So I recently posted pictures of my PURE Detailed: 2005 Silverstone S2000 and had mentioned my method of applying tire shine/dressing to my tires.. Using a heat gun
Instead of having that little tid-bit of info buried away somewhere in a thread that'll be long lost and forgotten, I've decided to post up a How-To on the TW Method of applying Tire Dressing This will give you a smooth, clean shine to your tires, that will last nearly twice as long as other conventional methods!!!!
First off, some fun-facts:
On a sports car, mine in particular, I run softer compound tires than most other members on the forums, with they're daily drivers, suv's, trucks, etc.. My tires, in particular, are a '200 treadwear rating'.
Typically, the lower the treadwear rating on a tire, the softer the compound or durometer of the rubber. I'm not a tire expert, but generally speaking, the higher the number treadwear rating, the harder compound the tire is.. With a softer compound tire (lower number treadwear rating = less endurance/life out of the tire, itself), the tire shine/dressing will soak into the pores easier, and stay shinier/brighter, lasting longer. But with a harder compound tire (higher number treadwear rating = higher endurance/life out of the tire, itself), the tire shine/dressing will not soak as easy into the pores, and will not stay shinier/brighter as long as the opposing softer compound tires would.
HOWEVER... All of this is dependent on the tire manufacturer and several other factors. Personally, I have ran the same treadwear/compound tire before from Company A, and also from Company B.. but depending on the actual (mostly proprietary) manufacturing process, varying from manufacturer to manufacturer, as well as depending on the actual cell structure of the rubber used... Your results might possibly vary given the brand tire you use as well.
There are alot of different variables to apply to this question, "How much longer does the tire shine/dressing last, using this method?":
-Tire manufacturer
-Grade of rubber used (durometer/shore/treadwear rating)
-Manufacturing process (mostly proprietary to each different company)
-Condition of the sidewall surface (new tire vs. old tire)
-Tire pressure (low pressure = more sidewall flex, higher pressure = stiffer sidewall)
-Environment the tires are driven through (salt, sand, dirt, dry, water, heat, cold)
-Your daily/weekend driving habits
To answer the above question:
In general, using this method, regardless of tire manufacturer, tire size, rubber compound, and the environment you usually drive your car in.. should greatly increase the life of your tire shine/dressing. Not only will this increase the longevity of the tire shine/dressing on your tire, but it should also greatly reduce the amount of product one uses overall, throughout a calendar year of detailing... Thus, keeping your money in your wallet, without having to go out and drop $6-$15 every month on tire shine (like I know, most people do!) Instead, with proper tire care, and proper tire shine/dressing application, you'll be looking at maybe only ONE (1) application per month!
Also, just a side-note, but I've found this to work best with pretty much every Meguiar's Tire Dressing product... As far as bleach white, armorall, etc.. the white stuff, I haven't even applied this method to those yet.
NOW... Onto the How-To!
For using the 'TW Method' of Applying Tire Dressing, you will need the following materials:
-Your favorite Tire Shine/Dressing
-Two (2) Foam Tire Shine/Dressing Applicators (one for the initial application, and the other for the final pass)
-Heat Gun (or loved-one's hair blow-dryer)
(For this demonstration, I was at a buddies house, so I didn't have my favorite Meguiar's Tire Dressing products with me... So bare with me!! )
Step One:
- Using the Heat Gun, you want to make a few slow passes around the sidewall of your tire, ensuring the surface becomes warm to the touch.. It could take as little as 2-3 passes, or as many as 5 passes to bring your sidewall up to a good, warm temperature.. (this all vary's on the kind of tires you have) By heating up your sidewall, you are causing the microscopic pores of the rubber, to expand, thus allowing a well-prepped 'canvas' to apply your favorite Tire Shine/Dressing!
Step Two:
- Using one of your two Foam Applicators, apply [or in this case, spray] your Tire Shine/Dressing directly onto the applicator, do so generously, but do not waste product. This will be your "Initial" applicator, as you can see in the first 'materials needed' picture, I marked mine as "1st".. You will want to use this one for your primary applications, eventually this applicator will become soaked in product. So just keep in track of which one is for which!
Step Three:
- Now, hopefully you haven't taken 5 minutes to just do Step #2, but by now, your tire sidewall, should still be warm to the touch (if not, reheat as necessary repeating Step #1).
- Using your "Initial" applicator, coated generously with product, you want to make one smooth, even pass around your sidewall. Be careful not to apply pressure, as doing so, will result in 'pooling' or dripping of the product.. Either onto your garage/driveway, or down your wheel face. You'll want to have your whole sidewall look a little something like this:
Step Four:
- After your initial Tire Shine/Dressing Application, using the Heat Gun again, you will want to repeat Step #1. Applying heat evenly, go back around the sidewall of the tire, making a couple of passes - This will allow the product to dry and better adhere into the surface/pores of the rubber.
Notice how the product appears to be beading or stringing.. This tells me, that the 'TW Method' is doing it's job so far The product is being absorbed into the surface/pores of the rubber..
Step Five:
- At this point, you want to leave the tire that had you initially started with, and move around the vehicle, performing the above steps - Steps 1 thru 4. The time it takes to move around and complete each of the remaining 3 tires and back around and onto the first initial tire, this should have allowed the product plenty of time to "setup" naturally [in addition to applying heat to it and so forth..]
- Now, using the second of the two Foam Applicators you began with, we're going to call this one the "Last" applicator.. Not so much for an application though, being that there will not be any actual 'application' of product, but instead, this will be used in the next step as a 'final pass' or swipe of the tire's sidewall.
Step Six:
Alrighty, this is the last and FINAL step, folks!!
-Using this "Last" Foam Applicator, as mentioned above in Step #5, you will want to make one smooth, uniform pass around each tire, using very little to NO pressure. This will remove any excess product that has 'pooled' or 'dry-beaded' onto the surface of the sidewall. Not only will this remove any of the excess product to prevent slinging, but this also helps ensure that we have a nice, thin, even coat of product on each tire.
Viola!!! Done!
Now have a gander at a couple 50/50 pictures, showing the end result prior to Step #6 and after using Step #6:
And finally, the end product, in it's entirety!
Thanks for dropping by!!
Instead of having that little tid-bit of info buried away somewhere in a thread that'll be long lost and forgotten, I've decided to post up a How-To on the TW Method of applying Tire Dressing This will give you a smooth, clean shine to your tires, that will last nearly twice as long as other conventional methods!!!!
First off, some fun-facts:
On a sports car, mine in particular, I run softer compound tires than most other members on the forums, with they're daily drivers, suv's, trucks, etc.. My tires, in particular, are a '200 treadwear rating'.
Typically, the lower the treadwear rating on a tire, the softer the compound or durometer of the rubber. I'm not a tire expert, but generally speaking, the higher the number treadwear rating, the harder compound the tire is.. With a softer compound tire (lower number treadwear rating = less endurance/life out of the tire, itself), the tire shine/dressing will soak into the pores easier, and stay shinier/brighter, lasting longer. But with a harder compound tire (higher number treadwear rating = higher endurance/life out of the tire, itself), the tire shine/dressing will not soak as easy into the pores, and will not stay shinier/brighter as long as the opposing softer compound tires would.
HOWEVER... All of this is dependent on the tire manufacturer and several other factors. Personally, I have ran the same treadwear/compound tire before from Company A, and also from Company B.. but depending on the actual (mostly proprietary) manufacturing process, varying from manufacturer to manufacturer, as well as depending on the actual cell structure of the rubber used... Your results might possibly vary given the brand tire you use as well.
There are alot of different variables to apply to this question, "How much longer does the tire shine/dressing last, using this method?":
-Tire manufacturer
-Grade of rubber used (durometer/shore/treadwear rating)
-Manufacturing process (mostly proprietary to each different company)
-Condition of the sidewall surface (new tire vs. old tire)
-Tire pressure (low pressure = more sidewall flex, higher pressure = stiffer sidewall)
-Environment the tires are driven through (salt, sand, dirt, dry, water, heat, cold)
-Your daily/weekend driving habits
To answer the above question:
In general, using this method, regardless of tire manufacturer, tire size, rubber compound, and the environment you usually drive your car in.. should greatly increase the life of your tire shine/dressing. Not only will this increase the longevity of the tire shine/dressing on your tire, but it should also greatly reduce the amount of product one uses overall, throughout a calendar year of detailing... Thus, keeping your money in your wallet, without having to go out and drop $6-$15 every month on tire shine (like I know, most people do!) Instead, with proper tire care, and proper tire shine/dressing application, you'll be looking at maybe only ONE (1) application per month!
Also, just a side-note, but I've found this to work best with pretty much every Meguiar's Tire Dressing product... As far as bleach white, armorall, etc.. the white stuff, I haven't even applied this method to those yet.
NOW... Onto the How-To!
For using the 'TW Method' of Applying Tire Dressing, you will need the following materials:
-Your favorite Tire Shine/Dressing
-Two (2) Foam Tire Shine/Dressing Applicators (one for the initial application, and the other for the final pass)
-Heat Gun (or loved-one's hair blow-dryer)
(For this demonstration, I was at a buddies house, so I didn't have my favorite Meguiar's Tire Dressing products with me... So bare with me!! )
Step One:
- Using the Heat Gun, you want to make a few slow passes around the sidewall of your tire, ensuring the surface becomes warm to the touch.. It could take as little as 2-3 passes, or as many as 5 passes to bring your sidewall up to a good, warm temperature.. (this all vary's on the kind of tires you have) By heating up your sidewall, you are causing the microscopic pores of the rubber, to expand, thus allowing a well-prepped 'canvas' to apply your favorite Tire Shine/Dressing!
Step Two:
- Using one of your two Foam Applicators, apply [or in this case, spray] your Tire Shine/Dressing directly onto the applicator, do so generously, but do not waste product. This will be your "Initial" applicator, as you can see in the first 'materials needed' picture, I marked mine as "1st".. You will want to use this one for your primary applications, eventually this applicator will become soaked in product. So just keep in track of which one is for which!
Step Three:
- Now, hopefully you haven't taken 5 minutes to just do Step #2, but by now, your tire sidewall, should still be warm to the touch (if not, reheat as necessary repeating Step #1).
- Using your "Initial" applicator, coated generously with product, you want to make one smooth, even pass around your sidewall. Be careful not to apply pressure, as doing so, will result in 'pooling' or dripping of the product.. Either onto your garage/driveway, or down your wheel face. You'll want to have your whole sidewall look a little something like this:
Step Four:
- After your initial Tire Shine/Dressing Application, using the Heat Gun again, you will want to repeat Step #1. Applying heat evenly, go back around the sidewall of the tire, making a couple of passes - This will allow the product to dry and better adhere into the surface/pores of the rubber.
Notice how the product appears to be beading or stringing.. This tells me, that the 'TW Method' is doing it's job so far The product is being absorbed into the surface/pores of the rubber..
Step Five:
- At this point, you want to leave the tire that had you initially started with, and move around the vehicle, performing the above steps - Steps 1 thru 4. The time it takes to move around and complete each of the remaining 3 tires and back around and onto the first initial tire, this should have allowed the product plenty of time to "setup" naturally [in addition to applying heat to it and so forth..]
- Now, using the second of the two Foam Applicators you began with, we're going to call this one the "Last" applicator.. Not so much for an application though, being that there will not be any actual 'application' of product, but instead, this will be used in the next step as a 'final pass' or swipe of the tire's sidewall.
Step Six:
Alrighty, this is the last and FINAL step, folks!!
-Using this "Last" Foam Applicator, as mentioned above in Step #5, you will want to make one smooth, uniform pass around each tire, using very little to NO pressure. This will remove any excess product that has 'pooled' or 'dry-beaded' onto the surface of the sidewall. Not only will this remove any of the excess product to prevent slinging, but this also helps ensure that we have a nice, thin, even coat of product on each tire.
Viola!!! Done!
Now have a gander at a couple 50/50 pictures, showing the end result prior to Step #6 and after using Step #6:
And finally, the end product, in it's entirety!
Thanks for dropping by!!
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