interesting tire cleaning situation

[bearhuntinUSA]

My new tires are a pain to clean and protect. There's way too many nooks and crannies on the sidewall. I usually clean them thoroughly with a brush and soapy water or an all wheel and tire cleaner, but when I apply tire shine no matter how lightly I put it on it's almost guaranteed to build up somewhere on the sidewall and sling or not look evenly covered if I apply too little. And after seeing what these tires look like with tire shine and noticing that all tire shine seems to slowly brown my white letters I've decided I don't really want them to be shiny, just plain black. I've started to using ultimate protectant on them because I do want them to be protected but not very shiny and it does a good job of that, but I can't ever get the whole tire to all look the same level of black. I've been using bleche white on the lettering to keep em white and careful not get on my wheels, but now it seems as though I'll have to end up painting the letters or something to get them as white as I want them. As for the wheels I have recently applied some ultimate wax to them since they're painted and try to keep em lookin good with UQD. I haven't seen any white lettered tires on here yet so I hope I don't get dogged on for loving white letters. Keep in mind that I'm probably stuck to only spray stuff for the tires. How would you guys take care of these? Hope these pictures show up.

[97t-bird]

Re: interesting tire cleaning situation

Well I would scrub with your bleche white or 4:1 apc and a dense (closely packed brush) that has a medium stiffness if you wet the wheel first, try to keep the tire dry, you have less of a chance of whatever chemical getting on it. Putting the cleaner on a dry tire always seems to clean better for me. I would then use all season dressing or hyper dressing on the tire spraying it with a fine mist and covering the tire evenly. After that go over the wheel with some quick detailer to remove the overspray. Once the dressing is dry you could use a can of the compressed air to blow out the exess dressing from the letters and groves, then simply lightly spray an old mf towel with the dressing and wipe up the excess the comes out. You can use the can of compressed air or a shopvac with the blower function just put the crevice tool on the end and you will have enough pressure coming out or an air compressor. Hope that may help you....

[Murr1525]

Re: interesting tire cleaning situation

Yeah, I like APC and a brush to clean.

Hyper Dressing is suppose to spread fairly easily... might be a good option, though not super durable.

And then an old terry cloth to try and wipe/dab off excess.

Also can try a wet brillo pad for the white letters.

[boiler7904]

Re: interesting tire cleaning situation

I've got a similar situation on my truck - raised white letter Goodyear Forteras. That tire has a lot of little grooves to the tread at the edge of the tire though not as many as you have with these Hankooks. My wife's Escape also has raised white letter tires but the tread at the edge of the tire is much tamer since it's basically a big passenger car tire.

I've used Bleech White and APC for cleaning with pretty much equal results. For dressing, I've been using light coats Hot Shine Foam spread with a foam tire dressing applicator. Hot shine seems to last a while and doesn't sling as long as you wipe off the excess and let it cure for a while before you drive the truck. When the Hot Shine runs out, I have Hyper Dressing and All Season Dressing to use.

[bearhuntinUSA]

Re: interesting tire cleaning situation

thanks fellas. do you think a little paint thinner would get those red and yellow dots off?

[Andrew C.]

Re: interesting tire cleaning situation

As far as tire dressing, try using an aerosol version.

[TOGWT]

Re: interesting tire cleaning situation

1. Eimann Fabrik Tyre Cleaner & Whitewall Brightener is specifically designed to clean tyres also contains optical brighteners to clean and refresh whitewalls and white lettering. Some tyre cleaners contain bleach to brighten whitewalls but bleach can turn the carbon black in tyres a dull grey colour

2. Bleche-Wite® Whitewall Cleaner- contains Butyl Cellosolve (2-butoxyethanol) Sodium Met silicate and Sodium Hydroxide, which are acidic, none of which are particularly paint, rubber or human friendly. It will stain / etch clear coat painted wheels and zinc rotors as well as drying out tyres and with constant use turning them grey