Just thought I'd paas this on.
After finding a horizontal gash with a flap of rubber in the sidewall in one of my tires on my Explorer, I went searching for ideas on the subject. The gash was not deep enough (anywhere near the belting) for me to replace the tire but deep enough that I wouldn't be comfortable with just pulling the flap off.
After a bit of googling, I came across this:
Sidewall Tire Repair
I used the spirits as specified (didn't feel comfortable with trying brake cleaner) and applied some ShoeGoo under the flap and then set the flap in place. When I checked the next day, it was barely noticeable. Shoe Goo really is a perfect adhesive for this; it sets as a flexible rubber. The repaired part flexes exactly the same as the rest of the sidewall. After it had dried, I used a bit of black RTV to fill in the divets that were there, and a few other blemishes on the tire. All in all it worked out very well, you have to get really close to notice anything at all.
The tire seen on the site has a gash deep enough that you can actually see the cord. I wouldn't think of using a tire with such damage on a passenger car, its truly too risky. In his case, he's only using the tire when 4-wheeling, where speeds are low enough to minimize the dangers of a blowout.
Great stuff this Shoe Goo. I'm gonna try too fix a few things I couldn't with a standard adhesive.
After finding a horizontal gash with a flap of rubber in the sidewall in one of my tires on my Explorer, I went searching for ideas on the subject. The gash was not deep enough (anywhere near the belting) for me to replace the tire but deep enough that I wouldn't be comfortable with just pulling the flap off.
After a bit of googling, I came across this:
Sidewall Tire Repair
I used the spirits as specified (didn't feel comfortable with trying brake cleaner) and applied some ShoeGoo under the flap and then set the flap in place. When I checked the next day, it was barely noticeable. Shoe Goo really is a perfect adhesive for this; it sets as a flexible rubber. The repaired part flexes exactly the same as the rest of the sidewall. After it had dried, I used a bit of black RTV to fill in the divets that were there, and a few other blemishes on the tire. All in all it worked out very well, you have to get really close to notice anything at all.
The tire seen on the site has a gash deep enough that you can actually see the cord. I wouldn't think of using a tire with such damage on a passenger car, its truly too risky. In his case, he's only using the tire when 4-wheeling, where speeds are low enough to minimize the dangers of a blowout.
Great stuff this Shoe Goo. I'm gonna try too fix a few things I couldn't with a standard adhesive.
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