How to: Adding tire manufacturer logos to your tires.
Posted: Mon Jul 30, 2012 6:47 pm
Want to add some life to boring foam or rubber tires? Follow these steps and you'll be cruising in style in no time.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
It's just Armor All on the 1:1 scale machine.
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.
