Tire Printing Creativity by EVOD Garage

Printed Tires on the RallyWays Miata

Great looking tires are clean, deep black, not too shiny and with a good-looking sidewall and tread. That said, gone are the days of being limited to just this. Our friends at EVOD Garage can now print tires. Yep. They can print tires with whatever design you want!

In the quest for uniqueness car tuners are constantly devising new ways to stand out. An often overlooked aspect of a car’s appearance is the tires. This due to people not being able to do much to them but keep them clean. Some hardcore tuners have taken the time to paint designs on their tires.

Printed Tires in the Dirt
A little bit of dirt ain’t gonna hurt. We put our EVOD printed tires through their paces and they still look awesome.

Painted tires are nothing new. However, there is a big difference between painting and printing. There are guys that spray paint tires using stencils. Others will paint lettering on tires using different types of brush paints or inks. The problem is that you are limited in what you can do and the paint won’t last very long. It usually comes right off or it starts flaking off. Even with the best tire paints available it still means you need to retouch often. Plus, the process is all done by hand, limiting what you can do.

This is where tire printing comes in. EVOD Tire Printing uses a graphic design file out of a computer, just like any other print project done in this day and age. Their unique machine shoots ink through a nozzle much like an inkjet printer – out of the computer and straight onto your tire sidewall.

EVOD Tire Printing - VW Jetta

The biggest takeaway here is you can do anything you want. You’re only limited by your imagination. Any font, any color, custom logos… anything! That’s the main thing people seem to have the hardest time wrapping their head around. You can print car tires with anything. Crazy multi-color graphics? Sure? A simple one-color string of letters? Of course? A full sidewall? Absolutely.

With traditional tire painting using a stencil you have the problem of needing the stencil supports to hold the inside parts of letters. Those things are always in the way and make your graphics look like one of those kindergarten stencil rulers. However, with this tire printing technology you get full letters with no missing bits like you would with stencils.

RW Miata at Speedfest with printed tires

EVOD Garage took to the task of printing the tires of the RallyWays Miata with #RallyWays hash tag logos. We supplied them the file and dropped off our tires. There was no need to take the tires off the wheels. They cleaned the tires really well and the next day they were already printed.

#RallyWays Tire Print Logos

We had EVOD print the tires right over the raised lettering on the Miata’s Dunlop Star Specs. You can of course see the pattern below, but the print came out great. If necessary, they can also shave the tire sidewall for a cleaner look if that’s what you desire. The tire sidewall can be shaved in the area to be printed. Otherwise, the entire sidewall can be shaved. Shaving will effectively remove any raised lettering or patterns on the sidewall.

RallyWays Miata at Big Sur

For the ultimate test of the printed tires we drove the RallyWays Miata 800 miles to the biggest Miata meet in history at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. There, we drove the car on the track, around Monterey and on dirt roads. Then we drove all the way back again but we chose the more demanding Big Sur drive for the return trip.

Back home, the car was very filthy and so were the printed car tires. After a careful wash using a clean rag and the same Meguiar’s car wash detergent we use on the paint, the tire logos looked like nothing had happened. Excellent. You can see tiny stress lines from tire flexing, but only when looking very closely. So far we’re hugely impressed by the durability of the printed tire logos. The important thing when cleaning printed tires is to not run a a dirty rag over the tire print. After all, ours are done in white ink. Common sense.

According to EVOD Tire Printing, printed car tires will last around a year on a daily driver. At any time, the print can be taken off and redone. This can be done if it’s time to redo them or if you simply got bored of the design and want something else. On a car like the RW Miata that doesn’t get driven daily, the tire prints would last much longer.

How much does it cost to print tires?

The cost of printed car tires by EVOD Garage is around $175 to $199 for a full set for something like on the RallyWays Miata – 1 color and rather simplistic. Things like single color pinstripes and smaller designs fit into this price bracket.

More dramatic designs like full sidewall coverage, multicolor designs and intricate patterns range around $350. We’re thinking that at these prices show cars could have their tires printed and used for a few shows before switching it up to a different design altogether for other shows.

We’ve seen a number of good show cars with painted tires where the paint is flaking off. This was the case with the Porsche 911 GT3 brought to Coronado Speed Festival by Toyo Tires. If only they had their tires printed by EVOD Garage their Porsche’s tires would look much more impressive.

EVOD Garage can also print tires for motorcycles and ATVs. Trucks are not left out either. They can do this same tire printing on truck tires up to 37″.

So, I want my car tires printed

Contact EVOD through the EVOD Industries website to inquire about getting the tires printed on your car. If you have any questions, I’m sure they can answer them. After all, they are the tire printing experts.

Update: EVOD is no longer offering tire printing. The logistics of needing the tires to be present proved too much of a problem. They have since then sold the printing machine. For tire lettering, your best option right now is tire stickers.

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