Tredwear 'Goodyear' letters group buy No.2

[gvy]

Front wheels are done.

Rear wheels will follow soon.

Since I dont like the view of GOOD YEAR letters glued over another tire brand, I took the time to grind off the existing tire brand before mounting the good year rubber letters. Now you can look up real close and only see the white good year lettering. I used a flap disk on an angle grinder to carefully grind off only the surface that is covered by the letters.

Now guess what is the original brand😁 hint....look at the bottom of the tire....

SAM_7512 by Geert Vijncke, on Flickr

SAM_7509 by Geert Vijncke, on Flickr

Geert

Edited July 19, 2018 by gvy

[gvy]

I had some experience with "real" white letter tires in the past and I think these rubber letters will be the same :

Take a kitchensponge and use sand soap hand cleaner to scrub white again. and spray off with water. I always did it that way.

If really bad, just take a towel and aceton and they will wipe white again.

 

 

 

Edited July 20, 2018 by gvy

[Stuart Monument]

Have you tried CIF @Buddsy? Fancy coming along to the Elise meet to ? 

[gvy]

Et Voila, all tires are done. 😉. I made some pictures in the proces.

Here you see the tire and the original letters.... I know I know, Nankang... but I assure you, there isn 't much choise left in 14" tires , and well , they are really good in the dry

SAM_7514 by Geert Vijncke, on Flickr

Next, the angle grinder comes in . I use a flap disc : flexOvit  Z80 paper. It isn't difficult, just don't overdo it. Dont't go in deep, just lightly remove the letters and leave all the rest.

SAM_7515 by Geert Vijncke, on Flickr

I got this:

SAM_7516 by Geert Vijncke, on Flickr

The surface is once more cleaned with aceton and I use also microchem biosane TE213 , an excellent degreaser of materials before painting or gluing.

Then I proceed with taping a paper paint tape to get the right bottom angle to mount the letters. I glue the letters one by one. Try to use not to much glue and do not go into the closesd edges. I just go around the contour.

TIP : I used a caliper to draw a line on the tire (to tape the painters tape, and to draw a second line to mark the top of the letters. The point of the caliper is sharp enough to mark a small line in the rubber.

SAM_7513 by Geert Vijncke, on Flickr

S

Endresult is this:

 

SAM_7518 by Geert Vijncke, on Flickr

 

And this is how it looks on my car :

SAM_7519 by Geert Vijncke, on Flickr

 

SAM_7521 by Geert Vijncke, on Flickr

 

Geert

 

Edited July 21, 2018 by gvy

[Jeanvm]

Nice, take some time to do.

[The Pits]

I've had a few requests for another group buy from Tredwear. I'll be getting a couple of sets for myself.

If you're interested let me know below and I'll see what can be done.

Let's hope they're still trading!

[The Pits]

Any other takers please?

For what it's worth I will be getting more in the original font (which was taken from a rubbing of my '84 date stamped NCTs). The font used in the pictures above is a more modern version.

[skiing]

Yes please! I will take 2 sets as well. Thanks, 

[The Pits]

Noted. I'll get in touch with Tredwear and see what the score is.

[Big Vern]

i would be interested too....

[C43]

Hi

I would be interested in one set as well.

thanks

Christian

[The Pits]

👍

[markt]

I'd be keen too

[C43]

any news on group buy?

thanks

[Big Vern]

Anything????

[skiing]

Any update on this - would be great to get them lined up so I can start looking at new tires. Thanks v much, Henry

[gvy]

Hi ,

In 2018 I bought a set for my Opel GT (FEDERAL) and a set for my LOTUS ESPRIT ( Goodyear )  You can see the pictures in this topic.

I got them from a shop that advertised on ETSY, but they are not there anymore. Since I had their Emailadress I asked and they explained  the following:

hi,Geert

yes we do not have etsy store because;

tiresticker.com (owner keith) he constantly reported us over etsy complained and shut down our store

all brands and models,size available if you wish to buy

you can pay us directly with PayPal,and we send you the tire letter you want

In 2018 I got 8 sets GOOD YEAR ( see pictures in this topic) + a gluebottle : I payed 65 dollar incl shipping via paypall and they arrived quick . I used 4 sets on my current tires and have 4 sets spare for my next tires.

On my request he made them 1" high and with the classic 70ties layout instead of the current italic letters, but you can see them on my pictures in this topic

If someone is interested : [email protected]  and the guy is Ozer Karaman. You can mail him and ask if he is still in business.

 

 

Quality wise I cannot compare with tredwear, because I only had these. For those that used tredwear are the letters black in the back or also plain white rubber?

They are cut out of 1mm thick white (neoprene?)rubber. The cutout is very good. They are delivered with a backing and front plastic protection, but I prefer to glue each letter individual.

I have to say, On my esprit they become brownish in spots and this can be cleaned with dasty,  It must be oil that bleeds from inside the tire. It is in spots, so I think the glue may make a buffer. Next time I would use CA glue more in gelform that is easier to spread over the entire letter. The glue itself holds very well. No problem with coming loose

 

 

Edited June 18, 2020 by gvy

[slewthy]

I'd love some of these.

Is the group buy order complete or still open?

[Bazza 907]

I guess you could use a white rubber paint pen like I do. I don't have the individual letters but on the tyre I need to reapply the white every few months to keep it looking fresh. On the tyre there are groves making it relatively easy but still time consuming.

A real faff to be honest. 

[skiing]

I use some white tire writing pens for mine - have to do it every few months... indeed a faff but it does look cool! 

[gvy]

Hi Buddsy,

Mine are turning brown also and I see that on my Opel GT this is less the case then on my Esprit, so I think this has to do with the tire brand that is used , I guess.

In the old days I had original white letter tires from cooper cobra and from General and these were easy to keep clean. From time to time a fast scrub with a sponge and some handsoap or greensoap did the job.

Now I found this is not the case with these white rubber letters we glue on. Mine turn brown not evenly but more in spots. I think that the oil that is pushed out of a tire ( always has a brown colour but is less noticable on a black tire) pushes through the white rubber and make those stains. Possibly, the CA glue in between may help to not let this oil get to the surface and that may be the reason it is in spots???

Anyway this is not filth from outside but from within the tire and it is harder to remove, I am afraid.

I had succes with acetone ( this is also mentioned  somewhere on the tredwear website , but I can't find it ) : Just be aware that acetone is also used to desolve CA glue .

I also had succes with dasty degreaser ,wich is a very strong and effective detergent, that is used in household but also in garage.  I spray it on , scrub , let it work in for some minutes and use a lot of water to rince off, because The dasty is so strong in degreasing that it would not be good for the rubber tire to leave it on. The letters clean up well although not completely perfect.

Unlike other detergents, Dasty is reallllly strong, but as with all miracle cleaners , be carefull and always rince off thoroughly. For me this works miracles on engines and on all stuff that is really dirty . Online it has become a myth for about every cleaning job, and it just does the job costing no more then 2,5 €/1l bottle in the wibra here in Belgium. I always have multiple bottles around ( floor, engines,cloathing.....)

Finally, Yours are tredwear letters? , mine are cheaper ones from classicspeedshopusa and if I understand the tredwears have the same problem of turning brown ?

 

Edited June 19, 2020 by gvy

[Lotusfab]

On 21/04/2020 at 12:03, The Pits said:

I've had a few requests for another group buy from Tredwear. I'll be getting a couple of sets for myself.

If you're interested let me know below and I'll see what can be done.

Let's hope they're still trading!

Hi Johnny, please can I have a set? Any update?

[Lotusfab]

In the absence of any advancement on this I have been looking at making my own Goodyear decals. Seems to me it would be fairly simple to take a silicon mould from the original tyre. I could then cast the letters in white using a rubber compound and glue them on. I may attempt this in the next few weeks.

[Lotusfab]

If anyone is interested I may have found a British company to make these. I’ll start a new thread on Esprit chat.

[Fridge]

I clean the white pin stripe on my wire wheels with carb cleaner (a good solvent), but periodically I give them a freshen up with white wall paint, which remains flexible.

They've lasted 12 years since it's last restoration.