Painting white wall tyres on your cafe racer
For this How-To, we will be using a Honda CB250 '74 (well, at least its tyres) and white wall paint.
This specific paint has been developed and produced in Iceland from rubber and a special liquid which makes it soft and easy to paint. The secret ingredient behind the formula is a special fluid in the rubber which keeps it from getting completely solid. The paint only gets 50% solid-hardness, which prevents it from cracking on the moving tyre.
Supplies
- A bike with tyres is a good start
- Some quality brushes (small to medium size)
- Quality soap for degreasing (don't use aggressive liquids, because they dry out the tyres)
- White Wall Paint (We used this one)
- Masking tape
- Patience (a lot)
- A steady hand
- Music, to make this a bit more fun!
We started with this Honda CB250:
We took out the wheel and cleaned it.
We masked the rim, de-greased the wheel and start with our first layer.
After doing this, we switched to the other side, paint it, then switched it back until there are three layers on both sides.
This is where the patience, the steady hand & music are needed!
Remove the tape and let it dry for 24 hours (we removed it before the drying so that it wouldn't stick afterwards).
Tadaa!
This took us about two hours (excluding the 24 hours waiting) to do, so it is not that hard!