Wide Whitewalls on a Ratsun budget!

[rat tail dragger]

Want wide whitewalls without paying $600+shipping for a set? Don't want to paint them on or use porta walls? Here is something you can try.

 

First go to the salvage yard and pick up a set of thin strip white wall tires. (I've heard white letter tires will work too.)

 

I got mine for $50 for all four with pleanty of tread on them.

 

 

So it turns out there is a wider strip of white on either side of the thin white strip! So grab your favorite power sander and start sanding. I used a drum sander bit attached to my drill, and also did a little with a dremel tool, but the surface can get more uneven with such a little tool.

 

 

I learned that if you first sand down the entire raised little white strip flush with the black wall then keep going to the wider strip, your surface is more even. It takes a while per tire so try to keep that drill moving evenly around the tire so one spot doesn't get too low prematurly.

 

The second thing I learned is that if you try to retain the outer edge of the original whitewall as a guide and shave from that point in toward the center, your outer circle will stay a crisp circle. Sure you could gain a little more white wall if you exposed the entire hidden white strip, but your edges would be more uneven as a tradeoff.

 

Here is the finished sanding of four tires. Two are a smidge widerwhite than the other, that is because I exposed the entire white strip on those. But again on close inspection the outer line is a little more wavy on those two.

 

 

Clean up! Now, where the white band came together when originally constructed, it will be a bit uneven and possibly will have a slight crack of black where the two ends of the white rubber joined. My fix for this at the moment is a little oil paint.

 

Lamp Black

Underpainting white

 

Here is the blem, followed by a shot if the exact same place after the repair.

 

I mixed a tid bit of Lamp black into the white to match the color of the whitewall. And used the lamp black pure to replicate the color of the tire. (You can also use this to even out some of the wavy lines!)

 

The repair

 

And there it is folks! A shot of the finished wide white.

 

 

 

This is a neat solution to painted on whites or portawalls. After all this is real whitewall. It is EASY!! And it only cost $50 for 4 tires! WHo cares if it is a little wavy. If this aint a ratsun solution I don't know what is.

 

Also there are videos of folks doing this out there on youtube.

 

what grit do you use o do the tires ,

[fisch]

Sorry I missed this RatTail! It came when I was away.

 

I am not sure what grit it was, but it is whatever drill mounted drum sander you buy in a true value or ace hardware or what have you. They had only one option in this size. But it is pretty gritty! I'd guess almost 80 grit.

[Labanon]

ooooohhhh this is a good one. I'm getting whitewalls on my 320 now. thanks man.

[dimus]

great idea !!!

 

:)

[Z_Rac3r]

This is a sweet idea :) with how much I love whitewalls I'm surprised I'd never heard of it. Id be scared to remove too much material, but maybe I'll get over it and have to try this out someday :D

[rebstew]

I've been grinding white walls for years. I've never had a side wall blowout or anything happen to the tires. I've also ran them up and down the east coast. Here are the 295 50R 15's I ground on my 36 chevy.

This is one of them that I drove all over the place. Ground wide whites on my 34 Dodge. We had been to Ol' Mexico and grabbed a glass pop bottle while we were down there. I was using it for and over flow. The bracket broke and it bounced off the frame and hit the fan at 70 mph. My son is cleaning what was left of the radiator water from the windshield. Tires did fine though:D

[Cuts metal like mad]

 

All you need for that rig is some running boards, a couple Thompson subs, and Walter ppk or 2... :D

[bonvo]

i think i may try this with my truck