this is awesome everything about what a rat rods supposed to be. artistic and creative without going around and buying someone elses idea. badass video. badass car.
All the people saying this will kill the man, go take a look at how old the video is. Dude is still around, and with a more badass car than your 98 Camry, so leave the safety warnings to professionals and enjoy yourself for a bit. People have been doing this pretty much since cars were invented, don't see why we should worry now
Yeah, good old times, when it was considered normal that dozens of Men die building a Skyscraper. Or death in an 20 mph accident because there were no fancy seat-belts. Who needs those modern safety standards, right? I hope you don't kill an innocent family with your rolling death trap.
This wouldnt damage the wheel. The carbon black sides arent necessary to the wheels structure its solely for looks. Scraping off the thin layer of carbon black on the side is harmless, digging into the white however is dangerous. This person obviously took great caution in how he sanded it making it totally safe. Please stop commenting its unsafe, it really isnt.
It worked out great! I drove it with those tires on it for a year, then switched to 16" spokes, but still got 'em. Figure they'd work nice on another project or might even use 'em on a trailer to haul behind this thing. We'll see...
Rpeek that ghosteider clown has no clue man. I've followed your videos for quite sometime and your anything but lazy your one of the most resourceful people on RU-vid. Thankyou for sharing with the rest of us.
Man, I must say, you did a fantastic job on those tires!!!! Absolutely love how they turned out. When I start my RatRod build, I'm putting white walls on mine.
Back in the day they used to use a lathe type contraption to cut the white walls with on car lots. I would take a steel bar and sharpen the end then use a 4x4 or something up close to the tire and cut those edges just perfect. Make sure your bar is long enough so you have plenty of leverage and so the tire can't take it out of your hand. They used to use a roller machine, they would jack up the car and put these powered rollers under the tire so it wouldn't get going so fast. I used to know a couple of guys who did this as a mobile service in the 60's and 70's. Then after they did the groove they would touch it up with a little tire white. They came out perfect and only took about 10 to 15 minutes to do a whole car for 25 bucks. They made good dough when whitewalls were in vogue. Eventually, raised white letters and black walls took over and those businesses went under. I wonder if a guy could make a few bucks at car shows doing this now day?
Noticed the rambler in the back from videos before trying to stuff a 350 in my 66 American as well all your videos I've seen have been helpful in bringing my American nightmare to life thank you
The belting/ply is the structure of a tyre, not the rubber. The outer rubber of a sidewall is only really cosmetic other than to protect the ply. Now if you were to try it on an inner tube you might be onto something...
Yankee ingenuity. You keep pushing my button - LOL. When I was in HS about 1951 I worked in a tire recapping shop. The steam heated tread matrixes would turn the white wall yellow. On of my jobs was take a white rubber buffing wheel and make the whites white again. And this was before radial tires. Boss put these recaps on dirt track racing cars (i.e '34 Ford Coupes) and none ever came off. Whole lot cheaper to recap - $10-12 back then.
Natural color of rubber is white. Black is added to the rubber during the vulcanization process. White rubber is less resistant to chemicals and sunlight. The black pigments actually help to stabilize and preserve.
The carbon black on the sides of wheels is extremely thin because its not neccessary to its structural strength in any way. The carbon black side is just for looks.
@@kornelcajka5320 it's actually a protective coating so it dosnt crack or rip from the heat but if he didn't remove a lot it dosnt affect it much they much just not last as long
Been doing this for 15 years, only removing a few thousands of an inch, that white is not even necessary except for the lettering, not weakening anything. Lotta 12 second blasts on ALL of the ones I've done, never even had one go flat or leak, just plain wore them to hell........................PS, do not try this unless you have a really good OSHA approved respirator, or emphezyma will result pretty quickly F.Y.I. portable machines were made way back in the day to do just this thing, & can still be found at flee markets, garage sales, auctions, lotta people don't know what they even are!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Take tire off vehicle, put on table, bout 36" high, put on paint respirator, start on sidewall with 24 grit 4" grinding disc to quickly level the high letters, then knock down to outer & inner white boundaries, change to 36 grit sandpaper on 3"mini DA, smooth off entire surface. finish with 80 grit sandpaper on 3" mini DA. Simple, I've got it down to 20 minutes flat, & perfect, I've had older Farts than me come in the shop & buy cut walls right off my 40 Coupe, or whatever, thinkin they were original, till I informed them about the process. I am a autobody veteran since 1965, never had one single problem with "ONE" of mine. Looking for a wheel grinder, the one you push underneath your front tire & let it cut the tire round, last resort for getting out of round tires flat, maybe someone would like to start a bitch about them? They were made back in the 30's & 40's, damn hard to find, I used one in 1969 & it had to be 30+ years old, talk about making a tire true, unbelievable. Be nice now tubers, this shit costs nothin & looks great********
I restore and collect cars. I live in Chattanooga and know Corky. Be careful. Some of the wide white wall tires are only for show. They are very soft rubber and not made for driving any amount of distance on. They DO sell regular ones, but very pricey. Just make sure, when you buy used, which ones they are.
I worked for Goodyear for many years. Your not wrong that the whitewall might stop at some point but in general the "white layer" stops before the steel belt and before the steel in the bead. However, the size tire makes a big difference! Cutting down a raised white letter tire, take this into consideration. White rubber cost more so it is very limited as to how much is built into the tire. And it is usually pretty thin. So be very careful!!
I was just reading thru the comments to make sure someone hadn't already said this. I worked at the Michelin/bfgoodrich plant in my home town for many years. Theres many misconceptions on here about how tired are made, it's kinda funny reading.
@@ReidHenderson only the original rubber was that pure white color like that. The new rubber that gets used isnt the same and is why white wall tires are so expensive these days. Im pretty sure the only reason this works is because the lettering was made as a layer behind the front layer that got grinded off, then the factory essentially dis tge same thing here and etched/grinded the letters into the top layer. Hopefully the 2 above can confirm/deny this
That is how the whitewalls are put on at the factory. Except they don't use a hand held grinder to do them. But they do grind away the blackwall to expose the whitewall. Red stripes were made the same way. Raised lettering or stripes have the raised color vulcanized onto the completed tire then the required lines or lettering is cut or ground to get the look they are after.
Jim Jordan LMAO that is not even close to how factory whitewall tires were / are made. wagil90 is right. In the early days the rubber was white, and carbon was added for the black color, except on the sidewalls, which were left white. These days the strips are added after the tire is made via a specialized machine.
I know nothing but I know grinding off the sidewall on tire is anything but a step in the right direction Watching you do it especially while the car was on and running in gear with the tire wizzing away like that was hella fun!
Sure, but it would chip and crack and fall off in a short time.. Besides, why would I do something just because it's easier. If I wanted it to be easier I'd buy a hot rod kit car, put a small block Chevy and automatic transmission and some off the shelf wheels. Yawning...
I don’t think insurance would apply on this ratrod... it’s illegal and outdated car! Insurance would say “ *Hell no!* “ your ratrod is customed all the way and there is nothing to sue at somebody.. but yourself cause your the one build this :/
@@thatchevydude1234 don't you know, everyone's an engineer/race car driver/rally driver/crew chief/engineer/brain surgeon/Greek god/astronaut/master chef/master baiter/ASE certified lube tech in the comment section?
I don't know how much I like the idea of taking away from the structural integrity of the tires but if you feel comfortable with it then more power to you.
You have the most interesting videos I have seen in a long time, found you looking for banjo lessons and been watching and enjoying the many other videos you have posted. Thanks!
Thanks Dan. I appreciate you stoppin' by. I never understood why so many people watch my stuff. All I do is what I do, but somehow people do come and visit and I'm always happy to have the company. Thanks for watchin'..
Hey old school, I remember watching this video when it was new and I just checked back in on it I was curious if they held up? BTW dig your Rat and your ..Rambler ?
Thanks Jimmy. The tires are doing just fine. I gave the Rambler to my son. He's painted it in flames and is still having fun with it. His youtube channel is ru-vid.com Take care..
I did the same thing to a set of tires about 5 years ago I loved them except for one that I messed up but I still road on them for a long time if I'm not mistaken I think my brother still has 2 of them . Good work bro let the haters hate
Well not really. Back in the day the just didnt add the black pigment to the sides. Thats because the pigment/carbon just kept the tires strong while hot and keep together better. But since it was so expensive to add the carbon to the rubber, they just used it on the treads and added regular rubber which happened to be white on the walls. I do think this looks good and can vouch for the integrity of the tire. Firstly those are really thick tires so shaving off a single layer of rubber doesnt hurt, secondly that layer has nothing to do with the integrity of the tire, because it was just used to cover the white wall behind it so the letters could be put in as negative space
These are thick af tires, if there was going to be any issues, they would have been there from the lettering(which was also just ground down like this but more precisely)
Craig Voclain you might, but we know you haven’t, or you’d understand how long paint lasts on a rubber tire that constantly flexes and get scrubbed on curbs, about 2 weeks or 100 miles whichever occurs first.
Jax Turner. I happen to have overspray on my tires thinking that it will just wear off but it didnt i ended up driving for over a year with orange tires. It doesnt wear off as fast as you would think.
Old Guys may rule, but it's the young cats that's going to decide what happens to these cars when we all croak over, so here's to ya Young Cat! Rock On!
Disclaimer: I've jeopardized my safety by grinding the sidewall thinner. Don't try this at home.. This ain't for sissies... If you want safety, they sell new Priuses every day... Have fun you car crazed suicide machine drivers and may you live long and prosper.
He literally shaved it down less the a centimeter that won’t compromise a tire like this it’s not like it’s going to be holding a lot of weight the car it’s self probably weighs less than 3,000 pounds worry about yourself and your safe boring ass life buddy let the professionals have fun
+Dick Richman No it's not, but if all you know of America is what you see on the news I can see how it looks that way. We have a wonderful life here... Best ever.. It's a big country, but news shows can't make any money showing how friends help friends and people love each other.. Just sayin'..
@@leogilbert9515 its completely legal in any country its not ruining the integrity, its essentially taking a layer of paint off to expose the primer. The actual wall of the tire hasnt been touched yet
The rubber that he is removing is only extra rubber that the tire manufacturer puts on the tire in order to do their graphics, such as thin white walls or white lettering. This is the most effective and simple way to remove that extra black rubber that I have seen to date. Thanks
I saw lots of negative comments here, so I decided to make a little speech. To all of you saying that he weakened the tire - guys, are you serious? This thing comes from the time, when fuel consumption and overall efficiency were less important, with it's thick rubber walls and massive cord it weights about 5-6 kilograms, and he scrubbed only a few tens of grams, if even ten. It doesn't affect the tire structure in any significant way.
Geez ya funny bugger!! Nah, good onya mate, that's the old school hot rodder attitude right there! screw polishing the shit out of everything and then being too scared to drive it - I'm in Australia and love nothing better than going sideways down dirt roads like a loon! And I gotta say, your whitewalls really do look the part.. I knew a guy many years ago that did the same thing one night pissed as a maggot by doing burnouts with his sidewalls against a kerb!
Awesome rod, amazing windshield, great 'ex-coca-cola cooler door' trunk lid, and noticed the hot-rod patch panels aka used license plate in the wheelhouse! Awesome rod man!
Looks killer!!! Thanks for posting this! Hooten Tire here in Sacramento shaves em for 100 bucks a set, which ain't too bad for having a pro do it... I just got a set done for my '60 Olds. Plus side to having them do it is they've been doing it long enough know exactly how far to go on certain tires to get a perfect, crisp line around the white. But I'm glad to see how easy it is to do your self, though, since when I go back home there's nowhere that does it profetionally.
my old boss had a machine from the 50s that grooved tires and then they applied the white wall paint thats how it was done i also applied white letters for a few customers and sanded down the raised lettering first so they would apply flat and they actually turned out nice...Nice work too
good job from what i hear thats an old hot rodders trick done back in the 50's-60's on hot rods and one bit of history tire makers makes most tires with the rubber over the whitewall as a cheaper solution for tires so the consumer dont have to pay a bunch of money for tires but thats the way to get the whitewalls back and no worries the rubber is so thick you wont bust a tire theres several layers in a tire including the whitewall layer
Nice work I was think on doin the same with lettered tires from Big-O cause 250 a tire with wide whites is jus plain crazy! Thanks for postin yer work!!
Yea, that made a real nice wide white. I like it a lot. Wish it were a bit taller. I'm runnin' 16" Denmans on it now, but still got these in the shed for another project...
You, sir, have earned yourself a subscriber. This is an excellent way to carry on the rat rod style, and low budget at that. Obviously, these people commenting don't realize that this isn't a daily driver, and are severely over analyzing the fact that it's not going to be used as such. Great work on the tires, and thank you for the informative video. I'll keep this in mind for my rod when I get further towards completion. It'll look good on my old 48 ford
Awesome job and cool video!i just bought my dad a 54 ford crestline and ive been wanting to throw wide whites on it for him.ive only got one arm so im sure the process will be a lil more challenging but well c how it goes and hopefully i dont destroy the tire doing it!lol...good job brother and cool lookin rat you got there!
Interesting. I've got a '55 Ford Country Squire with wide whites on it. You can find it in my videos. It might give you an idea how his would look with 'em on it. Just a thought. Good luck with it. You can do it with one arm.. Sure you can..
Looks like this video churned up every single tire expert in existence. People who get the dealership to refill their wiper fluid are complaining about safety. You asshairs dont realize he removed a layer the thickness of a sheet of paper whos only purpose is to be a background for the white letters. Looks great btw keep it up
I've done this a couple of times and I've got to make this important note to others who may do this--go slow with the first one, because there is quite a bit of variance as to how much white wall is inside the tire, some have much less than others, and it's easy to grind too far if not paying close attention. Try it on a junker tire first to get a feel for how it works.
I see comments saying you will lose strength of the tire. This is untrue. Unless you plan on exceeding the rating of the tire. All of the strength of the tire is in the belts. All he did was remove about 1/8 inch of rubber covering the white rubber put in just to get raised letters. I think it was a great experiment.
