White letter tires - revisited

Bored at work, thinking about driving the new SC MR2 when it isn't -10F and snow/ice. Still needs new wheels and tires, and white letter tires crossed my mind again.

Call me old fashioned, but I've always liked them. The newest thread here is from 2013, any other choices besides BF Goodrich T/A's? (Only need 14-15" anyway)

Last I recall there was some white paint you could use and there were some pics that make things look pretty sweet. I was thinking of doing it to me.

Stencil/mask and spray paint. Extra points for yellow instead of white.

I like them, but they would be my third choice behind outlined raised black letters and then outlined raised white letters.

I don't care if tires have gotten exponentially better, if Goodyear reintroduced the original Eagle GTs, I'd buy at least three sets.

For white letter street radials, BFGs and Firestone Indy 500s are about the best quality you'll find. I think there maybe a couple others hiding around.

Everything else are usually regional off brand tires that are of questionable quality.

In reply to Woody:

I liked the GT+4's I had on a Camaro years ago. GT styling with much better rain performance. Like I could drive in the rain.

I have Mastercraft Avenger G/T's on my F150. Last time they were brought up in a thread someone didnt have nice things to say about them but I havent had any complaints.

So far I cant say they are any less of a tire than BFG Radial T/A's or Firehawk Indy 500's.

I've got Hankook Ventus H101's on my C1500, wearing great after 18 months and pretty good in the rain. If you want to stay with an American made tire there's always Cooper Cobras.. (or are they owned by Michelin now?)

Cooper makes the Cooper Cobra as well which is not too bad of a tire.

Sold a few sets of the Cooper Cobras. I like 'em. I think all the Cobras are made in Mexico now. I believe Cooper was sold to an Indian company a year or two ago.

Mickey Thompson has their S/T line. Limited size choices though. Have a set on the Barracuda, but blackwall side out. They offered a 225/60-15 but it was blackwall only. That's what I run on the front.

Put a set on our Road Runner last year with the white letters out. Looks good and rides better than the decades old BFGs that were on there. I've sold several sets to customers too. They have all be happy.

Woody wrote: I don't care if tires have gotten exponentially better, if Goodyear reintroduced the original Eagle GTs, I'd buy at least three sets.

They are being reproduced by Kelsey Tire: http://www.kelseytire.com/pages/preformancetires3.html

Price isn't cheap though, around $400 a tire.

https://www.tirestickers.com/

I've seen some interesting sets where people shaved/sanded? the raised black wall lettering and stenciled their own lettering. It let's you customize what you want them to read anyway.

My 84 GTI is too clean to "race prep" but I wish I could take it to that level and slap on some fender flares and run 13 x 10 slicks with "ANTI-STANCE" OR "MOTORSPORT STANCE" stenciled on them.

I still have fun going to meets and car shows to hang out with friends but I've grown really sick of the Stance Kids running ridiculously stretched tires and poked rims that they space out far enough to set their mutilated fenders on top of when they air the car out and "hard park it". Your car isn't "built", you just spent twice it's value on air bags and wheels for an otherwise stock car.

The only product that I've ever was worth it's salt is Ranger Tire Paint. Seems to me that most of the issue people have with this kind of thing boils down to prep work. You're going to have to get absolutely all trace of the release coat, tire dressing, or similar product to see good adhesion. I'm planning on doing the Fiat when it's "done". I figure at $15, plus shipping, it's worth a try.

Ranger Tire Paint

All the tires I've seen mentioned seem to be much higher sidewall than I need, obviously for the muscle car/truck crowd. And there's nothing wrong with that. But us boy racer/ricer/import kids (even at 47) like white letters too.

So far it looks like BF Goodrich, or maybe that Ranger paint. I'm not planning on autocrossing the MR2 so I don't think I want super extreme summer tires, it would be nice to drive it below freezing once in awhile without swapping needed.

Also, did I mention I was bored at work? That's 75% of the reason I start a question. (But obviously I'm not the only one that likes WLT)

Rad_Capz wrote: https://www.tirestickers.com/

"Tire Stickers® has developed strong relationships with nearly every major tire manufacturer including Dunlop, Falken, Toyo, Yokohama, Continental, GoodYear, Michelin and many more" ----yet they have one listing for Continental that says "coming soon".

My '85 Accord was made 76% more badass when I added RWL BFG Radial T/As to it.

If my wife didn't do so many miles the Fiat would get reproduction Good Year Blue Streaks.

If you want to roll your own the best I have found is a white Sharpie brand paint pen I bought at staples. This was after two coats;

And this is after about nine months and two thousand miles or so;

I liked my Dunlop gt qualifiers better than the bfg.

But that's been a lot of years ago.

I did my rallycross tires by hand with yellow Testors model paint. They looked great after 2 weeks in the driveway and about 300 road miles. After a rallycross, the yellow is still there, but it's pretty dull and not very apparent.

If you totally clean/prep where you're painting, plenty of things will stick - provided it's a street car and not getting smashed into piles of gravel

I think there are some circumstances where they're perfectly acceptable, and some where they're tacky.

In reply to carbon:

I think everything looks better with white letters, from mini vans to Ferrari to wagons. Don't care much for yellow or any other color though.

I even had white letters on my bicycles back in the day.

The idlers stencil is literally just spray-painted on.

Tire markers sold at parts stores work great. I've lettered many a tire with them for thousands of miles.