Preserving Our Vintage Tires

[1Grizzo 2]

Any tips on preserving the tires on our vintages? I have trialled some rubber conditioner called Gummi Pflege on some spare tires
I had lying around. It looks great and gives the rubber moisture, but it leaves them permanently slippery. I'm not keen on making the tires slippery even though they will be only on the shelf. Any other ideas?

 

Thanks.

[87lc2 2666]

I've had good luck restoring vintage tires that were dried out by thoroughly cleaning & scrubbing them with Simple Green and hot water, then coating them with water based (NOT oil based) leather/vinyl/rubber dressing (Aerospace 303 or similar) and leaving them in plastic bags for 1-2 days.  After they soak for a few days give them a good cleaning with warm water to remove the excess dressing and they are not slippery and almost as good as new.  It has the added benefit of softening them a bit and giving them more grip (if you plan to actually run them).

I have done this to quite a few sets of original ClodBuster tires and most recently with a set of Vice Crawlers.  They are now very soft and grippy.

[KEV THE REV 2319]

I use glycerin . A good wash , soak in glycerin and store in a bag for while , then rinse off and dry . The longer kept in the bag the better .

[Juggular 4964]

It seems to depend on the type of substances the tires are made out of.  I've heard that people using WD40 on real 1:1 tires for racing to make them stickier.  

Natural rubber-like compounds seem to respond well to WD40 (like the front tires of the Grasshopper).  They get softer, ever so slightly slicker too, but not noticeable after a few days.  Shinier looking tires with plasticky compounds get softer too.  However, these get slippery.  But I still use WD40 once in 5 years or so, just to keep them from cracking.  I wish there was one solution that could make all tires softer and stickier.  

 

[Jonathon Gillham 4606]

I've used Simple Green on my race tyres and it works really well to soften them up. These tyres were only 18months old but were feeling a bit hard compared to new ones. Sparying them with Simple Green and a scrub with a scrubbing brush has brought them back to what they were like new.

I suspect it would count as tyre additive which is against the rules here, but everyone does it and its not like I'm anywhere near the points anyway

[Snakehands 124]

I had some dried and cracked rubber parts on one of my 5th scale trucks that I used silicone spray on. Worked perfectly.

[Fabia130vRS 2098]

as said, I worked a few years in a car wash as a youngster. We had so called ''milk'' for dash boards and plastics in general, I used them on my scooters and cars, basically, whipe them clean with a wet towel, let the tires soak in a mixture of ''milk'' and water for a couple of hours, and wash them off under a gentle water stream.they will look like new and let them dry in a warm place, this step can be repeated a few times, but to keep in mind it could leave stains on very old tires if sprayed, so recomended to soak them. I dont know the name of the one we used, but this is something similar.

https://www.autopflegeforum.eu/forum/index.php/Thread/30550-Sonax-Profiline-Plastic-Cleaner-Interior-Reviews-Tests-work/

an other solution, very risky thought, is to use a heat gun, try on a faded old plastic, go over it with a heat gun, it will gain black the original black color, I would give it a try on tires, but some other not to damage the original ones.

 

the first method should work for rubber, the second I cant tell but an idea...

[scoobybooster 248]

I simply spray them with silicone, let it soak a couple of minutes, then slightly whipe it off again. 
The effect is a shiny look that lasts for long, but makes tires also a bit slippery - so i can recommend only for display purposes.