Kyosho W5031; "The Impossible Tire"

[optiman]

When I first thought about restoring my Kyosho Turbo Optima Mid SE with the Special Conversion 7-Cell FRP chassis to a full converted Turbo Optima Mid Special I was almost certain I would have to get some aftermarket tires to get the Box Art look I wanted, everyone knows that when trying to restore this buggies, tires are almost always one of the most difficult parts to get, hence the tittle: "The Impossible Tire".

In my quest to get the "Box Art" look I was resigned, and decided to get aftermarket tires as mentioned before, then the bulb lit!!!. As you all know W5034 tires are more abundant than the W5031. So I started playing with the idea of joining together two W5034 front narrow tires to make one rear. So my ultimate retore plan was that, get 3 pairs of W5034's and slice four of them to get two W5031's rears. And so I bought 4 pairs, three for the project and one pair in case something went wrong.

Then I got extremly lucky and after countless hours surfing ebay I got a new pair of W5031's, incredible!!! And so the project of slicing two W5034 tires to get one W5031 ended.

Anyways since I ended with 3 pairs of W5034's with nothing to do twith them I decided to go and re-take the project and give it a shot, here is the "how to" and the results:

What is needed:
1) Two pairs of W5034 tires
2) Extremly good scissors.... A MUST!!!
3) Tire glue
4) A good hand
5) Go to your man cave and lock the damn door!!!!

First:
Decide how do you want the tire to look like.
Option #1 (Hardest to do, no joint lines to follow the cut)
Bridgestone logos on both sides and three joints on the thread of the tire.

Option #2 (Factory look, Little hard, only one joint line to follow the cut)
Bridgestone logo on one side and two asimetrical joints on the thread.

Option #3 (Easiest to do, joint lines to follow the cut)
No Bridgestone logo, nor lettering, one center joint.

Second:
Commitment, everything is going to go fine!!!

I went for option #2, with the logo on one side and plain on the other.

Third:
Steady hand and cut that new W5034. The first cut should be one just to get rid of the sidewall and the spikes that are going to be discarded.

Fourth:
Cleaning the cut; The final cut to get the edge as straight as posible. I use the round portion of the spikes and pass the scissors tangetial to the round portion, this gave me a very very straight cut.

Fifth:
Since I went for option #2, all did was with the second tire was to get rid of the sidewall and cut thru the factory join line, this gave me an even better cut, hence Option #3 is easier.

Sixth:
Apply just a small amount of glue in the bead on one of the halfes. Dont over "wet", I used a pin to get glue from the container and into the tire. Continue this process SLOOOOOWLY until you get all the tire joined up.
For an even better look use foam inserts inside the tire once the glue dries.
Voila!!!!! Congratulations, now you have a tire for your restoration project.

[optiman]

More pics

[optiman]

More Pics

[optiman]

More Pics

The "new" W5031 are shown on the right side first picture.

Side view of buggy showing the "new" rear W5031.

Top view of buggy showing the "new" tire on left side.

New tire set.

Tire scrap, yes you may think I'm crazy

[Welshy40]

Tidy job, brings back memories of my cut n shut jobs at the nats and indoor finals in the 90's

[lllyf]

really？I remember I have sets of them in my collections，one set on turbo optima mid special，I loves the square block pattern

[optiman]

Thank's, it really ended up very nice.
Anyways, since I have no use for them I will be offering them on ebay. Full set, front & rears, free shipping around the globe for $100.00US. I'm trying to get what I paid for the three packets of W5034's plus shipping I paid for.