewalls, I have put silicone markings on the sides of tires. Nothing legible, just dots to use with high-speed video. It will not come off without destroying the tire.


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## slotcarman12078 (Oct 3, 2008)

That's true. It all has to stretch at the same rate, or they'll shear themselves apart...


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## Jisp (Oct 19, 2008)

Adding white lettering is something I looked into a while back with very mixed results. I tried home made decals and while the decals came up great I couldn't find a method that made them stick.

From there I made enquiries about 3D printing a plastic stamp to use with a tyre holder and guide tube, as seen below. Unfortunately at the time, over a year ago, I was advised that 3D printing didn't have sufficient resolution to create the detail required.



I began making enquiries about having a rubber stamp made but the big question was still available resolution at such a small scale. I took a sample tyre to a local custom stamp manufacturer and had a chat with the guy. From memory the look on the guy's face when I showed him the size of the tyre I wanted to stamp on pretty much said it all and he was not confident I'd get a decent result.

A friend on another board (hi C :thumbsup was working in the printing industry and had someone he knew make up a few rubber stamp samples. I mounted one to a washer and ran a few tests with black ink just for the sake of testing. I also tested using white Tamiya acrylic. The results for both were far from great. Overall the ink worked better and in the test shot I just re-stamped without applying more ink. Somewhere around the fourth application gave the best result. These are macro shots and the actual printing is considerably smaller and looks a little better.







Around that time someone else suggested that ink would usually give a better result because it is easier to apply a very limited amount via an ink pad. A company called Stazon makes an opaque white ink and was recommended but as yet I have not tried it.

The real trick with stamping seems to be limiting the amount of liquid on the stamp while only using sufficient pressure to just transfer the liquid without forcing it sideways in all directions. Pressing too hard just gives a blurry, smudged appearance.

Another friend on that forum (hi T :thumbsup contacted me about a system he had seen that might hold the solution. Like so many things in slot car detailing, our wives and/or girlfriends come to the rescue in the form of a finger nail stamping kit by a company called Konad. It involves using photo etched plates with a negative etch of the image to transfer nail varnish to a nail stamper. Confused? Cut to about the 1:02 section of this clip and you'll understand. I've grabbed brass plate, acid, peroxide and a few other bits and pieces for DIY etching but got side tracked doing other things and haven't got back to it yet. Hmmm.... might be time to start experimenting again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSJ89KXZHqM&feature=youtu.be&t=1m2s

(Can someone please tell me how to embed a YouTube clip in a post? I can't get it to work as per Hank's instructions. Thanks.)

Cheers,
Michael. :thumbsup:


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## 1976Cordoba (Sep 20, 2000)

I would always just "dot" the tires with white or yellow... looks good at speed and not a lot of work. Easy to touch up after a little rubbin.

I would take white out and dump it into an old Testors thinner bottle, and then thin it out a bit so it wouldn't dry so fast. Eight dots applied with a toothpick made a Goodyear hehe


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## super8man (Jan 29, 2013)

Someone mentioned paint a whitewall with the tire rotating: when I grew up, all the 1:1 cars that "originally" had BF Goodrich raised white lettering ended up having white sidewalls after a few scrapes with the curb! hahaha... So, yeah, I really like those circle spots as they remind me of what real cars looked liked a month or two after they got their fancy RWL tires!


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## NTxSlotCars (May 27, 2008)

NTxSlotCars said:


> Your best bet would be a photo etched copper stamp.
> At this scale(HO) it may take several tries to get the etching right.
> 
> Maybe a stencil?


Doba, a friend of mine does the same thing. And the dots DO look very convincing going around the track at speed.


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## slotcarman12078 (Oct 3, 2008)

That konad method looks promising!! The biggest obstacle I foresee would be double pressing to make white walls, red lines, blue lines, etc. The gerf factor would be fairly high until you've had some practice.


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## Ralphthe3rd (Feb 24, 2011)

'Doba- Great Idea ! :thumbsup: I gotta try that trick


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