25 replies to this topic

[Alchemist]

I'd like to inquire about the 1/24 RTR Cars that came with different colored rear tires, but in general, information regarding  the colored tires themselves being offered back in the 60's.

 

I remember seeing yellow, blue, red, orange and there is a thread discussing marbleized colored tires - I forgot what they were called?!

 

Were there other colors?

 

What slot car brands offered them on their RTR Cars?

 

What was the purpose of doing this?

 

Were the colors different hardness?

 

This was something I've always been curious about and hope you gents can provide me with some historical education about them please.

 

Thank you.

 

Ernie

[Dave Crevie]

AJs sold the multi-colored silicones, and called them "candies." Way back, it was the colored tires that, at least in part, signaled that slot racing was moving away from scale cars into "thingies."

 

It was why I left slot racing, and concentrated on real cars. I was too young to own one myself, but most of my friends were a year or two older, and we spent the weekends working on their cars.

[Phil Hackett]

SBR (a type of closed-cell foam rubber) was the universal rubber used on slot cars after about 1969. The colors meant nothing really. The rubber supplier (Rubatex RIP) made different colors for the HVAC industry. The SBR they sold were also used for insulation for piping and the colors were used to differentiate the piping. This was told to me by Rubatex themselves.

 

Now comes the fun part: since Rubatex intended their SBR for low-stress industrial purposes the quality that slot car racers wanted or needed didn't consistently happen. So the tire makers were at the mercy of whatever showed up. One of the ways to broaden the hedge of the delivery was to order another color occasionally. Somehow the dyes used affected the quality of the rubber: orange was "normal" and blue was softer. There was also tan, green, and red available from Rubatex. All this was before "fish" or Wonder rubber. 

 

Some will ask, "why not have them make the rubber to specs?" Uhm... Rubatex said they could and would do so but it would require buying a "bun" and at the time in the 1990s that was a $20,000 bill that would yield 250,000 tire donuts. With inflation I'm sure that's more than doubled on a huge amount inventory that could be obsoleted at any time by the latest "hot new" rubber.

 

I investigated molded closed-cell that could be consistantly made to spec and be much closer the final ground size but gave it up because it was obvious that the newer imported rubber was going to be much more cost effective.

 

In the end, the color or the tires (the SBR tires) wasn't anything special. They symbolized different batches that could range from useless to the infamous "Jesus" rubber depending on many, many factors.

[Bill from NH]

My commercial tracks in Maine only ran silicones from 1967 until after I moved out of state in '69, AJs had black, white, & gray tires on both aluminum & brass hubs. I thought Candies was an entirely different company. They had a multitude of different colors on two different plated plastic bubs for both 7/8" & 1.25" tires. Some were soft, others were real soft. I used a pair of 7/8" yellow ones on my first scratchbuilt chassis in '68. I checked them a couple days ago & they are still as soft as when I installed them.

 

In the '70s & 80s I ran orange sponge tires. Riggen & AJs had some of the best sponge donuts. Blue sponge was available, but I did not use it. The yellow, tan, green, & red sponge tires came out in the early 80s when I took a few years absence to raise my kids. I got some colored donuts from Alpha but never used those colors. I do not believe all colors handled the some.

[Bill Seitz]

The ingredients of dyes for coloring rubber do have some effect on the rubber. Black rubber is so because it contains carbon black which makes the rubber tougher and longer wearing. Bicycle racing tires were available in several colors; black offered best wet traction and wear, while red or orange was harder and faster/less rolling resistance. Blue BMX tires were popular in the late 70's for their grip on dirt tracks.

 

Of late 60's tires, the best performing ones I encountered were gray. I did use orange tires for a while in the early 80's until I discovered Alpha tan tires. Since their introduction, I've found the black natural rubbers ("natural" or "wonder") to be superior to any color SBR.

 

In a group conversation in the early 90's, Joel Montague (Camen) spoke of going to a warehouse where the SBR rubber was sold in sheets and handling various sheets of the stuff looking for what felt to him as having desirable characteristics for slot car tires. He said the rubber was being made in lots of different colors for footwear, thongs (flip-flops/zorries) and athletic shoes. He was always on the lookout for purple rubber, and at one time did find some that was faintly purple. It provided only mediocre performance. In the early 90's, Joel found some off-white rubber that he thought was very desirable, and it became a very popular tire choice among wing car racers in the Mid-Atlantic USRA where the tires made from this were known as "snow tires".

[Tim Wilkins]

Dynamic had RTR cars with 1/8' threaded axle tires in gray.

Many colors were available as accessory tires.

You can still find some of these new on Ebay but you will need to sand them down some to get any kind of grip on the track.

[Pablo]

The only thing I have to add is, (with very few exceptions) old donuts are old stale donuts.

No matter the color. No matter what type of mystery goop you put on them.

You end up with soft stale rubber. Just my experience.

 

Being kept refrigerated over the years certainly helps, but how do you know if they have been?

I bought a bunch of Bud Bartos oranges years ago. They still trim just fine and work very well on the track on vintage cars.

 

Your results may vary.

Once you start trimming and trueing 50 year old rubber, they usually turn to shredded lettuce.

 

Trimming them slow may help somewhat, or it may not. Only one way to find out.

If you are wanting them just for display, don't let me dissuade you.

 

Mid America website shows a good donut selection with lots of colors 

[Dave Crevie]

Twinn-K had a version of Candies they called Twinkies. The Twinn-K tires had die cast hubs. All the AJ's had plastic hubs IIRC. But then, I'm in the throughs of dementia these days.(LOL)

[Martin]

Here are a few in my stash, hope they brighten up your day? Remembering these were made and sold in the psychedelic 60's

 

[Mike Patterson]

Twinn-K had a version of Candies they called Twinkies. The Twinn-K tires had die cast hubs. All the AJ's had plastic hubs IIRC. But then, I'm in the throughs of dementia these days.(LOL)

Twinn-K and AJ's weren't the same company. Candies were not a Twinn-K/AJ's product, but I don't remember who marketed them.

[Dave Crevie]

Twinn-K and AJ's were competitors when I was racing. AJ's called their swirled tires Candies. Twinn-K called theirs's Twinkies. If the two merged, it happened after 1968, which was the last time I visited a slot track, when I was out in LA. My cousin out there was still slot racing then. I had quit in 1966. Somewhere I have one of his cars I brought back with me, an early thingy.

[Mark Onofri]

Thank, Phil. I've been wondering for years if Armourflex is usable for tyres.
 
The Limpach "Fresh Cuts" were, in the mid-'80s the best on my local track's oval. I knew I had forgotten something besides where I put my keys, I forgot to buy the light green. There were some red ones in the early '90s that were almost the same density as the packing in my picture. They sucked.
 
In the mid-70s my friend money bags Nick bought one of those bazillion hinged chromium chassis. It had a pink motor with a flower on it and blue tyres. We teased* him and questioned his masculinity so bad that he never brought it again. The point is it had it blue tyres.
 
* for those of you who are under 50, I believe you call it, well, I don't know what you call it but, teased covers it.
 

 

[Bill from NH]

When still in business, Alpha sold colored donuts in blue, green, yellow, orange, and tan. I had some, they probably sold completed tires in those colors too. Blue tires were popular on the west coast in the early '70s. I bought Aguirre hubs, and blue and orange donuts back then from Speed & Sport in CA. I never used the blue because orange worked so well in unlimited glue. Today they are rocks. 

[Pablo]

Mine are still in good shape, I guess they were well cared for all those years.

[Gene/ZR1]

You can always try "Foam Factory", many choices:  Foam By Mail

[Martin]

Save those "Today they are rocks," Bill.
 
I was watching a YouTube video on how to soften old (really) hard rubber parts. He soaked them in oil of wintergreen and they came out soft and flexible.
 
So I bought a bottle, now lets see if I can bring some old orange and blues back to usable condition?

[Mark Onofri]

Funny, the Limpach "fresh cuts" always, at least where I got them, had a overwhelming essence of wintergreen to them. Maybe they weren't so fresh after all?

[Bill from NH]

Martin, did the oil of wintergreen come from a drug store or another source? My Aguirre "rocks" remain stored in my attic. The heat might speed up the. hardening. It sure has dried out some lumber I have stored.

[Martin]

I ordered the wintergreen on amazon.

 

Here is a link..

https://www.amazon.c..._fed_asin_title

 

The guy in the you-tube video used this one, but amazon would not ship free.

 https://www.amazon.c..._ci_mcx_mr__d_s

[Bill from NH]

Thanks Martin, I should have known to check Amazon. It's not like I never check for things there. 

[Martin]

Lots of clips showing the same results.

 

https://www.youtube....rts/rTxZrSjhQi8

[Mark Onofri]

I purchased some from Trinity but, it melted so I don't know what the name is/was. It worked great. The other one is still at my house. It's packaged in a metal container with a dauber in the cap. I've had it for so long that it developed a rust hole. It was more effective than the Trinity, to the point of causing rapid detereation of the tyres.
One thing that a lot of people find out the hard way is that saturating/soaking will dissolve the glue bonding it to the hub. This pertains to newer types of tyers. As for "German Rubber " or whatever was used in the 60's IDK what, if any effect it would have.
You could try naptha or, acetone.* On a thread here somewhere,suntan lotion is suggested. I've also heard that STP was used. A lot of people don't realize that tyer glue is simply synthetic grease reduced with either of the previously mentioned chemicals. It comes in different viscosities,hence the colour difference and the level of grip.
We use to reduce with Coleman fule. Not the brightest idea concerning it contained lead(Tetraethyllead). I was on my way back from fishing (AKA drinking)trip in Canada with a friend. We had 88 cents, just enough for a gallon or gas. We were a little over a hour away from home and made it to the station on vapors with 88 cents. I sarcastically suggested to add the gallon of Collman fuel. That 68 Valiant slant 6 ran like a raped ape. Not only did we make it back, in record time, we drove around for another day or two.

*Parental supervision is advised.(in my case)

[SpeedyNH]

ha! i haven't heard that expression about how it ran since like the 70's. cool. 

 

there used to be a performance company named "SAAPE" (short for "It's Ape") who sold things like chrysler distributor advance springs that fit fords. they were better than what i could easily make so i used 'em. their logo was an ape running down the street on fire. 

[Mark Onofri]

You mean it's not the 70's anymore? But I'm still racing slot cars. One of us might be in a different timezone. Then again.......

[Mark Onofri]

The Dalxos are great, they have sizes that actually fit almost all of the hubs. The red ones are, IDK who made them but, I do know that they are red and 5/40 .
I'll look for more colors as soon as Oswley returns my phone call.

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