"Fixing ERTL car tires?" Topic

I have a couple mid-80's ERTL cars whose tires have broken and need to be repaired (The rubber tire is broken and falling off the plastic wheel).

Any ideas on how to fix 'em? Rubber cement, maybe?

I think a repair attempt will very likely be futile.

I recommend buying some cheap ebay ERTL miniature car and using the tires as replacements.

Failing repairing them, cut the "rubber" part off and replace it with sculpted green stuff perhaps?

A rubber O-ring. You will lose some texture though.

I think I have seen ERTL replacement tires on Ebay…that someone cranks out at home.

Unless you you are set on rubber, this sounds like a perfect job for epoxy putty, (i.e. Green Stuff ).

If you still have most of the rubber, line the rim with putty and press the tire into it, trim away any that squeezes out.
Fill gaps with putty. Restore details with needle or tooth-pick.

If you are missing large sections, I would make the tires look mud covered and the replacement sections of tire can be faked with the putty.

Or go all the way and replace the entire tire with a snake (cylinder rolled out of the hunk of putty). Roll out the snake to simulate the diameter of tire your want. Figure out the length needed to make the tire go right-round the rim, cut the end, wrap the snake around and blend the ends together with a needle or similar.

Thanks guys. I'll look for replacement tires, then try the greenstuff method if that fails.

If it's just falling off, then rubber cement should be fine. If it's more seroius than that then, I'd recommend BSI "IC-2000" superglue.

BSI is the company that makes the glue that most model shops carry. The IC-2000 formula is made with so much rubber that it is black and is made to keep RC tires in place. Unfortunately it's not as common as the other formulations, it shouldn't be hard to order or find in a specialty model shop.

Good Luck.