Btw, what are theese "vinyl-tire damages"??

[JAFFA]

Just as the headline says..

[Olle F]

You are probably talking about the damage a vinyl tire can do to clear plastic parts. I have heard a lot about this from those who collect old kits, but hadn't seen any of this until I put a finished model in a clear display case. After a few months, there were kind of etch marks on the tires and the clear base. From what I have heard from the collectors, it happens ever so often in boxed kits when the tires and the clear parts are not separated. Not sure what causes this, but I guess it's some kind of chemical reaction.

[mikelo]

Clear parts get etched and I have some old MPC kits I built a while ago and the tires are melting the edges of the chrome rims.

Mike

[evilone]

well the only damage ive seen is when it was humid and hot as hell over here and the tires started to melt

reason they were in my garage

temp of the garage was about 109 degrees

it was 104 degrees outside

[CAL]

Just as the headline says..

some vinyl tires eat styrene rims

I had a bunch of Italeri Opel Blizt kits the tires ate through the styrene parts.

I sent them back to Testors for testing and they say it was some incompatablity with the formula of the tires.

Edited September 9, 2008 by CAL

[Jairus]

This was something that used to only happen to old vintage kits. It is due to the chemical compound that makes up the Vinyl tires and happens to more than the clear.

Sometimes you can find melty body and other parts too... depending on what the tire touches and how long it sits.

For example the following wheel and tire combo was most-likely put together during the mid 60's:

The styrene is still soft and can be imprinted.

Most modern kits have the tires bagged separately which eliminated this problem for all time.... but the statement "vinyl-tire damages" means the kit has sat for a long time and the tires have left an imprint in something. Most likely the body...

The fix: Cutting away all styrene that is soft and filling with a good epoxy putty.

[Randy Kern]

This kind of thing not only occurs with plastic model kit tires, but also on some 1/43 scale white metal model tires. I have some Lansdowne models that I keep in a small flip-up display case (I believe made by Johnny Lightning), and the tires melted down into the plastic where they actually made little ruts! The model actually sticks a little when you pull it up, but the tires are fine with no damage, just the plastic. I also have a few K&R Replica white metal kits in the same case, and the tires on them make no marks at all. The base is black plastic, but I'm not sure if clear is more prone to this type of damage.

[Aaronw]

some vinyl tires eat styrene rims

I had a bunch of Italeri Opel Blizt kits the tires ate through the styrene parts.

I sent them back to Testors for testing and they say it was some incompatablity with the formula of the tires.

Did the older release of the Blitz have vinyl or rubber tires? I have a couple of the fire truck version and the tires are all plastic which seems to work ok, maybe they learned.

[CAL]

Did the older release of the Blitz have vinyl or rubber tires? I have a couple of the fire truck version and the tires are all plastic which seems to work ok, maybe they learned.

Vinyl.

[Jello]

I have not seen any tire/parts damage in the past 20 years in the newer kits or so but it was common in the late '60s to '70s mostly in MPC & Johan kits..I got windshields, decals, chrome trees and even several car bodies with tire marks on them. Got one JoHan body that has the tire melted right on the roof! In some hobby shops, the kits were displayed on the shelves a long time and some even had the sun on them and heat does make the problem worse.

Cause of those problems, I never buy older kits without being able to see the contents and that means buying these kits in person or buy from someone that will send pics of the contents. Sealed older kits do have its problems and I have gotten several that had tire damage. Its a roll of the dice when you buy older sealed kits cause you never know whats inside!

Even today where the chances of tire damage almost gone, I still bag the tires if they are not already bagged like Revell does now. Anybody that has seen those old hard JoHan tires with or without the out of round whitewalls, will know theres "something" odd about them, they are plastic killers!

~ Jeff

[ubermodel]

For example the following wheel and tire combo was most-likely put together during the mid 60's:

That wheel looks like it's being eaten away by some Plastidids (let's see who here is a real die-hard and know what I'm talking about).

[Dragon7665]

That wheel looks like it's being eaten away by some Plastidids (let's see who here is a real die-hard and know what I'm talking about).

You mean Plastids???

[JAFFA]

Now that did'nt seem very nice at all!

[ubermodel]

Bluesman Mark wins a Kewpie doll!

[Abell82]

This is NOT just a problem, of the 60's, and 70's. This problem occurs, in the 80's kits TOO.

I have purchased quite a few MPC kits, from the 80's that have tire melt problems.

[HotRodaSaurus]

Saw these models for sale at a swap meet. They had been stored only 3 years but in boxes using polystyrene 'peanut' packing.

You know the stuff, I send models through the post using it, you have probably got something from the 'Bay' packed in it. Sure its safe but look at these tyres. They are original kits from the 1970s but were stored only within the last few years. The tyre melt has not affected all the parts or indeed all the rubber parts.

Look but beware.

John

[Eshaver]

WOWZAAA, DAT BE SUUMM SRERUSS TIRE BITIN GOINN ON DER John!!!!!!!!!!!! Better get me sumair fresners cause de smeeel dem tires be makin stink up de room!!!! Ed Shaver

[conor1148]

im confused.. what happened to the tires? i mean i know they are melted but why?

[georgeh]

Connor, there's some kinda chemical reaction happening between the rubber in the tires, and probably the chemicals in the foam peanuts.It happens when you leave the tires of really old kits in the box with the model.It's called tire burn.

[John Goschke]

Not sure it has anything to do with the packing peanuts. The real culprits are the chemicals in the vinyl (not true "rubber") model tires, which react with the styrene of the model (and the peanuts, if they're styrofoam).

AMT tires of the mid-late '60s (those nice Firestone Supremes) are especially prone to causing damage to adjacent styrene parts. If you're lucky enough to find a mint, unopened... say, AMT '66 annual Impala hardtop kit, you have to worry that perhaps the tires loose in the box for 40 years have melted through the roof!

Of course, we live with this problem anyway by building the model; inserting the styrene wheel into the vinyl tire. The models shown here are a pretty extreme case, but if you've bought an old builtup to restore, chances are you've dealt with this issue.

Current kit tires are not immune from this problem. I used a set of those nice whitewalls from a Revell-Monogram '59 Impala hardtop customizing kit to mockup a '60 T-bird build, and after perhaps three months on the shelf the vinyl tires started to melt the styrene whitewall inserts. Glad it wasn't a finished model!

If anyone has discovered a satisfactory barrier to prevent this problem I'd sure like to hear about it!

[conor1148]

ah! thanks! i dont even know of anywhere i could get a old model like that here..

[BigGary]

Forget it Ed, Your German(?) stinks worse than those tires. lol

[HotRodaSaurus]

One of the things I did notice about these two kits(Tony Nancy & the California Charger in the pics) were that only some of the rubber parts are melted. The rim of the rail dragster is virtually untouched, you cant really get a good view of the Nancy rear wheel but that looks the same.

I have had a couple of kits with tyre burn or tyre melt on built ups but the styrene is usually also melted.

One make of kits I dont know if this affects are Monogram, well the old ones at least. I have most of those classics plus Rommels Rod and Li'l Coffin, they have the styrene whitewall inserts and are all ok, some after 40 years, don't know about modern Revell/Mono but I had an original Mickey Thompson Challenger 4 engine car, on that the tyres were ok but the wheels were melted

J

Edited November 2, 2008 by HotRodaSaurus

[Billy Kingsley]

That's some serious meltage. If I may make a suggestion, how about making it into a diorama of a car that lost it's motor, and the tire caught on fire? That would work for the rear tire anyway.

I just put a bunch of kits in storage-probably 200 or more. Before I did that I went through each and every one of them and pulled the tires and decals out of them, and put them where they were not touching each other. In fact, I now have a big box in the basement full of tires in zip-lock bags with the kit they came out of written on the bag in Sharpie.

[John Goschke]

to me it looks as if the tires that were affected were done intentionally ( to simulate blow-outs) seeing as it only appears to be 2 tires. Just my 2 cents ( even though I have no sense)

Looking at the photos again, I think you may be correct, since the other tires have no apparent damage. Also, as HotRodasaurus points out, the tires here are affected while the styrene appears undamaged. The typical case of tire damage, the vinyl causes the styrene to soften, while the tire remains sound.

So, I have no idea what's going on with these dragsters but it's pretty strange!