Tear it up. Why? To easy to take off. Take to any tire store.
Then bring themback.

If they are crappy tires that you don't care about, then that is ok. But, if good tires, remove them.

 

Yes they are crappy tires. They have excellent tread but have a small amount of dry rot and I wont trust them. They have only been used to roll around projects. Once my car is done I plan to smoke them until all the tread is gone and then get some BFGs mounted.

I guess I could wait till then but I was planning on getting out the sand blaster to do some other parts and thought I would zap them while I was at it. Once I get done Im selling my blaster and that time cant come soon enough for me. Using those things is like going to the beach. Sand gets everywhere! :sad:

 

You can cover the tires with a couple of layers of duct tape. It should work fine if you are not using too much pressure and hitting the duct tape for extended periods.

Don

 

I've sandblasted with no ill effects to the tire. Just use a reasonable pressure level. If you want to paint the rims without paint sticking to the tires, you can coat the tires with armoral or vaseline or something slippery like that first. Test before you do however.

 

I'm with Thomas on this...I don't think the sandblaster will have much of an effect on the tires, but it is always good to test something like this out first. I have had more problems removing rubberized coating with a sandblaster than just about anything else.

 

I had the rims on my John Deere 1020 sandblasted with the tires on. The tires were new and the sand didn't leave any marks. You should be fine.

 

If the tires are 'crappy', forget the thrill of 'burning off the rubber' later, and remove the old tires now. Then you can totally clean/prep the entire wheel, even inside the rim... prior to painting...

 

totally clean/prep the entire wheel, even inside the rim... prior to painting...

yeah, inside the rim is where a lot of rust is usually because people don't typically use dry nitrogen to inflate tires, only compressed air with water in it, which then causes the rims to rust from the inside. If you are going to do it, you might as well go all the way.

 

Rubber sheets held down with duct tape protected many windshields At the blaster in my neighborhood. Sand blasting works best on hard objects and materials, the softer the surface the harder it is to blast clean. It won't hurt the tires but I'm with the rest, do the whole rim inside and out.

Jeff

 

With your description of the tires, I would not worry about it either.
Promise you, any rims that were SANDBLASTED without protecting the tires damaged them. And if they were new tires you would be pissed at whoever damaged them. You definitely can protect them, just takes time. You have already said you need new tires. Why do anything on them right now. Finish the car (not the rims), burn then out, and then restore the rims. Will take NO time and you can restore them perfect and put the new tires on.