SEAM on tyres?

[Jonesy66]

Hi all

 

I’m in the middle of building a Tamiya Tyrell P4. The six rubber tyres have a great big seam down the middle. Any tips on how to get rid please so that the tyres are smooth?

 

Thanks all!

[bmwh548]

I trim it carefully with a small scissor and then I use sandpaper to smooth everything down. The sandpaper also gives it a bit of a worn look which is far more realistic (to me).

[Coors54]

I may be late to the party on this, I'm building the same at the moment and I would echo @bmwh548 and sand the seams. I've mounted the tyres on the wheel and packed the inside with tissue, mounted it on a shaft between 2 large washers in a drill then on the slowest speed rotated that against some sand paper. Go carefully and save the rubber dust (useful for tyre debris on the tread if your going full race)

But you don't have to be too keen to totally remove the seam, the real things had them - see here -

 

But for the full as raced appearance you need to introduce some debris

 

I'm avoiding the seam issue as I'm going full wets on my model

 

Dave

 

 

 

 

[bmwh548]

Nice idea with the tire "dust"! Thank you!

[sidevalve]

On 13/08/2021 at 15:48, Coors54 said:

I may be late to the party on this, I'm building the same at the moment and I would echo @bmwh548 and sand the seams. I've mounted the tyres on the wheel and packed the inside with tissue, mounted it on a shaft between 2 large washers in a drill then on the slowest speed rotated that against some sand paper. Go carefully and save the rubber dust (useful for tyre debris on the tread if your going full race)

But you don't have to be too keen to totally remove the seam, the real things had them - see here -

 

But for the full as raced appearance you need to introduce some debris

 

I'm avoiding the seam issue as I'm going full wets on my model

 

Dave

 

 

 

 

I used to wander round the pitlanes when I was a teenager in the 70s, and I can confirm that the new tyres had a very prominent seam in the middle. I have 3 Tamiya 1/12 F1 kits that I bought back then and haven't finished yet, and at first I was horrified by the seams - but when I checked against the real thing I was reassured. The thing I wasn't reassured about was how bad the finish was back then - both then and now I did car bodywork, and even as a 17-year-old in 1975 I could have bettered the finish on most of the F1 cars I saw. But I guess they didn't spend too much money on the bodywork, as it had a very short life expectancy!