dawn in MT slicks
 

Am going tubeless. Do I need to paint the insides and let them sit for a day or two or mount them immediately?
Thanks.
Pete

Re: dawn in MT slicks
 

I always did that with Firestones but that was in the late 1970's around 1977-78. I used Dawn liquid dish washing soap. Some use Palmolive.

Re: dawn in MT slicks
 

I always painted my old Firestones, still leaked some. I have run my MT radials tubless for six years now, doing nothing to them. Seldom have to correct air pressure all weekend. The set on the car now won't loose enough to measure in a couple of weeks.

Re: dawn in MT slicks
 

Do you screw them to the rims without tubes?
I have a set of rims with holes already, that I ran with tubes in.
Would like to go tubeless myself
Thanks, Mike

Re: dawn in MT slicks
 

Mike, with one set of wheels I filled the screw holes with JB Weld. I applied tape inside the bead area and "packed" the JB each hole with a small wooden dowel. They held air fine and stayed in service for several more seasons.

Re: dawn in MT slicks
 

I'm a Palmolive man myself. It does work and for the ease and cost of it why not? I just put new Hoosiers on and did it, why not? I don't use screws just wipe the rim and bead with acetone before filling and if you want you can spray the bead with hair spray, it help prevent them slipping on the rim. I've never filled the holes but use a scotchbrite on a die grinder to remove any burrs. I've used wheels with holes and never filled them and run tubeless with no problem.

Re: dawn in MT slicks
 

Not sure what the story behind this is. I’ve had Hoosiers for 5 years that don’t leak a bit without any dish detergent. Heck my front runners are worse.

Re: dawn in MT slicks
 

I never drilled my wheels for screws. Fronts are tubeless, never leak.

Re: dawn in MT slicks
 

I think the screws where for the 5-6 pounds of air run in slicks back in the day, now it's 20 or more.?

So they wouldn't spin. thought that was obvious.

Re: dawn in MT slicks
 

The screws were necessary to stop the tire from spinning on the rim and then tearing out the valve stem of the tube. Then 20 or so years ago the tires got better and I think they slightly changed the profile of the outer edged of the rim, everybody went tubeless and no more issues. Hooray!

Re: dawn in MT slicks
 

For what it's worth, this is what a lot of guys are doing today, with the exception of the dish detergent. That practice started many years ago, almost exclusively with Firestone/Firehawk/Phoenix bias ply slicks. The rubber that made up the sidewalls was so thin that you could wet a mounted tire with soapy water and watch all of the little bubbles form on the surface. They would often go flat in a couple of days. I could certainly be wrong, but I don't know of another tire (especially any radial) that exhibited that behavior.

Re: dawn in MT slicks
 

Hoosier = no soap and no leaks!

Further, it's the year 2018, who runs rim screws?

I go 1 teens in my door car and 1.0 in my dragster in 60 foot without rim screws!