Painting Rubber?

[edessex]

Hi all, will 'standard' paints effect tyres?

Ie. if I put household emoultion or gloss on a tyre, would it effect the rubber?

I'm guessing celulose car paint would?

Thanks in advance Ed.M

 

[s130]

Waterbased paint should be OK.

How much/area are you looking to paint? Highlighting branding/size/etc should be OK but full "white walls" will probably crack and peal very rapidly. For large areas you need a proper tyre paint.

 

[edessex]

Cheers. Basically I want to 'white wall', only not in white!

The previous owner 'white walled' the tyres, but not sure if it was real tyre paint or not. I'm thinking of going for a bright colour like orange or lime green!

I don't mind having to re-paint with cracking, but I don't want the paint to negativly effect the tyres...

 

[s130]

Water based paint and just regularly checking the tyre wall immediately under the paint.

To do this I suggest some sacraficial test paint spots on the inside of the tyre, mirroring where you are planning to paint on the outside walls. These you can paint and then clean off/rub down and check the underlying rubber. Would do this for a year thus covering all temeprature/environment changes before painting large areas.

There is a good 2mm to 5mm of rubber on the walls of a tyre before the inner structure and rayon/fabric inner structure. I doubt a water based paint will ever penetrate this wall thickness (assumption here is a tyre less that 5 years old) BUT it is YOUR DUTY and RESPONSIBILITY check for yourself.

Disclaimer! I've only ever used proper tyrewall paint, and that was a long time ago in the past.

If you want to be absolutely safe, legal, etc. then PLEASE only used certified tyrewall products.

 

[edessex]

Very good answer!

I do have a stack of 'past it' tyres so I could test the paint types on those. Ideally I would prefer to use the correct paint, but it depends if I can buy it in bulk! So far I have only seen the touch-up pens...

 

[s130]

You could also phone the technical support line of say Dulux, ICI, etc. (use a major mfg) and ask them if their waterbased paints contain anything likely to affect rubber or silica based materials.

 

[dave]

you will need to add a load of flexi additive probably about 50% at least