Stupid-Proof PPF: Russians Coat Car in Recycled Tires, Test It With Air Cannon, Knife, Axe

There are two common uses for automotive tires: the mainstream approach is to have them installed on circular metallic supports – commonly known as ‘wheels.’ By virtue of physics, the rolling motion of the rubber compound fabrications will allow easy movement of whatever is they’re affixed to. The second use (which will trigger some reactions) is nearly identical to the first, except for one tiny detail: floor the accelerator pedal until the sun fades behind a thick cloud of smothering rubber smoke.

Regardless of the application, all tires wear out, eventually, and they’re no longer suited for automotive functions. Or are they? If you haven’t guessed by now, the following is yet another Garage 54 makeshift contraption episode, so sit back and enjoy the ‘Why didn’t I think of this before?’ fun session.

Once the tires are over, they get recycled (hopefully, and not thrown in a landfill or dumped by the side of the road), and the raw material is repurposed. One of its after-life incarnations is crumb rubber – you have seen it on playgrounds, sports fields, or community parks. An estimated 30 million tires are saved each year and milled into tiny particles ranging in size from a speck-of-dust-like to half an inch (12.77 mm).

Crumb rubber obtained from end-of-life tires is the smallest and most high-end use of recycled rubber. Most of it is used worldwide for regular use, and it is a 10:20 mesh (roughly between 08 and 2 mm, or 1/8th to 3/4th of an inch in size). As an aside, mesh size is one of the industry descriptors for rubber granulate diameters. It indicates the number of holes in every square inch of the sizing screens. A 10:20 product means 10 holes on the top screen and 20 on the bottom.

When a crumb rubber sample passes through the two meshes, some granules are kept between the two sieves – hence the 10:20 caliber. Well, that’s precisely what the team of car improvers from the Russian city of Novosibirsk – better known by their social media call, Garage 54 – have chosen as the perfect body protective element.

No, not a human body, but automobile sheet metal panels cover. The fine granules of recycled and cleaned rubber are mixed with glue and then carefully and evenly spread over an old Soviet-era Lada 1200. In true Garage 54 fashion, the application process involves high technologies and processes, namely a mason’s square trowel and triceps-power.

The relentless innovators have coated the exposed parts of the car with a mix of glue and alcohol and then hand-laid and pressed the rubber granules. To ensure the vertical surfaces were properly covered, the Russians flipped the car on its side, pushing it with their bare hands. Once the rubber plating settled and the glue dried, the Siberians took the murdered-out Lada for a test session.

The immediate impression is that the car looks much better in the matte black shade than in its original chipped, flaked, sunbaked, faded, scratched, old, plain white livery. The protective layer also acts as a sound deadener – either the shimmy metal panels don’t wobble as much because the rubber dampens the vibrations, or it simply muffles the squeaks and crackles.

Also, it automatically imbues the car with a one-million-percent cool factor – the tire extract makes the Lada look like it put on the Cold War stealth coat to be untraceable by radars. However, neither looks nor evading the long arm of the Radio Detecting and Ranging devices are among the goals of this head-scratching experiment.

In fact, scratching is the keyword here: the crumb rubber is meant to save the car’s body from minor scratches and rubs and all otherwise scratching mishaps. Field testing yields outstanding results: brushing a Lada Samara against the rubberized Lada 1200 leaves no marks whatsoever, and the outer skin of granulated tires is tough as nails and doesn’t peel off the car.

The Russians have several aces up their sleeves – a homemade air cannon shooting pool balls is the ultimate armor-piercing artillery testing equipment. After a few rounds, the test is deemed a pass, although the sheet metal dents on impact. The rubber armor looks impeccable despite taking one hell of a beating.

With big guns out of the way, it’s time for some cold weapons: knife, axe, cleaver, crowbar – the gum coating gets them all. Even if the sharp-pointed, sharp-edged white arms damage the crumb rubber, the sheet metal underneath is defeated way earlier. In all fairness, the cheapo body protective coating is a success.

If any outdoor enthusiast is looking for a fast and easy-on-the-wallet alternative to LINE-X or other paint-protective coating/film solutions, take a good look at your tires. One day, they might fend off logs, boulders, hit-and-runs, and expensive body shop appointments.