How to: Adding tire manufacturer logos to your tires.

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PlastiZapCA+
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How to: Adding tire manufacturer logos to your tires.

Post by PlastiZapCA+ »

Want to add some life to boring foam or rubber tires? Follow these steps and you'll be cruising in style in no time.

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What you will need:

1. Future floor polish to prep the tire and protect and seal the decal. You can get this at any store that sells cleaning supplies. The grocery store Target and even Amazon.com. Future will protect the decal and allow you spray laquer finishes over it without damage. This is mandatory. If you just stick a decal on your tire it will dry up and flake off after a while. With a coating of Future the decal will never come off.

2. Rubbing alcohol to thin the future just a bit for airbrushing. No real formula here. Just mix a little in with the future and if it sprays from your airbrush then your good to go.

3. An airbrush. I highly recommend airbrushing but it's not madatory. If you brush Future on then use a fine paint brush and make sure you work in a cool enviroment to avoid visible brush marks.

4. A mixing cup.

5. Scissors to cut masking tape.

6. A compass to draw circles for paint masks.

7. Some masking tape.
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If you plan on running your newly logoed tires through mud or water you are going to need a protective clear coat. I use DEFT semi-gloss clear in a can. This is a laquer and must be applied over Future. If you spray this over a bare tire and decal you may end up with damage! You can get this at home depot etc. Other clears will probably work too but make sure you test first to make sure it won't eat up the Future coat.
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A little bit about Future:

Future has been used for years by scale modelers to seal in decals. Future will preserve decals forever. I have models over twenty years old that still look like new. Future will not harm plastic or rubber. It's not flamable and is water based. Future can be removed with warm water and a toothbursh. Windex and any amonia based product will also remove Future. Due to Future being water based it is highly recommended to coat over it with a laquer or enamel if you plan to go offroad. Just make sure you test first to make sure these coatings won't disolve the Future. Future goes by many names: In the States it's called Pledge with Future shine. It goes by several names in Europe and Asia so you will need to do a search for your neck of the woods. It used to go by the name of Kleer or something like that in UK.

Next you will need some tire decals. I get these on e-Bay from a seller called GlobalToy located in China. He is a major hobby supplier and is fast and reliable. On e-Bay do a search for "1/12 decals". I wont post a link here as it is against forum policy to link to e-Bay. If you search '1/12 decals you will find several sets of tire logos. You can get everything from Goodyear to Dunlop so you have a full selection there. They are water slide decals and are universal in size so you can put these on just about any scale.

I mushed my sheet up a bit but you can still see what you are getting.
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These just came out. These are the Eagle logos for your Goodyears. I've got a set ordered. Out of respect to the manufacturer I've blocked the image against copying but you can still see it.
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PlastiZapCA+
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Re: How to: Adding tire manufacturer logos to your tires.

Post by PlastiZapCA+ »

Now that we have the supplies we can proceed to the next step. Lets make some wheel masks!

For large wheel rims just tape several pieces of masking tape together as shown. Use the compass to measure the radius of the wheel rim and then draw it on the masking tape.
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Cut out the circle with your scissors and you are ready to mask. If you screwed up on the measurement like I did then untape the masks and cover the rim with individual strips until it fits.
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Make sure the tires are clean of dust and lint. Use a piece of tape as a tack rag if needed.
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Re: How to: Adding tire manufacturer logos to your tires.

Post by PlastiZapCA+ »

Now that the tires are masked and clean we can shoot on some Future.

Spray several coats on the sidewalls where the decal will be applied. You want a nice glossy smooth finish for maximum decal adhesion. After spraying allow the tires to dry for a minimum of two hours in a dust free enviroment.
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Re: How to: Adding tire manufacturer logos to your tires.

Post by PlastiZapCA+ »

After your Future coat is dry you can now apply the decals. The decals are water slide so just dip them in warm water as you usually do with this type of decal.

NOTE: The decals are universal in size so if you have a large tire you might need to cut the decal in two to make it look correct. On 1/12 tires there was no need for cutting. On larger 1/10 tires I cut the decal in two so that it curved around the tire correctly.

1. After your decals are in place you will need to spray on another coating of Future. Again spray several smooth glossy coats on the tire sidewall and cover the decal good.

2. If your are going offroad and the tire will be exposed to mud and water you will now need to spray on a laquer finish to protect the Future coat. Wait about two more hours for the Future to dry and then shoot on your laquer coat.

1/12 foams for my RC12i decaled and sealed in Future. No laquer has been sprayed on these wheels as the 12i will be a shelfer.
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1/10 wheels for my Slider project coated in Future and a laquer coat for protection. These are completely dry and ready to run.
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How about some 1/10 pan car caps? Not too bad looking I think. Standard foams would look better.
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Slider project car. I'll be rebuilding this machine with Associated and Custom Works parts. Looks good with with the Goodyears no?
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If you don't like your tires glossy then you could always spray them with flat clear. I personally have a thing for glossy Goodyear Eagles.
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Re: How to: Adding tire manufacturer logos to your tires.

Post by RC104ever »

Wow, that's cool. Couple things:

Does the future / lacquer keep the tires shiny?
What kind of VW do you drive? Did you seriously use future on your real car? Does it help keep the tire looking clean?
- Chris
Lots of cars...so many cars

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Re: How to: Adding tire manufacturer logos to your tires.

Post by PlastiZapCA+ »

RC104ever wrote:Wow, that's cool. Couple things:

Does the future / lacquer keep the tires shiny?
What kind of VW do you drive? Did you seriously use future on your real car? Does it help keep the tire looking clean?

Sorry for the delay but I couldn't log back into the forum for a while. Not sure if it was my crappy internet connection or what.

The future/laquer coating does indeed keep your tires glossy. Remember this is paint so if you bash them up you will have some scratches. Probably not a good idea for rock crawler tires.

I thought about using future on my tires but doubt it would survive for long in the heat. :lol: It's just Armor All on the 1:1 scale machine.

This is my 2008 Jetta. Garage kept with only 24k on the clock and never seen rain. I'll have it paid in eight months at which time the mods will start. Nothing crazy planned just some perfomance and suspension mods. It's a shelfer. :mrgreen: I plan on restoring an old bug to go with it in the near future. I've looked at quite a few lately so it might happen sooner than planned. I love VW's.
Image

I had Yokohama tires on it in this shot. They didn't get all that great traction so I went with Goodyear Eagle GT's. The Eagles have fantastic grip!
Image

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wmcwings
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Re: How to: Adding tire manufacturer logos to your tires.

Post by wmcwings »

Excellent tutorial! :D

Thank you for sharing.
Charlie
Redding, CA

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Re: How to: Adding tire manufacturer logos to your tires.

Post by durb69 »

fantastic job! awesome! thanks for the info :D

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Re: How to: Adding tire manufacturer logos to your tires.

Post by j-sou »

Really cool! I can't wait to try this out on a project. nice alternative to painting the existing lettering on tires.

Nice Jetta too! I've got a modded 08 GTI, and barn fresh 57 ragtop bug. And about 50 VW r/c cars... :lol:
-I never said I knew what I was doing, I just said I was gonna do it!"

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Re: How to: Adding tire manufacturer logos to your tires.

Post by Phin »

Cook tip. :D

Could this be used to seal the stickers on a lexan body too?

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Re: How to: Adding tire manufacturer logos to your tires.

Post by slotcarrod »

Thank you for this great tip!

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