# Tire Tech Question



## Gear Head (Mar 22, 2005)

Alright, I've been wondering this for years. I fell victim to MANY RRR's out of round wheels and am still wrestling with them. I found a pretty good way to get them relatively true by chucking them up on an axle in a dremel and running an exacto blade over them. Then I put the RRR tires on the rim on the dremel and run sand them on a stone and touch up the edges with an emery board. After doing this to all four rims and tires, for one silly car, I can get a car to run smooth. BUT I am not happy with the grip of those tires. So you might say just change them. BUT, they are a weird size and harder to find a selection of tires for and even when I have, the tires with the good sticky compound that I find I can't figure out how to run sand them to true them to the "almost true" RRR rims. SO the questions are:

1-How do you true the "good compound" tires???

2-Is there a way that I can coat the RRR tires with silicone, and if so exactly what kind of silicone???

Sorry for the long read, but I thought I needed to explain the situation the best I could. This has been bothering me for years and I am all out of ideas.


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## TomH (Jan 17, 2006)

That is a good question Gear head. I have tried the flowable silicone on a complete tire and it was too soft and floppy to be a good tire. You might try to re cap an existing silicone. The technique on the link might work, it is a bigger scale and also a recoat on a foam, but silicone will stick to silicone and the softer compound might work if you get your tire clean enough.
http://www.oldweirdherald.com/scalestuff/silongies/index.html


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## alpink (Aug 22, 2010)

if you want to coat nearly anything with silicone you need to thin it with denatured alcohol.
there may be other thinners that work well too, but I have no experience with them.


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## joegri (Feb 13, 2008)

gearhead i feel your pain. the first years of getting into the lil slots i bought a mess of those rrr rims and reading what you could do to fix them i decieded to cut my losses and frustration and threw them in the trash can!! i now it sounds harsh but i just had to do it.now if i want some flashy rims i got to jag hobbies and get them there jezz i even forget the name of e,m..dahh. but to make the cars get around the trak just use some aftermarket rims.i know it doesnt help your situation but it,s an option. best of luck to ya.


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## slotking (May 27, 2008)

we race stock tires & rims at the Greenbrier Thunderjet Challenge.

I do not modify the rims to true them(just to remove the chrome), I only true the tires once they are glued to the rims.

I use a dollar store finger nail thingy!
it has like 6 or 8 grits on it.

I use a dremel to reduce the size, then i use the car motor to fine tune.

a lathe would be great I wish I had one!


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## Hornet (Dec 1, 2005)

Here's a low buck tire scuffer anybody can make,and actually works not bad for what it is.

http://www.hobbytalk.com/bbs1/showthread.php?t=351399


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## ruralradio (Mar 11, 2011)

Here's a trick I learned from a friend for recoating sili-sponges that aren't chunked out, may work on solid tires, have never tried it on those.... Sorry, no pics.....

First, use ONLY flowable windshield silicone, anything else is way too thick, thinning regular silicone is a PITA. I have a NAPA part number, but not handy here at work. I believe they have both clear and black in normal size tubes.

I first clean the tire with lighter fluid or alcohol, don't soak it as you don't want to loosen the glue. Let dry. Chuck your tire and axle up in a dremel. Smear some silicone around the tire, making sure to lap in down to the edge of the hubs.

Then, give it a good spin in the dremel (I use the slower of the two speeds on my cheapie rechargable) to throw off the excess (do this in a bucket or trash can for obvious reasons...). Set the tire/axle aside to set up overnite, of course so the tire isn't touching anything. Another coat or two like that should give you a good "recap".


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## beast1624 (Mar 28, 2009)

ruralradio
That is exactly what I did when coating some stock hard rubber Mega G tires. It gives a really smooth tough finish. Makes those hard rubber tires almost as good as regular silicones for a fraction of the price.


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## Hornet (Dec 1, 2005)

This is how i used to re-coat silli-foams many years ago.
You could swap the laquer thinner for a differant thinner,but i found it gave the new silicone something to bite into.
Farther into the post,i did some experimenting with coating slip-ons too
My recipe is at least 10 years old,so you might want to do some experimenting with more up to date ideas

http://ho-tips.net/showthread.php?tid=562


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## beast1624 (Mar 28, 2009)

Nice procedure, Hornet! I will give that a try on some of my old tired Fray tires and next time I coat rubber tires.


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## Gear Head (Mar 22, 2005)

So there is hope! Thank you for all of input. Now you guys have got my gears turning. Next on the agenda after my current slot projects is trying some of these ideas. :thumbsup:


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## Hornet (Dec 1, 2005)

I'd only use my recipe as a guide to experimenting.
I came up with it way back in the spring of 00,so don't be scared to experiment with other brands of silicone and thinners.
If you do use laquer thinner,don't worry if it turns the mix into a cloudy bubbly very runny soup,that's what you want
As long as the first coat goes on like water,it'll usually stick very good.:thumbsup:
Rick


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## slotking (May 27, 2008)

I found the best silicone in some plastic bag like thing outside of a plastic surgeon's office.

Not sure what it was used for:dude:


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## Hornet (Dec 1, 2005)

:thumbsup::wave::wave:


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## slotking (May 27, 2008)

Rick 

you need to try the new silicone!
if you win the race using them, you get a booby prize:tongue:


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## neorules (Oct 20, 2006)

Mike-- did you discover this new silicone on your way to brain surgery or the penile reduction procedure???


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## slotking (May 27, 2008)

I already said where, 
so your question reflects back at you because I rubber and your glue:tongue::woohoo::jest::beatdeadhorse:


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## bearsox (Apr 22, 2006)

*Here is a pic below of my tire grinder . As for what i do now on tires 2 options ... grind to size then clean with alcohol . Or grind , clean then use muratic acid (pool acid ) to pit the tire for silicone grip. Do this overnite then clean with alcohol and apply silicone . My preferred silicone is actually Dow 734 as it is a great topcoat used by several silisponge makers. Anyway that's my 2 cents for want it's worth . *

*Bear :wave: *

*For more info just ask that idiot Parts Pig ...he thinks he knows everything about everything and NEVER minds telling ya your wrong and he's right ! :wave:*


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## Boosted-Z71 (Nov 26, 2007)

I like the Dow 734 as well, I tried a bunch of blends and thinned materials when I built tires for the drag / build competition, the flow able works well, don't make it too thick or under hotter slots it will shred off.

Boosted


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## Hornet (Dec 1, 2005)

Hey if any of you guys are experimenting with tire coatings,and you try adding a silicone adhesive to the mix,let me know how it works.
I never did get around to adding it to a thinned flowable mix,and i've always been curious if it'd add anything to the coating.
Good to know Dow is still the stuff to use:thumbsup:
Never thought of using Muratic Acid as an etching compound,but it sounds like a good idea:thumbsup:
Rick


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## slotcarman12078 (Oct 3, 2008)

Ooooh, Muratic Acid is nasty stuff!! :freak: 

I was considering using it to etch my circuit boards rather than etching them by hand, but the stuff is nasty to work with... and I don't have a toner copier to make the outline transfer. It eats copper like I eat bacon... nom nom nom!!:tongue:


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## Boosted-Z71 (Nov 26, 2007)

Rick I did not ever find that adding silicone adhesive to the flowable type worked any better than just the flowable, I tried several ratios and nothing seemed to grip any better.

Boosted


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## Hornet (Dec 1, 2005)

My thoughts were more along the lines of whether it would add more life to the tires Jeff.
Guys used to smear silicone adhesive on the outer edges of silli-foams to help keep them from chunking.
I did a pile of experimenting with flowable silicones back around the turn of the century,,but never did get around to trying an adhesive in the mix.
Rick


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## slotking (May 27, 2008)

> Guys used to smear silicone adhesive on the outer edges of silli-foams to help keep them from chunking.


what do you mean by used too??
LOL
I still do


I started doing it because we were racing on a real fast track with bank turns


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## Hornet (Dec 1, 2005)

LOL,oop's maybe i spoke too soon

If any of you guys are experimenting with thinning the flowable silicone,and you find something that works better then laquer thinner,be sure to pass the info on for other guys:thumbsup:

Laquer Thinner is probably not the best thinner,so if you guys find something better give the rest of us a heads up.
Rick


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