# foam tires on a budget



## krazikev (Oct 29, 2009)

Dont throw out those old dried foam tires, now theres a way to keep new tires from dring out and restore old ones
Heres a video 

https://youtu.be/gUloceA1ptE


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## Rich Dumas (Sep 3, 2008)

It looks like the Trinity product will bring foam tires that have become hard back to life. When I was racing 1/24th cars with foam tires I used the Champion tire conditioner and the tires would wear out before they got old enough to turn hard. A fellow racer used to take the tires off of his cars, put them in the plastic tubes that they came in and store them in a freezer between races. I wonder what his wife thought about that. 
I have lots of 1/24th cars with foam tires, I have not raced them for a number of years, partly because there are no tracks near me. The tires are now all quite hard. A few years ago I heard that an amusement arcade in a nearby town had gotten a couple of tracks, so I packed up a selection of cars and expected to have to buy a few sets of tires to get them running. Unfortunately the tracks were not in operation at the time and I believe that the place went out of business without them ever being used.
Right now I have one HO car with foam tires that I use to clean my track. After many years the original set of tires came apart, but I had another set still in an unopened blister package. The new tires had hardened up over the years and they are only good enough for track cleaning purposes. The tires have good grip with a fresh coat of tire conditioner, but the grip goes off after a few dozen laps, even if the track is very clean. I can't try the Trinity conditioner on my 1/24th tires, but I will get some to use on those HO tires.


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## krazikev (Oct 29, 2009)

I never said this was new, just said that I did not see anything on youtube about restoring old foam tires. Also the tires I am referring to are permently mounted foam tires on pro track wheels for 1/32 and 1/24 commercial tracks, not HO silicone replacements that u are referring to. also the track I run at is cleaned daily. Sorry that you misunderstood here.


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## Rich Dumas (Sep 3, 2008)

See the previous post.


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## alpink (Aug 22, 2010)

Kev, the foam can be removed from those wheels using naptha (coleman fuel, lighter fluid etc) and there are places that can put new foam on for you.
I have experimented with silifoams for 1/24 drag cars and they get superior grip, but fail in the braking/shut down area.
a "glue" is used in the shut down area to grab the foam tires and slow the car.
this same glue, in various thicknesses is used on the foam tires for traction off the starting line.
the silifoams do not work well with the glue in the shut down and the cars crash.
as was stated, the track must be clean for silifoams(as well as slip on silicone tires) to work well, so 1/24 tracks have to be completely cleaned prior to using them and not enough guys want to use silifoam in that scale to make it worth while.
incidentally, since you can get old foam off of wheels and if you have a mototool(dremel), consider putting your own new foam on and trimming to the OD of your choice.
contact cement(glue) works well for adhering the foam to the wheels.
a little bit of mineral oil on the glue prepared wheel allows the glue prepared foam donut to slide on and the mineral oil does not prevent the contact cement from adhering.
also, thin the silicone with some denatured alcohol to put the first few coats on the foam, this will allow it to soak into the foam a little better and prevent peeling.
then you can put additional coats on that until you get the consistency you desire.
I would think there is tutorial video somewhere on these procedures.
it is a lot of work, so you get an idea why silifoam tires are expensive.
I haven't looked at your link, but I shall now.
if the info I have just provided is covered there, ....

never mind ....


LOL

......

OK, after viewing the you tube link, I suss that renewing old foam tires is the subject and the OP presents no desire to coat foam tires with silicone.
all in all, if that procedure works well, it will represent great savings with little effort for regular racers.
sorry I go off to a tangent on silifoams.
I was misled by another reply post that doesn't seem to actually address the OP's intention for presenting the link.
I see that a Port Jeff sticker is on the racing box of the car owner.
I know a drag racer from Long Island that raced there often, along with racing all over the midwest, east coast and even at my track some years back.
6 degrees of separation.


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## krazikev (Oct 29, 2009)

Maybe I am not saying this right rich dumas, let me try again. I to have been doing this procedure for over a decade also that's not what I said in video. What I did say is that I didn't see any VIDEOS on YouTube about this SPECIFIC procedure. I to have old ARTICLE'S but haven't seen any VIDEOS.


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## krazikev (Oct 29, 2009)

Hey alpine, I have been using lighter fluid to clean tires but not to remove foam from them as u mentioned. Used this for a while back in the day to clean but only on cars that I raced alot but the tires would wear out before the foam would be ruined by the abrasive chemical that lighter fluid has. But now that I don't race alot and the tires sit using lighter fluid would only ruin them. As for using it to remove the foam and then paying someone to put foam on it would be cheaper to pay 11 bucks for brand new wheels. As for the track I race on if u haven't noticed in video my cars are not drag cars so the track I run on sets the surface up differently. But thanks for replying.


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## Rich Dumas (Sep 3, 2008)

Cleaning foam tires and reconditioning ones that have gotten hard are two different things. In the past any treatment that I was aware of only restored grip for a rather short time, in that case tires that were good at the start of a race would be nearly useless by the end. I still have a hobby shop nearby, they probably carry the Trinity product, if so I will get some and try it on my HO tires.


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## krazikev (Oct 29, 2009)

OK but the HO tires are made of a different foam material than bigger slot car foam wheels so I don't know how that will work


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