old to new: how to replenish old tires?
 

Is there any way to bring some performance back to older foams? have a ton of older tires that have alot of rubber still on them, only problems is they suck in the traction area as they are now. loose loose loose, same set-up on the car with new tires, the car was very drivable, same car with older tires, night and day diiferent. thanks for any info

Tyres dont last long once out of their plasitc wrapper. 2-3 month max. Keep new tyres in the box and only true the ones you are going to use on the day.


Cheers

maybe rub some sun tan loation into them...

drfritz,

Maybe a little bit of Old School " Oil of Wintergreen ". You should be able
to find some at your local drug store. Just brush some on the tires and zip
lock them up for a few days. However I do not believe you can compete
with "Sauced tires" at any Roar event ... never the less, still good for
turning practice laps!

See ya!

Terry

secret formula
 

To refresh old tires, brush some WD-40 on them and put them in a plastic bag, like a sandwich bag for several hours. If you want to soften the durometer, leave them in over night. This works awesome!! :nod:

Thanks guys. The tires are only for club racing only.

Theres a zillion tricks in the book.

Just remember. Tires need oil to function properly. Everthing everyone suggests in one way or another has oil in it.

Besides vegetable oil. Any sort of man made oil should work. Theres also products meant just for this. Like trinity tire tweak , or sxt 2.0. These seem to be the best ive found for tires. I apply to the tire , set in a plastic zip bag for a day....then I just leave them in there till there ready for use.

Youll find your tires have just as good if not better grip than before.

The other one is traction compounds. Theres also tons of stuff from trinity to paragon. If you live in the US , towerhobbies stocks quite a few from trinity.

I found Red Dot to be some serious sticky stuff. So much so I found it was almost too much.

I mainly just use oil now to replenish the rubber. Traction compounds seem too loose there stick or dont offer the same types of properties your tires would have by themselves. Kinda like youll grip at certain speeds more , or youll loose it at certain areas or you get steering so fierce a slight turn can put you in the wall.

Yes, some of these are great tricks. I used to try to replenish tires just to keep racing costs to a minimum. But I learned, as most here have, that tires are the frontline to a good setup. If your track calls for 37s and you're old 37s are running like 42-45s, then to me it's a waste of time... quality racing time. Sure you can set the car up for more roll or whatever, but fresh shoes could be what makes you fast enough to jump up a couple positions or even mains.

Lesson learned, I make it a point to box them up if I finish a day with no chunks or tweaks. I even take a sharpie and right down some info on the clear window of the box. You can alway use fuel to erase it. Off-topic: you can also use fuel to clean off battle scars on the body, and right after a race I pour leftover fuel on a rag and polish off my pipe. Works better than $7 nitro spay. I wouldn't suggest using fuel to clean off the whole car though.

i have found that if you give them a good coating of traction compound and put them in a zip lock and before you use them give them another coating your tires will come back to life. only draw back is tires wear much faster but you can get a few runs,1-2 qualifiers out of them

hand cleaner (gojo, etc.) works really well. just rub the compound to the tire thouroughly and then wipe it off with a rag....

If you have a tire truer use it, if not use a friends. Put them in the truer and remove a thin layer of rubber before you hit the track. These "scuffed" tires should work with no problems. If you do not scuff your tires you'll be all over the place and learn nothing on the track. This has always worked for me and there is really no need to use oils at all.

One word WD-40 keeps oil in tires and helps keep the life in them. Also softens tires if applied properly, that helps resolve your loose loose loose problem.

so do you spray the wd40 onto a brush and then coat the tire? Light coat or heavy?

Are you sure WD40 works ?

Replenish old tires
 

KidDynamite is pretty much right............There hard to bring back to there original life, and original shore performance once there old. I've tried it and it just seems a waste of time. Especially if your trying to nail down a consistant set-up for a track.

I've tried to replenish old tires with limited success. Before I use the WD on them I will true them up by taking off a small amount of the old rubber. Then I spray the WD on a wrag and thoroughly rub it into the tire, and then place into a bag. It helps somewhat.