Model rubber tire rot, has it happened to you.

[ranma]

Years ago back in 1995 or so I bought a new Revell 1/24 Ford areo maxx ( sadly it got destroyed by my ex-wife. But the biggest problem was that the tires were unuseable from the start as they cracked and crumbled apart. I would like to have a copy of this truck again but they are hard to find or not in my price range. Did any one else have this issue with this or other "soft" tired kit's???????

[magicmustang]

Yep, Revell 1/16th drag slicks and front tires have cracked and shrunk (dry rot) over the years. Oh, and Tamiya 1/12th formula I tires also have cracked and shrunk on a Matra FI built in 1972.. 

[Daddyfink]

Definitely yes on the dragster tires. Many a kit of  mine is in need of tires. 

[dodgefever]

Yes, my '80s Revell 'Black Magic' Pete 359 has perished tyres and a Revell Germany rebox of the Italeri container trailer I bought in 1984 also has rotted rubber.

Edited January 18, 2017 by dodgefever

[zak78]

I have four Revell BMW Nazcas, and all four had "melted" P-Zeroes. Not that I'd have used that junk anyway, but still...whatever substrate was involved in making the tires, it separated and worked its way across the glass pieces, requiring a dip in the rubbing alcohol. 

Fujimi's have dry-rotted on me, but only those I received in a trade from the Philippines. They were very old. 

The only Tamiya tires that have deteriorated on me came from a kit made in 1975, which lived in a wet basement before I rescued it in 2009

Edited January 18, 2017 by zak78

[Junkman]

The old Heller kits are notorious for that.
The rubber (or whatever they used) met opposite where they injected it into the mould and that's where they usually split.

[GLMFAA1]

I had Revell tire sweat on the Simba crash truck tires, I was fortunate enough to get replacements when they rereleased the kit

greg

 

[Ace-Garageguy]

Had a full set of 1/12 Tamiya Porsche 934 tires go flat, split the sidewalls, and roll off the rims a few years back...still looking for replacements...and a few Pegasus 1/24 tires have shrunk and split too.

High humidity seems to aggravate the problem.

Once I find a new set for the Porsche, I think filling them with foam or silicone will keep the weight off the sidewalls, so even if they DO rot, they won't collapse.

[Force]

I have an old Revell AG Kenworth K100 COE where the tires are going away and collapsing on me, mostly the front ones as they carries the most weight.

[Don Sikora II]

Had a full set of 1/12 Tamiya Porsche 934 tires go flat, split the sidewalls, and roll off the rims a few years back...still looking for replacements...and a few Pegasus 1/24 tires have shrunk and split too.

High humidity seems to aggravate the problem.

Once I find a new set for the Porsche, I think filling them with foam or silicone will keep the weight off the sidewalls, so even if they DO rot, they won't collapse.

Can't remember who gave me the idea, but someone suggested to me stuffing the inside of the tire with thin plastic bags (like the morning newspaper comes in) or Kleenex to help hold up the weight of the model and keep their shape.

[horsepower]

The original Testors kits of all the Boyds kits have tires that have cracked and split on the wheels, but the unmounted ones still in unbuilt kits are still in good shape. It was my thinking that the diameter of the wheels and the inside diameter of the tires was a little to far apart and caused it. But I could be wrong and I haven't built one with the wheels reduced in diameter to find out........yet.

[unclescott58]

I too have seen this problem over years on different kits. The only example in my collection that I know of right now is my late 80's Buick Regal promo. They split.

Maybe 15 years ago or more now. A member of our local model car club, the MCCM, bought a original '72 AMT Blazer kit. Still sealed in it original plastic. He opened it up at meeting. Naturally wondering if there would be any tire burn on other parts of kit. I don't remember if there was tire burn. But, the tires themselves were kind of white and I don't know how to exactly describe it. They were kind of fuzzy/flaky looking. Weird. That is the first and only time I've seen that happen.

Scott

 

[Barry]

Hello for Canada. I have several 1/16 Revell Funny Cars, Dragsters and 1/12 Tamiya Formula One kits I built in the '70's on the shelf still with Kleenex stuffed in the tires. The tires have not cracked, or rotted, and are still in good shape. Also some of the old 1/8 motorcycle choppers Revell used to make. Same deal, Kleenex stuffed in the tires. It works. Excessive heat and humidity (like storing a kit in a garage attic), will destroy the tires in no time. So will direct exposure to sunlight. I try to keep any kits I buy on a shelf in a dark closet until I'm ready to start building. I also put the tires in a lunch baggy to prevent tire burn on the plastic, or decals. Model makers now, to their credit, have been bagging everything separate which is good. The worst example of bad tires I have seen,are the ones in the re-issues of the MPC 1/16 Petty/Baker Dodge Chargers. I opened the baggy, and was greeted with a very strong oily chemical smell from the release agent used. I had to scrub the tires with hand cleaner and dish soap to get them clean. Same procedure, stuff the tires with Kleenex. I have had tires go south, and it's frustrating. Anyway, I hope this helps out, and good luck finding replacements for your kits.

Barry Kennedy

Ont. Canada

[peteski]

The worst example of bad tires I have seen,are the ones in the re-issues of the MPC 1/16 Petty/Baker Dodge Chargers. I opened the baggy, and was greeted with a very strong oily chemical smell from the release agent used. I had to scrub the tires with hand cleaner and dish soap to get them clean. Same procedure, stuff the tires with Kleenex. I have had tires go south, and it's frustrating.

If a clear oily fluid which oozes from the soft material used to make the tires it is not a release agent - it is a plasticizer (which is what makes the tire material soft) leachign out of the tire. Not only it is nasty to deal with, it usually makes the tire shrink and stiff.  I see that often on recent (Chinese-made) models of automotive subjects, from 1:64 to 1:18 scale. I suspect that the formula those manufacturers use is unstable (due to crappy materials being used?).  I have also seen tires which turn "frosty"  - the surface looks like it is coated with a thin layer of candle wax.  The oily liquid can often soften any plastic the tire comes in contact with (similar to the "tire burn" which used to happen with the old kits from the '60s and '70s).

Edited January 19, 2017 by peteski

[echoxrayniner]

Only two times I've ever come across some serious tire rot was with two AMT kits from '91 and '86 respectively(Heritage Ed. Camaro and El Camino SS), which made 'em look like adorable little fuzzy white donuts that made the entire kit reek of dead dog. Go figure, these were new still in sealed plastic as well as the little baggies. I also think it's probably just some bad batches, if not usually just high humidity and such that allows for the plasticizer/rubberizer agent to seep through after opening it or building it but man, once they go rank, they go rank.

Never ran into the drying up and splitting in half issue myself luckily, though like the others said, I reckon shoving some soft stuff in there that helps carry the weight seems might lengthen the life span a fair bit.

[64Comet404]

I have had a few kits where the tires have rotted on me. I have had a Revell Mercedes truck kit and a Tamiya 1/6 motorcycle in which the rubber had actually re-liquified in the packaging (not bad on the bike, where the tires were still in the vacuformed packaging, but on the truck, the rubber was all over the parts bags). I also have a 1/12 Tamiya Porsche, where the original tires are so sticky, I can't leave them in the box without pieces of the cardboard adhering to the tires.

[Motor City]

I've seen photos of early AMT and Jo-Han kits on Ebay where the tires and wheels don't fit well together.  I'm guessing that the tires shrunk, but don't really know. 

Has anyone had success softening up tires on old metal promos (Banthrico, National Products, Master Caster) to eliminate flat spots due to the weight of these early models?  

[signguy2108]

The Italeria truck tires. I've had to replace several due to crumbling ( one on the shelf now with a flat frt tire). I've tried super glueing but that doesn't work well. What I am doing now is putting a small vacuum hose or 10 ga. wire inside the frt. tire before mnting it. Rears don't seem to have as much problems, I guess becuase they are doubled

[Ace-Garageguy]

The original Testors kits of all the Boyds kits have tires that have cracked and split on the wheels, but the unmounted ones still in unbuilt kits are still in good shape. It was my thinking that the diameter of the wheels and the inside diameter of the tires was a little to far apart and caused it. But I could be wrong and I haven't built one with the wheels reduced in diameter to find out........yet.

Ah yes...now that you mention it, I recall some Aluma Coupe tires that did just exactly that. Annoying to mount them to rims for a mockup, then come back a year or so later and find they'd split.

[Snake45]

  I have also seen tires which turn "frosty"  - the surface looks like it is coated with a thin layer of candle wax.  The oily liquid can often soften any plastic the tire comes in contact with (similar to the "tire burn" which used to happen with the old kits from the '60s and '70s).

I have a built '57 Chevy model on which I used some old AMT redline Firestone Supreme tires. It has been sitting in a JoHan display case in my basement (along with about a dozen other models so cased) for a couple decades. The redline tires are getting whiter and whiter and are looking more and more like powdered donuts. I'd assumed this had something to do with the humidity in my basement but I now realize that none of the other tires under the same conditions have that. I'll have to get that thing out and take a closer look at it sometime.

[Edsel-Dan]

I have had some of the tires in Testor's Fabulous Fords IMC re-issues Split

GT MK & Indy Lotus Ford, Possibly a 48 Coupe too

And the Soft tires in my Original US Release of Revell's Car Transport trailer rotted

Never got to finish that one!!!!

[Pete L.]

The old Revell tires are also famous for "eating" the plastic wheels they were mounted on...

[Spex84]

Yep, those Testors low-profile tires in the Smoothster (also the Vantastic) split after a while if they've been mounted on the wheels.

The soft rubber ones seem to be most vulnerable. I think there were some supercar/exotic kits that also had soft rubber tires...Ferarri F50 perhaps?

I have some old Monogram bias-plies from the '53 Corvette that have shrunk slightly and the whitewall inserts no longer fit, but so far they don't seem to be oozing, sticky, or cracking. Just dried out I guess!

[Edsel-Dan]

Forgot, I have one of Rev-Germany's Mercedes DLK Ladder truck, and the tires

in that one were 'sweating' an oily chemical

bagged those and used that kit for spare parts

[stitchdup]

I had a tamiya ford mustang which the tyres seem to have dried out and split around the edges, and also the imax caddy I just built the tyres seemed to be covered in a mould, I washed it off in dish soap and dried them and within a day they were mouldy again. Bit annoying cos I wanted to use them on the rear of a hot rod