DIY, White Wall Tyres Suzuki C800 / C50

After having a pair of Metzeler me880 white wall tyre's on order for a month.I decided to ring the supplier today, only to be told they won't be in stock now till the end of July grr, A quick browse online hey presto Maxxis do some, rang them out of stock of the rear for the unforeseeable future grr Anyway, I thought i'll have a go at doing my own,straight on to flea bay for some white wall tyre paint and found this stuff http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Whitewall-Tyre-Paint-250ml-4-Tyres-Rubberised-No-Cracking-White-wall-equiv-/261026714793?pt=UK_Cars_Tyres_RL&hash=item3cc66794a9
I'm a painter & decorator by trade so surely i can paint a white stripe round a tyre ?
have any of you guys used this stuff or similar to good or bad effect ? Before it comes and i make a suzuki c800 zebra

Gotta be honest, I am very dubious although I would love to see how well it worked out on your bike
Personally I would rather buy the tyres already white walled because if it didn't work out as hoped you will have two very expensive brand new tyres that look all wrong.
Might be worth buying it and trying it on your old tyres to see how well you can do it & how good it really is before attempting it on new ones.

Yeah i'll have a practice on a few old tyre's just to see how it adhere's and looks before i set about mine, i've noticed on the standard tyre's there's two parallel lines the first being just short of the rim and the second roughly 2 inches higher these are perfect for finishing up to and should give a nice clean line.

bit of a large area but have u thought of useing a tyre pen iv got one just got to go and pick it up and iv used them in the past on other bikes they work pritty well and are easy to use its a pen

I thought the pens were for colouring the letters in ? could be an idea to go up to the lines with one for an accurate edge though, then fill in the large area by brush.

I tried using a tyre pen once on letters but it just wasn't thick enough. I tried it on one letter first & It took about 5 coat's before I was happy with the result so I gave up.

Ah well lucky I've got a steady hand with a brush then, I did spend quite a while painting lines on rubber playground matting at local schools once upon a time, it's more the durability and adhesion of the paint i'm concerned about.

Well as a painter, if anyone can make this look good its going to be you. I will wait with baited breath.

simbo wrote:

Yeah i'll have a practice on a few old tyre's just to see how it adhere's and looks before i set about mine

I for one will look forward to seeing that, good find

I tested the white tyre paint on a few bike tyre's and it seemed ok, so i took the plunge with the bike,This is after one coat and i rubbed the tyre's with a suede brush just to get a key ,Four hours later !


picture's are a little blurred but i'll take some more tomorrow after a second coat

That is awesome...wht's the durability like?

White walls make a huge difference to the look of the bike.

ozrider wrote:

That is awesome...wht's the durability like?

I don't know about the durability yet Oz I'm being the guinea pig on this one I'll get another coat on today then go riding monday and see what happens ? all seems good at the moment though

Oh man I am becoming so interested in this stuff, I love white walls & yours are looking great

Laaaarrrrrvely !

Be interesting to see how they look close up on Monday when we meet. Hey, bring the paint along mate and if they're any good you can do mine when we get to Matlock ! hehe

that looks nice good job

Really suits the bike m8 well done.

Just looked, they have sold out but there are others available on ebay as well

The VL800 really suits whitewalls - you have done a great job there.

I started the second coat today after watching the moto gp of course, and it was hard work ! the second coat didn't flow as good as the first at all,probably due to the cold windy weather (it's like winter here today)
The paint was very thick and gloopy even when I stood it in a bowl of boiling water to warm it up a little, the instructions say it has good flow levelling properties because it only dries to 50% so hopefully the brush marks will level out, it did say in the ebay advert that two coats would be enough but I think three or maybe four would give a more solid and smooth appearance and better durability, there is enough to do four coats in the 250 ml can,
And it looks good from a couple of feet away in my opinion and for twenty odd quid and a few hours freezing my nads off on the drive, well worth it
I'll give it another coat Tuesday after hopefully a ride tomorrow then its seeing how long the stuff lasts

I am really impressed with how that looks after a couple of coats & really look forward to you input on its durability.
How would you recommend that the novice painter such as I deal with getting the nice clean edge that you have and did you mask up the wheels?

There's two lines on the tyre Dave the first a couple of mm from the rim and the second about 50mm higher up, I just used those as a guide to stay in between and to give a clean finish up to, i used a 10mm round artist brush with bristle's about 20mm in length and did it free hand, there's lots of little pimple type things on the walls from the manufacturing process of the tyre I just pulled at those and touched the with a stanley knife blade to remove them without damaging the tyre, it's a time consuming job but if you have a steady hand very easy to do, I've tried adding a little white spirit to a brush full of the paint to make it flow better and it does ,I've painted that on some rubber and I'm waiting to see how that dries before doing a third coat on the bike tyre.

I really appreciate your write up and opinion within this thread & hopefully your final conclusions will give me the confidence to give it a go myself.

I'll see how they look after a couple of weeks and get some millage on them before giving a final opinion, but can't see them coming under much abuse really' I'll give a write up and post some more pictures and any advice on the job, I've bought some stp son of a gun to spray them with after completion, I don't know what it does but it recommends it in the instructions.

That's one steady hand you got there mate - I think Dave was hoping you had some special magic curved tape! There is a bit of flex in masking tape - it might be possible to bend it round but I would imagine the edge would still be a bit 'raggy'. Real coach lines are done free hand - a good clean line is hard to beat.

Bluesman wrote:

I think Dave was hoping you had some special magic curved tape!

No mate, to be honest I was looking for any possible tips, as it's very often surprising the tips you can get from people on jobs that you would never have thought of. If free hand is the way it is done then free hand it will be for me. I just never like to do a job one way if there is a possibility that I could have done it easier or got a better result if I had only asked a question.

simbo wrote:

There's two lines on the tyre Dave the first a couple of mm from the rim and the second about 50mm higher up.

Just been looking at my tyres and I can see the two lines you mention and they are (on my tyres) raised about 0.5mm. So I think what I will do is get my daughter who is a bit of an artist (nice steady hand) to do the cutting in for me up to the lines. I will also take the wheels off the bike so that I can lay them down on the horizontal to help me at least, get a better finish than I otherwise would.
I will still wait on Sim's recommendation on the product before buying the product.

there are some tips for cutting in but these manly are the way you use and position the brush wilst cutting in and are far more eazyer to show someone than to explain but a tip i can give you or anyone doing this is to wear a old t shirt if you go over wear your cutting in give it a wipe with your finger then wipe finger cleen on t shirt have a practis on something and try a few brushes of different size and length of brisels till you find what sort of brush suits you best . think its a really good idear takeing wheels of dave should make it a lot eazyer and the paint is a lot more likely to not run and as your painting youl be able to possition yourself at an angle to the part of the wheel your painting that feels good (makes it eazy)

First test done today ,Rode over to Glossop then over the snake pass to meet the guys at Ladybower reservoir then down through bakewell and on to Matlock Bath. Tyre's still look good after rain showers, pot holes and general riding, off to Sheffield and a trip up the M1 for some higher speed testing, coffee at Barnsley then back over the Woodhead pass for some twisty testing, plod off back to Chadderton and the tyre's look exactly the same as when we set off, to my relief (i was somehow expecting there to be white rubber all over the bike)
Good idea about taking the wheels off to do it, I probably would have myself but it was nice on Saturday when I started so I just jacked the bike up but Sunday was bloody awful and it would have been nice doing it in the house.
This is the brush i used, I cut the inside edge in first then filled the middle section then cut in the outside edge going round the tyre with three lines

one good tip for a steady hand is rest your forearm on something, i used the brake disk and fender but the back wheel would be better removed,
after thinning a little paint with a drop of white spirit it dried fine without any effect so for the third coat i'll do that for better flow and levelling,
I don't think you'll have any trouble with runs either it's quite thick and doesn't seem to run.

Thats great to read, problem is every time you write something my wallet gets a little more jittery and keeps trying to push the debit card in to my hand

Yeah I have the same problem only my card has nothing on it

hi guys sims tyres looked great and they look boss when you ride behind really stand out and make you look twice job well done

Thats always a good thing when others give compliments to a job well done and will probably make others follow the mod

How are those tyres holding out Sim?

Yeah still looking good Dave I rubbed them over with some of that stp son of a gun after the third coat and all is well, in total it's cost me about £30 and i'm very happy with the looks now, they do have a very slight yellow hint to them but hardly noticeable with the bike being black , I've taken some photo's with my camera and i'll put them on tomorrow.

Has it yellowed or was that the way it went on in the first place?

No crash when it comes out of the tin its brilliant white, but something must bleed out of the tyre and over night it's not as pure white but doesn't go any worse as you can see from the picture's they still look white, its like putting a brand new fridge against a twelve month old one they both look the same until you put them side by side.

The Painting job is now complete, Two weeks later no signs of deterioration whatsoever ,Although I've only covered around three hundred miles due to work and crap weather, I've taken photo's with an 8 megapixel camera from 6" then 12" 18" 24" and 36" the last one the camera flashed so might look brighter, I've also taken a photo of the instructions that came with the paint, Although this product is not on Ebay any more I believe it can be bought from
therustshop.com but there is another on Ebay called mr whitewall which I believe is the same product, In total this job cost me about £30 in total for the paint and a bottle of the stp son of a gun.
In my opinion they aren't pure white like bought white walls but they'll do for me and didn't cost me the best part of £300.
The first coat took me about 4 hours with cleaning and wire brushing with a suede brush, second coat about 2.5 hours mainly because it was cold and I kept going brewing up, Third coat took me just over an hour, then a quick wipe with the stp 20 mins






I keep asking my son if i can do his on his R6 and they'll look like the soft compound moto GP tyre's but he's having none of it
Happy painting

That'll do for me, I have just put my order in for Mr Whitewall
£30 well spent Sim

Don't know if anyone noticed but there's a line around my disc about 5mm in from the edge, I noticed it while doing my tyre and took the caliper off and pads out and there was a piece of metal in the pad scratching the disc.

Been reading a lot on white wall paint application and one thing that keeps coming up is that the paint stays whiter when applied to tyres that are not so new. Often they say that the tyre should have covered no less than 300 miles before application but some say the tyres will bleed in to the paint which in turn browns or yellows the paint until around the 3000 mile mark.
Hoping to get mine done over the next few weeks but I am still very dubious about getting the outer edge looking sharp enough as the line that I will run with is only about a quarter of a millimetre thick, so for me at least, very hard to paint to . I may experiment at the weekend with a few different types of tape to see if I can get one that will curve around the tyre line so that I can at least get the first outer edge coat on very fast with a really clean edge. Might try stretchy electrical tape first. Any suggestions anyone?

Hi Dave , If you cut one inch masking tape down the middle so it's only half inch wide it bends more easily or maybe you can buy it as half inch ? I've just looked online and this stuff is probably what you'll need
LINK

Most diy retailers will stock this I should imagine, it's professional grade masking tape

i think simbos right use thin tape but also try to do it with one piece (how i used to try to do it when spraying lorrys ) rather than lots of bits bend the tape and use your thumb as you do it once you have the thin tape on you can always put some wider tape around that try to get the paint on quick as it goes tacky quickly so if it goes on quick the brush strokes will settle out of it . hope this helps

Mr Intruder wrote:

Been reading a lot on white wall paint application and one thing that keeps coming up is that the paint stays whiter when applied to tyres that are not so new. Often they say that the tyre should have covered no less than 300 miles before application but some say the tyres will bleed in to the paint which in turn browns or yellows the paint until around the 3000 mile mark.
Hoping to get mine done over the next few weeks but I am still very dubious about getting the outer edge looking sharp enough as the line that I will run with is only about a quarter of a millimetre thick, so for me at least, very hard to paint to . I may experiment at the weekend with a few different types of tape to see if I can get one that will curve around the tyre line so that I can at least get the first outer edge coat on very fast with a really clean edge. Might try stretchy electrical tape first. Any suggestions anyone?

When the subject first came up I was intrigued and did an experiment with masking tape on an old tyre with emulsion paint. It was ok but hard to curve and when I painted a bit and removed the tape, the edge was a bit raggy. Electrical tape is more pliable but may not key the rubber - I'm not sure. One thisng that springs to mind is bandage tape - that white stuff. Failing that, try a car paint shop and ask them what tape they use. I'm sure with the right tape a good edge could be achieved easily - I think that's the route I would go cos I like a bit of help with painted edges whatever job I do! Best of luck!

PS - just had another thought - plastic coloured tyre rim tape - expensive but made for the job!!

Tyre trim tape, what they actually sell decorative tape for tyres?

captain crash wrote:

Tyre trim tape, what they actually sell decorative tape for tyres?

Sorry - rim tape. But it has to bend round so it might work.

Thanks for the heads-up Sim & the link

Bluesman wrote:

I was intrigued and did an experiment with masking tape on an old tyre with emulsion paint. It was ok but hard to curve and when I painted a bit and removed the tape, the edge was a bit raggy

John Emulsion paint is a heck of a lot thicker than white wall paint. When you take masking tape off, you need to peel it off at an angle pointing slightly towards the painted surface so that you don't drag the paint.
Emulsion paint on an old tyre, love it. WE WANT PHOTO'S

Mr Intruder wrote:

Thanks for the heads-up Sim & the link

John Emulsion paint is a heck of a lot thicker than white wall paint. When you take masking tape off, you need to peel it off at an angle pointing slightly towards the painted surface so that you don't drag the paint.
Emulsion paint on an old tyre, love it. WE WANT PHOTO'S

I will have another go and with a few tapes - if it works with emulsion the real stuff should be a breeze!

Electrical tape as Dave suggested, gives the best pliability I have found - just bending an inch at a time gives the impression of a curve when in fact it is a many sided polygon! I got the old tyre out again and masked a small section, slapped on the emulsion without much care and whipped off the tape, this time pulling towards the paint. Not bad - here is a close up:



From a distance even this would be ok and with a lot of care I'm sure a neater line could be achieved with the correct paint. However it has ocurred to me that you would not know how well you had done until you had spent quite a few hours on the job and took the tape off. Then it could be too late! With the freehand job - WYSIWYG.......Sim's method seems a better bet, particularly as he did it so well. For my money, I would imagine the paint job may look ok but may well look naff unless you have got Sim type skill! The extra cost of Maxxis whitewalls over standard is not a lot - if you can get them that is. Another worry I have is that unrepairable puncture you get a week after you have done the job (Arghhhhhh!) not to mention repeating the paint job each time you get a new tyre. Just my thoughts. Always prepared to be and often am, proved wrong!

Surely the white wall paint is for the guy that decides he wants white walls but is not prepared to just throw out good tyres or wait.
Good to see you experimenting again blues, like the mad professor

captain crash wrote:

Surely the white wall paint is for the guy that decides he wants white walls but is not prepared to just throw out good tyres or wait.

Yep. Probably on a skill level 8 (1-10) if done as well as bought ones. But as this thread shows us - it can be done.