Old wheel new tyre advice

[Dave O]

I have a 1978 Spitfire 1500 that I bought 2 years ago to do up. Hasn’t been road legal since 1987 going by the tax disc and also the last MOT. I’m now at the stage where I think I can drive it but the tyres are looking a bit worse for wear and really need replacing before I take it on the road.

it has its original steel wheels which are also in need of a bit of TLC and I plan to media blast and paint them in time but meanwhile wondered if it is safe to put new tyres on them to give the car a go or would you recommend restoring the wheels first?

Can anybody recommend a good tyre supplier who could also fit the tyres to the wheels and any good brands of tyre that are also good value? Also is it easy to take a tyre off (to restore wheels) once on or does that risk damaging the tyre?

thanks

Dave O

[Pete Lewis]

most tyre bays will advise if the rim is safe or not the main problem will be the sealing surface.

removing to repaint later wont be a problem , just a cost 

it would be worth have one tyre removed and inspect the insides of the rim then decide what to do

most budget tyres will give a good service as you will have an tyre age problem well before you wear them out .

Pete

Edited March 6 by Pete Lewis

[chrishawley]

After much chicken-and-egging with re-doing wheels I got introduced to an efficient order of events. Namely:

1) Remove old tyre

2) De-rust (blasting or other method) with particular attention to  beads, fix kerbing damage

3) Prime lightly but sufficiently with anti-rust primer (e.g. bondaprimer or similar)

4) Paint reverses of lips/bead area with any silver (or other colour to taste)

5) Fit tyre

6) Then proceed to the actual business of painting the wheel

This way round avoids having to take a brand new tyre on and off just for painting. Although removal is unlikely to damage a new tyre the refitting process very likely damages the new and soft paint even with the greatest care. The trick(s) to painting a wheel with tyre on are to partially deflate the tyre so the tyre relaxes away from the rim and nifty use of masking tape. The niftiness is hard to describe so I'll see if I can get a photo later on.

[Mjit]

Personally I'd save youself a load of masking hastle and just paint the full rim while the old tyres off.

If you do go for the split inner/outer painting option one trick I found tarting up the "S" alloys on my big saloon was a pile of cheap index cards, the ones about 2/3 the size of a postcard.  Flexible and small enough they will happily tuck down between rim and tyre and stop overspray landing on the tyre.  Much easier than trying to mask up the tyre with tape.

[Colin Lindsay]

I've seen a custom-made 'former' (if that's the word) cut from sheet steel that fits round a section of the rim, so you can slide it under the rim against the tyre and spray that section of wheel before sliding it round to the next bit. Obviously needs cut to your specific wheel circumference and curve but saves a lot of time.

[Dave O]

Many thanks all these are v helpful suggestions.

i might try taking off one tyre first to assess the situation then decide.

personally I like the idea of blasting and spraying the whole rim but I have the added problem of not having yet chosen a compressor to power my blast cabinet ( see posts in tools section)

it is very chicken and egg and I think I’m still very much at the egg stage!

[AlanT]

Dave.

Do your existing tyres hold air? If so, the rims are probably not bad. This was my situation (car also off the road for 2 decades+) so I:

• used paint stripper while the old tyres were still on (left on overnight - just B & Q stuff). Wire brush in drill to clean off the paint. It took two goes to get the lot off (quite messy...heavy rubber gloves).
• hand sanded, spray undercoat
• used the brightest silver paint I could find (makes all the difference to the look of a Spit vs. so called 'bright silver' from Halfords)
• lacquer spray.
• new tyres then fitted. 

The wheels look factory fresh. 

[chrishawley]

On 06/03/2024 at 09:42, chrishawley said:

The niftiness is hard to describe so I'll see if I can get a photo later on.......

Obviously there's no one 'right' way to mask a wheel but here's one I like.

masking a wheel for painting.pdf

[PeteH]

1982 Method, Deflate tyre, Ease cut lengths of stiff paper/thin card (cereal boxes) under the rim. re-inflate tyre to hold paper in place. Prepare wheel and spray. Job done. Does however need the use of air comprssor? or its a right PITA with a foot pump.

Pete

[Mjit]

That's basically what I did with index cards - but without bothering to re-inflate the tyre.  Certainly if you're using rattle cans you're unlikely to blow out something lightly tucked into the gap between rim and tyre.

Deffinetly a lot quicker that any tape method!

[cliff.b]

21 hours ago, Mjit said:

That's basically what I did with index cards - but without bothering to re-inflate the tyre.  Certainly if you're using rattle cans you're unlikely to blow out something lightly tucked into the gap between rim and tyre.

Deffinetly a lot quicker that any tape method!

I have an old set of playing cards that I use for the same purpose.