Self-applied tire stripes

[AR67GTX]

I posted a tread last May endorsing these do-it-yourself tire striping kits.

Post in thread 'My Tiretreds glue on whitewall install'

May 2, 2025

How difficult to appear stock? Contemplated on a new set of tires but not sure how they would turn out.

It helps greatly if the tire you are using has a circular molding line in the sidewall at a radius that allows its use in aligning the stripe as did the red lines on my GTX.

On these blue lines there wasn’t one in the vicinity of where I wanted the stripe so I laid down a 1/4” masking tape line around the nearest molding line and then another 1/4 tape line next to it to space the blue line 1/2” off of the molding line. This is a lot more tedious and prone to...

• AR67GTX

My results with these has gone from good to bad as the stripes are getting dirty, stained and blotchy and so far I have not found any product or restoring process that works. The supplier recommended sanding with soapy water but that did very little. I’ve sanded them, scrubbed them with Dawn and a brass brush. Also with Bleech-White, lacquer thinner and acetone. Here is what the red ones on my GTX already look like and they probably don’t have 100 miles on them.

I can’t any longer recommend anyone use these and withdraw my earlier comments.

 

[RR Fan Dan]

I posted a tread

No pun intended?

 

[dadsbee]

Well that certainly sucks! Did you try Naptha (Coleman camp fuel) or Toluol?

 

[gtx6970]

I had similar results with the white pinstripes I have for mine
Turned brown and I could bring them back to white a little bit with a DA sander
But they would be dark grey / brown in a few weeks again
I ended up painting them with a 1inch wide paint marker

 

[AR67GTX]

Bill, that’s what I intend to try in a small area. The AI stuff I read recommended an oil based marker paint and I found some pens on Amazon with paint recommended for rubber. I haven’t anything to really lose. How is the white holding up? Any cracking and flaking?

I have a totally unsupported theory on what’s going on. I suspect it maybe a chemical reaction from the adhesive bleeding up through the rubber. I theorize that if it were due to an exterior factor, like reaction to the 303 tire dressing I use, it would be pretty uniform. The fact that the staining is so uneven and blotchy (at least so far) makes me suspect it’s coming up from the underside.

 

[gtx6970]

I have no doubts its from the inside of the tape

My painted ones are fine, No issues. Been painted about a year now. Still look white
But a paint pen from Hobby Lobby , Felt tip is about an inch wide
I dont know where it is right now to ck what its made of

But I asked the supplier ( off ebay btw ) and he basically blew me off and told me paint them

 

[AR67GTX]

I have no doubts its from the inside of the tape

My painted ones are fine, No issues. Been painted about a year now. Still look white
But a paint pen from Hobby Lobby , Felt tip is about an inch wide
I dont know where it is right now to ck what its made of

But I asked the supplier ( off ebay btw ) and he basically blew me off and told me paint them

Thanks, that looks like the path I’m taking. I sent the company an email and the same photos and told them his product sucked and I was going to withdraw my positive comments from the car forums I had posted on about them to help others avoid the same mistake. I don’t expect a reply.

 

[Some Car Guy]

This is what has given me hesitation about doing my own. It’d help a lot if I could buy tires for whatever random wheel I like, then do the strip myself. I managed to hurt a spot on one of my Coker redlines with a tire dressing. Luckily it’s small and I’m coming due for new rubber due to age so it hurts less, but if I got new tires and a homebrew went bad the first year it’d make me walk around with a twitch or facial tick for five years.

 

[AR67GTX]

TredWear is saying my error falls in the category that down at the very bottom of the instructions is a caution to not use any tire cleaner with bleach and do not apply any tire dressing on them. I applied 303 on them, a protectant, but I can only assume that falls in the category of dressing to them. So they should be fine if during the life of the tire you never clean them with anything other than soap and never put any kind of dressing or protectant on them. Yeah, how’s that going to work out for most car guys?

Just for curiosity I set up a test using strips of the tire stripes I had left over. One sample is as received, one has 303 applied, one has adhesive applied to the back and one has 303 on the surface and adhesive on the back. It’s going to hang in my garage for a few months and I’ll see what it does.

 

[matthon]

Plain ol' paint should work.

When I accidentally get paint on tires it doesn't come off unless I spend the time and energy.

I'm sure I've got some tires with primer on them around here, and I know I've spray painted whitewalls black in the past.

 

[dadsbee]

No different than Kelsey Tire. They will void warranty if you clean the protective blue wax off the White letters with anything but soap and water.