Bw Tire Dressing Advice

[Charlie Olson]

What with all of the heat in AZ, I was wondering what type/brand of tire dressing/protection are any of you using?

[eric wissing]

Ranch? sorry Eric

[Charlie Olson]

Ranch is good, but bleu cheese is best. If it was me, Eric, I couldn't have resisted either. Have a good one! Charlie

[Dennis Hemingway]

I use the Armor All Wipes on my tires.

Dennis

[greg g]

Personally, I don't like tire snot. I rarely use it just, clean the tires during the wash process. Then I spray on a little glass cleaner and wipe it off giving the tires a clean look as a rubber part, rather than looking like a piece of laquered furntiture. I suppose you guy out west need some UV protection and with the low humidity some consideration for that. I would suggest the stuff we used at the dealership I worked at, McGuires's non silicone spray on dressing. This we applied to an old bug sponge and applied it to the tire wiped on rather than sprayed directly onto the tire.

[Ed Griffin]

I quit using any type of dressing on tires and dash's. All it does is collect dust , dirt and grime after time as well as build up over time. You can really tell this on the wide whitewalls. Use Armorall etc and then you'll keep having to use it to prevent eventual cracking same as soft dash's. If it's already built up it takes a lot of scrubbing with ajax and a brush to get it off. It's best just to keep them clean, heat or not. Hot water, ajax, elbow grease and brush does wonders.

[JIPJOBXX]

Charlie I kind of agree with the other guys, I bought some stuff put out by Turtle wax on sale and it looked great when I put it on but it never seemed to dry. I used regular tire paint on the old Dodge as that what they oust to use but its hard to find. I bought a can of it oft the internet and it will last till the cows come home. Kind of funny but you can not find that stuff at any of the car parts store here anymore. Jon:cool:

[Norm's Coupe]

I agree with Ed. It's like a wax and keeps building up and cracks. All I've ever used to make tires look good, blackwalls and whitewalls is SOS and soap and water. For the padded dashes and vinyl interior I use Windex.

If you can't clean those things with the products mentioned, it's beyond cleaning and time for new stuff.

[Plymouthy Adams]

As for cleaning the padded dash...I have always used the original formula creme (no abrasive) Go-Jo..cleans and protects..never have had a cracked dash.

[Ed Griffin]

Forgot all about Go-Jo non abrasive (non pumis?). I think Norm brought that up in the past using it to clean wood so I purchased some and tried it. Will keep that in mind for for soft dash in the future.

[Norm's Coupe]

Guys, when I mentioned Go Jo some time ago it was while I was talking about getting the buildup of old furniture polish off my 37 Philco Console Radio cabinet, which is wood. Works great for that. However, I would hesitate to use it on vinyl. Go Jo does contain a small amount of solvent in it (or at least it use to). That could cause vinyl to dry out faster. Of course the lanolin will make vinyl shine nice, even though the solvents are present. It's also what keeps solvent from drying out your skin. At any rate, don't think I would put it on vinyl. When used on wood that solvent soaks into the wood again to bring out the grain.

Ever open up a can of Go Jo after it's sat for a long time. That solvent is the brown liquid floating on the top of the cream.

[kevinanderson]

Norm-you use go-jo and 0000 steel wool or what. I need to clean an old merchants clock that is roughly from the 1860's and dirtier than heck. Been setting in a hayloft for decades.

[Plymouthy Adams]

yeah...it really tears up the plastic container they sell it in...its not like you going to plaster a layer on it and leave it there Norm, I guarantee you that Armour All does more damage than this stuff..would not put Armour All on a dead dog's coffin...

[Norm's Coupe]

Tim, I wouldn't use Armor All either, or anything like it. As mentioned earlier I only use Windex on vinyl surfaces.

KEVINANDERSON,

No steel wool or any other abrasives. Just get a nice soft cotton cloth (like a wash rag or old rag from a towel). Have a small container of cold water nearby to keep the rag "Damp", not soaking wet. Dampen the rag, dip the rag in the Go Jo lightly, not a lot. Then "Gently" rub in small circles on the surface you are trying to clean until you feel the rag starting to drag. Then dampen the rag again and rub the same area (don't reapply anymore Go Jo). Keep doing that until all the Go Jo film is gone or the crud is gone, whichever comes first. If all the Go Jo film is gone and it's still dirty, repeat the same things over and over again until you are down to the original finish. Don't rub hard, do it gently because if you get to aggressive you'll rub the original finish off too. Once you have it down to the original finish, apply a nice coat of Liquid Gold to the clock and it'll shine line new again (providing the original finish is still good). The 37 Radio I did had a ton of furniture polish on it. If I had done the job without stopping in between it probably would amount to 2 full days of rubbing. So it is a slow process if you have a heavy buildup like I did. Here's the radio after cleaning and restoring. You are looking at the original finish on the radio. I did not re-stain or touch it up in any way. Just cleaned it and replaced the speaker cloth.

[Charlie Olson]

Thanks everybody, I think I'll stick with my scrub brush for the tires and soft sponge for the wood and Murphy's Wood Soap routine for PLYWOOD. I hadn't thought about the build up of different products.

[Plymouthy Adams]

Don't know what the long term effect may have been but in my youth at the garage a co worker had an awesome 65 Dodge with all the muscle you could hope for..he would polish his car and then pull it into the shop and dressed his wheels every Friday evening before getting off work with a wipe down of brake fluid...yep..made them tires very slick looking...of course the rear tires never lasted very long for some reason the tread never lasted as long as the sidewalls..

[Norm's Coupe]

Don't know what the long term effect may have been but in my youth at the garage a co worker had an awesome 65 Dodge with all the muscle you could hope for..he would polish his car and then pull it into the shop and dressed his wheels every Friday evening before getting off work with a wipe down of brake fluid...yep..made them tires very slick looking...of course the rear tires never lasted very long for some reason the tread never lasted as long as the sidewalls..

Long term and constant petroleum based products on rubber will accelerate the deterioration of standard rubber products. The only reason some rubber products will hold up longer when constantly being washed or soaked with petroleum products is because that rubber is normally Buna rubber, which is resistant to petroleum based products. So.........if that guy had kept the tires long enough, the rubber would start to deteriorate before the tread wore out. As a point of interest, even the so called non petroleum water based safe citrus products will also eat away at the rubber. The citrus acid will slowly eat away at the rubber over time, even though you thought you rinsed it good. Years ago we had a customer (hydraulic hose maker) who used the citrus based cleaner to clean the hydraulic hose ends before installing the couplings on the hose. After about a year the the couplings would come off. After testing we found out that the rubber had been slowly eaten away by the citrus cleaner. So...........be careful using citrus products on rubber, especially in high concentrations. Those hoses were also Buna rubber.

[Allan Faust]

I used some stuff a couple of times on my S10 (can't remember what) and it looked good.... a few days later, the tires were brown rather than black..... I'll stick with the soaps and brushes.....

Allan

[Tony_Urwin]

What about that foaming tire cleaner in the aerosol cans? Is that stuff hard on tires?

[Norm's Coupe]

Tony,

A good foaming cleaner is probably ok if it's a non citrus cleaner. Actually, I use to sell a product called Wipe Out. Works excellent on rubber. It was an all purpose foaming aerosol cleaner with a butyl base. Cleaned up the rubber sill plates on my coupe like new again with it. That was in 1995 and haven't touched them since except to vacuum, and they still look new. The nice thing about the foaming cleaners is that they will cling longer on a vertical surface. If you let them stand until the foam goes away or when it starts to run, then wipe with a wet rag, they normally do a great job. So......save some money and just pick up a can of all purpose foaming spray cleaner. Some are ammonia based and those should be ok too.

[1940Mopar]

my .02 cents.

1) don't use armorall on anything inside your car, or for that matter on the tires. That stuff is usually silicone based and ends up drying everything out.

2) Anything Meguires makes will do the trick for all of you car care needs. The tire shine works particularly well without all of the brownish build up.

[BobT-47P15]

I normally do not use any of the tire shine things on the old car, only very occasionally on the new one.

Just a spray cleaner like 409, Fastastik or Mean Green, followed by a brillo pad and medium bristle brush. Then rinse. Do again if needed.

Occasionally have used one of the wire bristle whitewall brushes.....but not real often. The bristles look like they may be made from brass.....kind of a gold color. I let the spray cleaner sit for just a little bit before further scrubbing for best results.

Have tried various other things over the years, including the Bleche White.....but really no better than my current system.

The bad thing about using armorall on the interior is.....if you put it on the brake or clutch pedal, or steering wheel......too slick for safety. Have used it on rubber floor mats.....you feet want to slide out from under you when getting into the car. Windex is good for most interior things. l buy used towels at rummage sales when I can find a bunch of them cheap......make good shine cloths.

[Young Ed]

Shel if you fix that leak switch back to reg green antifreeze. You'll thank me later.

[BobT-47P15]

Here's an old can of black tire paint. Says it contains "polymerized rubber".

Pretty scientific sounding. Car on the can looks like a 55 Chevy.

[randroid]

Gents,

Anybody out there using shaving cream to make his morning chin real shiny? Of those of you who do, how many of you have ever seen a commercial on TV where the actor lays-on a half inch of the product while the rest of us use only a piss-coat? I think it was Stripe toothpaste that first layered two rows of their stuff on a toothbrush for a commercial. They are in the business of turning a buck, as are we all, and if I could get more people into my restaurant I would not be ashamed to coerce them into a hot fresh apple strudel when they're already stuffed. I'm certain there is somebody in this forum who would be very happy to make your shop floor into one your employees would take pride in keeping clean, and there's a guy I know who would be happy to give you straight advice as to how to round-out your insurance portfolio. Most of us seem to find many things more important than a dollar bill, but when we're spending time earning one there's nothing wrong with earning as many as we can.

Stuff like Armour-All has goodies that help block UVs and make your car look shiny, but they don't need to be used every time the car gets cleaned; when the dash gets dirty clean it with a little warm water and white vinegar and continue doing so for many cleanings until the original finish comes back, then re-apply a little treatment. (Warm water and vinegar washing was taught to me by a guy who drove expensive cars for rich folks. It's also the best thing to use for cleaning windows, but I digress.)

I agree the best color for anything is "clean", but a bit of a spiff is fun now and then, just don't always follow label instructions. There is, after all, a reason Tums are sold three rolls at a time.

-Randy