Classic Pontiac Tires - Vintage-Tire Look, Modern-Tire Grip

The first step after selecting the tires is for Tab Chapman to buff the sidewall to remove the desired amount of lettering and prepare the surface. This is done with a special machine that allows the lettering to be smoothed out without impacting the integrity of the tire's sidewall.

With the tire buffed to an application-specific texture, a special fiber-bond rubber cement is used to tack the stripe polymer to the sidewall. This material is used only to hold the stripe in place before it is vulcanized to the tire.

An operator carefully brushes the adhesive in the appropriate area. At the same station, DBC's Department of Transportation (DOT) code is embossed onto the tire. The company is authorized by the DOT to modify new tires, and this code identifies the product as a DBC tire. It is there to protect the consumer and as a statement of quality.

After the adhesive sets up for about 10 minutes, the stripe is installed by a skilled craftsman.

The procedure is the same for any color stripe. Here a stitching machine is used to connect the two ends of the polymer after it was cut with a serrated shear. This provides an interlocking surface that is eventually blended together in the vulcanizer.

The vulcanizing room is equipped with 12 separate machines, so many tires can be processed at the same time. The plant turns out an average of 113 tires per day. During the busy season, that goes up to 140 tires per day. DBC sells approximately 25,000 tires per year.

The first step in the vulcanizing process is to install an air bladder that's used to place internal pressure on the tire. It's an important part of the curing process.

The vulcanizing procedure, invented by Charles Goodyear, uses pressure, heat, and time. No material is removed from the tire. The structural integrity of the tire is not changed during curing. Vulcanization is a process by which two pieces of rubber are permanently joined together. It's done with 100 psi of air pressure in the bladder at 300 degrees F for 24 minutes. When complete, the stripe is an integral part of the tire and cannot be removed without damaging the sidewall.

The vulcanized stripe is larger than the desired width and is then trimmed to size and made perfectly concentric.

An application-specific machine is used along with an abrasive and flapper wheel to trim the stripe to the final dimension. This procedure also dresses the sidewall for the chosen appearance.

The tire is quality-control checked, cleaned, and either a blue protective coating (whitewalls) or a special dressing is applied before each is individually wrapped in plastic prior to shipment to the customer. With the DBC process, the possibilities are endless. How about a set of white stripe drag radials on a modified, stock-appearing musclecar with full wheel covers? Or a new GTO with red lines? With DBC, dragstrip performance and stock appearance are possible. It's like having your cake and eating it, too.