Realistic Tires

[Warren D]

There is an old trick to making tires look more realistic.  I mention this as I'm seeing some great builds here that have shiny new tread on the tires.  If you want that, fine, I just think that anything with wheels and tires looks better with a little wear on the tire tread.  It's simple enough to do.  Before you start assembly, take a sheet (or section of a sheet) of some 240-400 grit sandpaper and lay it on a flat board.  I've been using 3M wet or dry on an old breadboard for years!

As you are drawing the tire across the sandpaper, rotate as if you were doing a burn-out.  Rotate the tire in your hand until all the tread has been roughed up and the shine removed.  That's it!  You have just simulated tire wear.  If you want a lot, go for it!  Flat spots? Out-of-alignment?  whatever you desire.  Finer grit is less wear, and you can vary the downward pressure.

In the end, it's your choice.

[Snake45]

Great tip, Warren!

I've found that some tires don't sand too well on a flat surface. They need something with a little "give." I've been using one of these for about 20 years now. In fact, I keep it loaded up with either #320 or #280 sandpaper JUST for sanding tires.

https://www.reddevil.com/index.php?l=product_detail&p=1157

[BigTallDad]

I like to emphasize the tread grooves on a tire,

First, I'll put some light/medium brown paint on the tread surface, making sure it gets down into the grooves. Then I'll put the tire on a Dremel drum sanding bit (using masking tape as a shim, if necessary) then put that in a drill. Turn the drill on at a slow speed and use sandpaper to remove the paint from the surface of the tread. I use a drill because a Dremel is far too fast.

When all said and done, you have a tire that shows wear as well as dirt in the treads.

[Warren D]

Great additional ideas.  Lets keep this thread going, feel free to add your own ideas.

I like the dirt suggestion for dump trucks, construction equipment and anything that runs on dirt roads!

[Ace-Garageguy]

Great OP tip above. I've been doing exactly that for over 50 years, but my grit of first choice is 180.

Often, drag slicks and other wide tires will present a sunk-in-the-middle appearance. This technique also allows you to create a more realistic flat tread surface...though on a treaded racing tire, it will obviously remove the tread on the outside edges first...which can make for a very good looking used-up appearance.

You'll find that different "rubber" materials respond differently to sanding though, so pay attention before you ruin a rare tire. Some "rubber" will fuzz instead of becoming dull and worn looking.

Using wet-or-dry paper, as mentioned by the OP, WET, will often alleviate the fuzzing problem, as will going to a finer grit.

Tire treads look more realistic if the edges are slightly rounded off after you get the treads uniformly dulled.

Scrubbing tire sidewalls with a paste made of an abrasive cleanser like old (pre-scratch-free) Comet and a stiff toothbrush takes the shine off nicely and leaves a realistic dull rubber surface...without the danger of sanding details off.

If you have access to a glass-bead blaster, that also works very well, but you have to be careful. 

Edited August 12, 2016 by Ace-Garageguy

[Steven Zimmerman]

One thing you don't see often in our hobby - ....Shiny tires !....Attend any car show or automotive event, and you will see an abundance of ARMOR ALL type products on tires, something pretty much ignored by our fellow builders. I use actual tire care products to achieve this.........'Z'

[Snake45]

I like the old 2-piece styrene slicks, and you still find them in some of the reissues AMT first-gen funny cars. I airbrush the tread areas of these with something like Model Master Gunship Gray, and then come back and hit just the sidewalls with MM Black Chrome Trim. It worked well on the "sand tires" of the Manx dune buggy, too.

I've been using this trick on model airplane tires for years now (along with filing a small flat spot on the bottom, so they're not standing on "tippy toes"). It really brings them to life!

[Brutalform]

After the sanding of the treads, I almost always give the sidewall a quick shot of Dull Coat to take the shiny look away. 

[bob29579]

Sanding the tread is great, but inside the tread is where it looks silly.  How many times have you seen sanded tread with it being shiny down inside the treads ?   The only way I've found to fix this is to paint the tire, then sand the tread. A lot of time and trouble, but the only fix I've seen.   How does everyone else do it in between the treads ?

[Brutalform]

I like the way the treads look after sanding, even with a bit of shine. It gives the treads some definition, I think. Just my two cents.

[Ace-Garageguy]

Sanding the tread is great, but inside the tread is where it looks silly.  How many times have you seen sanded tread with it being shiny down inside the treads ?   The only way I've found to fix this is to paint the tire, then sand the tread. A lot of time and trouble, but the only fix I've seen.   How does everyone else do it in between the treads ?

My trick (pretty sure I invented it, 'cause I've never heard anyone else doing it) is to scrub the tire with a coarse abrasive cleanser (like OLD Comet...the "scratch free" stuff is useless), hot water and a toothbrush. Elbow grease, effort. De-shines ALL the tire, including down in the tread groves.

You're welcome.   

[peteski]

My trick (pretty sure I invented it, 'cause I've never heard anyone else doing it) is to scrub the tire with a coarse abrasive cleanser (like OLD Comet...the "scratch free" stuff is useless), hot water and a toothbrush. Elbow grease, effort. De-shines ALL the tire, including down in the tread groves.

You're welcome.   

I've done that too (honest).   It does take lots of elbow grease.

I was also contemplating spraying the tread with Dullcote, to dull the grooves, then using sandpaper to to scuff the rest of the tread, but I have not tried that.

[GerN]

First paint the tire with a water-based acrylic.  Then dry coat the tread surface with a different acrylic, perhaps flat black with a bit of yellow or white.  I usually do the second step by putting a little paint on a strip of thin adhesive-backed foam and then rolling the tire on that.  This creates a contrast which I find realistic.

BTW, I resin-cast most of the tires I use - no problems with paint adhesion or interaction, no softening of the tire over time and I can customize (a little).  I wish kit manufactures would use styrene for tires.  I realize this would make swapping wheels and tires more difficult.  Maybe if a high-quality manufacturer like Moebius included styrene tires as well as vinyl the others would follow.

[Snake45]

  I wish kit manufactures would use styrene for tires.  I realize this would make swapping wheels and tires more difficult.  Maybe if a high-quality manufacturer like Moebius included styrene tires as well as vinyl the others would follow.

Styrene would also let you flat-spot the tires (as I routinely do for model airplanes) for a much more realistic appearance. It's just about impossible to flat-spot either solid or (especially) hollow vinyl tires.

[Art Anderson]

I like the way the treads look after sanding, even with a bit of shine. It gives the treads some definition, I think. Just my two cents.

However, if you truly look at any tire in use on the street, the tread surfaces will be darker than the grooves, etc. of the tread design.  That's simply due to the tread surface being constantly "worn" against the pavement (regardless of the type of pavement, it's all abrasive!) , while the recessed tread pattern (grooves, etc.), not being in direct contact with the road surface, will be at the bare minimum, dusty--hence lighter in color than the surface of the tread. Also, the older the tire, the lighter in color a blackwall tire will be, due to it's weathering, be even with fairly new tires, the rubber surface is at least minutely porous, leading to dust and dirt adhering to the rubber surface.

Even the color of the soil in whatever region the car is driven will affect even the slightest weathering.

Art

[Chariots of Fire]

Art's right.  Sanding the tread gets rid of the casting flash but leaves the tire opposite to what it should look like.  Repainting the tread with a darker color and doing a lighter wash in the groves will improve the appearance.  Flat appearance on the sidewalks is a plus as well.  Here's an example of the former treatment on a resin cast tire.

Not the best shot but you can see the interior portion of the tread is lighter as if it may have been driving on a dirt road. 

[Casey]

👍

[lucky 130]

We used baking soda and an old tooth brush. Took care of side walls and tread.

[Ace-Garageguy]

Some of the most realistic soft kit tires I've ever seen were simply glass-bead blasted.

[Oldmopars]

I have found acrylic craft paint works really well due to the dead flat look. Brush some "pavement black" into the treads and sand off the tread after dries. I have also used more sandy/dirty colors to get the weathered look like seen in the picture below. BTW, the truck in the picture is not finshed, I have a way to go, but the tires were painted and simply rubbed off with a rag leaving "Dirt" in the treads and dulling the side walls. 

I know this will be too extreme for a normal show/street car, but if you are doing a beater or old truck it works well. 

[Mike C.]

Here's a little trick I like to do. I got a 3 pack of different size drives that allow you to use sockets on your drill. Any hardware store should have these. Now you find the socket with the correct outer diameter, attach it to your drill and spin it on your pice of sandpaper on a flat surface.  Reverse the and repeat until you get the desired effect. You can even angle the drill a bit if you like. For the sidewalls, I found that these plastic ice cream containers with a screw on lit works nicely when you put some sand in with your too new looking tire. Then shake until you are satisfied. 

[Casey]

27 minutes ago, Mike C. said:

 I found that these plastic ice cream containers 

Gelato and sorbetto, to be correct. 🤤 I have saved those containers, too, as they are a great size/volume.

The cleanser scrub always seems to give good results, without making the tire look like it's ben out in the elements for decades. Just be sure you buy old school cleanser, as many similar products, like Barkeepers Friend, are not nearly as aggressive. Find for vintage enameled cast iron sinks and tubs, less ideal for scrubbing model car tires.

[Venom]

One more 👍 for using a lighter wash inside the treads and then sanding ... I also used clear Testors dullcoat on the sidewalls (second picture)

***One other thing worth considering however, is something I’ve actually observed on my bicycle’s treads. I live in a region that gets long winters which means the roads get treated with some type of ice melt which turns things white-ish like salt would; probably there is salt in it. But what I’ve seen on my bike tires is that when I ride in fresh snow it cleans the tires until the rubber looks brand new. Then, if after that, I ride down a street that has had the ice melt treatment, the tops of my tire treads will turn white-ish like they have salt on them, but the deep parts of the tread remain very dark and clean looking ... basically the total opposite of the treads shown above ... Might be worth considering if building vehicles that would be working/driving in winter environments.

Edited January 29, 2022 by Venom

[Skip]

I usually toss treaded tires into a vibratory tumbler with a light blasting media, followed up with walnut hulls.  The "sandblasting" media takes the shine off of the surfaces, while the walnut hulls clean the tire back up again getting the blasting media out of the tread grooves.  Depending on length of time left in the tumbler you can get a used to a pretty well-worn look, could mask off the sidewalls to get a tread worn look with only slight sidewall wear.   I suppose a rock tumbler with either a course or medium grit tumbling media would do the same thing.  Could either do them wet or dry and see which cleans up better.  Would recommend tumbling with walnut hulls to remove grit and lightly polish the tire.

I have also used a fine steel wire brush (dry) to scrub the treaded tires, removes the shine on the sidewalls, treads and between treads with just a light scrubbing.  Normally do this after spinning the tire tread against sandpaper or Scotchbrite pad.  I've read and heard of others using just plain old Scotchbrite pad all over the tire to scuff it up, to remove the shine.