The process of developing and making these tires is one that has driven me a little insane and continues to do so.
I had a vision in my head of what I wanted the truck to look like, I am not necessarily a huge NASCAR fan but I do like the look of the cars and trucks. I have looked on many sites and read many different post of guys looking for the jumbo lettered tires but have not found any. From what I can tell Goodyear stopped producing them decades ago.
Already having the idea in my head of what I wanted it to look like, I really wanted a set of jumbo lettered tires. This process is some what still in development and I am not done with them yet but they do look awesome though.
Here is the process;
First I got a bit map copy of the logo on line and had my graphic artist sister tweak it into an arc. Then that copy was sent to my other friend who is a sign guy and has a really cool laser cutter that was able to cut the 1/16 white nitrile rubber that I purchased from Rubber Cal.
After I had the logo cut out and they looked spot on, I went on the hunt for an adhesive that would not only adhere the logo on but also stand the test of time and the harshness of U.V. tried many different processes from contact cement to RTV and ended up with the urethane that is used to install windshields in newer vehicles. It is pretty sticky stuff and has lasted in the test sample on my Toyota truck for 8 months up to 90 mph at times. Brake cleaner was used to get any urethane off the front of the letters.
Then I had to also find tires that did not have distracting embossing on them. I looked high and low for a set of good years that fit my needs but every one of them has an enormous amount of swirls and zigzags, until you get into the big truck tires then it is just smaller outlines of the good year logo and no where near the jumbo size I was looking for.
I found a company on line called Diamond back tires that specializes in making white walls, but they also can make Black wall smoothies. These tires are made from standard radial tires that have all the distracting embossing removed from the outside sidewall. The price I paid for them was actually cheaper than the price that I could get a regular set at discount tire and then I would have to try to get all the embossing off myself.
I then sanded the backs of each of the letters as well as the winged sandal.
Then using bare hands rather than latex gloved hands I applied the letters to the tires.
Sorry I do not have any pictures of that process my hands were completely covered in black urethane and I was not about to pick up my camera, suffice to say it was very messy. The reason I did not use latex gloves is because they were sticking to everything and I had to remove them because the clock is ticking with this stuff and you don't get too much time before it starts to skin over. After I adhered them to the tire I used a razor knife while it was still wet and scraped the excess off from around the letters. Then I used the brake cleaner to remove any globs of urethane from the front of the letters. In some cases the front of the letters were completely black from pushing the letters firmly to the tire. Then I loaded 50# sand bags to the tires to keep them in place while they dried.
After several hours I removed the bags and the layer of masking tape that was there so any oozing urethane would not stick the bag to the tire. Another wiping of brake cleaner and the result was a kind of dirty patina that I think made it a little more authentic looking
The reason I say that I am still in process is that I think that Diamond Back tire put some really gooey sidewall treatment on the tires so that they look really nice out of the box but in my case the brake cleaner did not remove all of it an I had several letters delaminate on the corners to the point I had to peel them off and start over. My sample never did any of that and it was actually tearing the white rubber in half to try to get it off. The next chemical I am going to try is called poly isocyanate. This is what they glue the crumb rubber together with for the newer playgrounds. It costs $200 for a five gallon bucket (which is the smallest size I can get it in). I called a guy who installs these playgrounds and he said that I can have some of the left over stuff after a big job.
The thing I liked about the urethane was that it was black and any adhesive that did show would look just like the tire. The poly isocyanate is kind of a milky white and a lot thinner of a product but the bond is permanent.
I really like the way the truck looks with the jumbo letters on, nothing like it on the road. I took it to my mechanic friend who cut his teeth on the race track and has been a pit boss for years. He actually went up to them and looked at them real close and said "where did you get these? I thought they stopped making these things years ago" That to me was the true test; a guy who knows what the real ones looked like and was inspecting them closely and did not know that I had made them, and thought they were authentic.
