Wheel To Tire Fitment Question

[LokisTyro]

I'm nearing the end of build, finally, of an AMT stock car. I've worked the tires a bit, painted the wheels and given them some light detail painting. I placed the outer wheel pieces in the tire and I'm not really happy with the amount of gap between the outer rim and tire. I was wondering if there was a known "quick fix" for cleaning this up. I was thinking of filing the "hidden" part of the lip down but I'm not convinced that there is enough of a lip to make a difference. The rubber seems to have the same issue without enough material to take out to correct the fitment. Gluing would seem to result in an out of round tire?? Below are a few pics. You can really see the shadows accentuating the gap. This has probably been covered many times over so I appreciate any input.

EDIT: WORK PICTURES, WOOOOOOOORRRRRRRK!!!! AHHHHHHHHRRRRRRRRRGHGHGHGHG!!!!!

Edited August 25, 2013 by LokisTyro

[turn1wonder]

I don't see any pictures Andrew.

Now I'm going to ask you a silly question...have you tried turning the tires around to see if it's a different sized inside diameter?

Bob

[Jeremy Jon]

In this example Bob, it's easier to remove a small layer of the tires inner lip along the corner, until you find they "sit" better against the wheel

[Casey]

Yep, thin or bevel the wheel's rim/lip until they seat deeper inside the tire.

[LokisTyro]

Not sure what I'm doing wrong with the pics, but I tried to fix them. I think I may have copied the wrong link location. I thought I knew how to do it but I'll have to read the sticky. First things first, right? Don't blame me, they're instructions! *shudder*

I haven't tried flipping the tires. Even though it's incorrect I want to use the raised letter side of the tires. The other side also has odd slits in the tires. I would assume they'd be covered up by the decals but I'm not using those.

I'm not sure I can trim any of the rubber without mangling it right now. I'm short an exacto knife at the moment. I'll have to give filing down the wheel lip a go.

[Ace-Garageguy]

DON'T cut the tires !!! And DON'T REVERSE THE TIRES !!!

I pulled out one of my own AMT Nascar kits with identical wheels / tires and investigated this.

1) The biggest problem is that the wheels, as assembled, are a little too wide to properly pull down into the tire-bead area. Put a piece of 180 grit sandpaper on a FLAT, HARD surface, and sand material off the INNER SURFACE of the OUTER HALF of the wheel (where it mates with the inner half of the wheel)...You MAY also have to remove material, the same way, from the OUTER face of the INNER wheel half. Test fit in the tire until the problem almost completely disappears (see 4 below). This will get you about 95% perfect.

2) Another POTENTIAL cause is that if ANY mold flash remains on the underside of the rim, in the 4 locations the wheel outer-half is attached to the sprue, it will cause a standoff problem like this.

3) On MY tires, there was a TINY amount of molding-flash on the tires themselves at the bead sealing surface. CAREFULLY remove this with a SHARP, NEW X-Acto.

4) IF you want to get the wheel rims in even tighter and thinner looking, CAREFULLY sand the backside of the tire rim in the bead-sealing area to a slight outward-facing bevel. You may have to go back and sand the mating surfaces of the wheel halves a little more to get everything to pull down tight.

If you need it, I'll post photos of exactly what to do, and the results.

Edited August 25, 2013 by Ace-Garageguy

[LokisTyro]

Thanks for all the help everyone.

Thanks, Ace, for taking the time to look at the wheels and tires. I hadn't notice the extra material on the lip of the tire. Good eye! It helped a lot with seating it, as well as filing down the inside of the lip on the wheel.