Used Westley's Bleech-White this past weekend and noticed the white paint leeching off the letters and running down the tire so I hosed it off. What is a good/safe product for cleaning raised white lettering on tires that'll get them nice and clean?

 

Very simple....use an SOS pad

Tony

 

What tfratzke said.....SOS pads work great!

While we're on the subject of cleaning tires, I've got a question. I'm using Tire Wet on my tires. The shine is awesome and stays on even through rain showers. Problem is it stays on through car washes, too. The tires eventually get pretty dirty and the Tire Wet kinda "gels" up. 409 cleans it off but I'm afraid I will eventually mess up my aluminim wheels. I've tried wheel cleaners on the tires but that doesn't seem to work well. Anyone know of an aluminum wheel safe tire cleaner that will remove this stuff?

Rob

 

Isn't an SOS pad kind of abrasive? I would think the pad would rub the paint off eventually. How tough is this paint on the letters/numbers? Never had raised letter tires before.....
I would like to find a product where I can just spray it on and use a soft brush to clean the tire and have it still be safe for the clear-coated rims.

 

Castrol Super Clean, Wet tire first-cover tire with super clean. Spray a small amount of super clean on wet brush, Scrub Tire! Like Bleach White You must be careful on bare aluminum wheels. It also works good on driveway stains, grease, and undercarriage/wheel wells.

 

The white letters on tires aren't painted on. They are white rubber. You can confirm this by finding a vehicle that has white lettered tires and the driver rubs the tires on curbs frequently. You end up with white sidewalls after all the black rubber gets worn off and exposes the white underneath.

Using steel wool to clean the letters it won't wear the white away.

 

I use the SOS pad to clean the entire tire and white letters. I use one pad per tire this way. Gets all the 'old' tire shine stuff off and whitens up the letters.

In between, if I just need the letters clean, I'll use a pad of dry steel wool (fine) and it really whitens them up.

 

Castrol Super Clean, Wet tire, spray with Super Clean Spray small amount on wet tire brush, brush well and rinse. Be careful on bare aluminum wheels. Also works quite well on wheel wells, undercarrige, driveways, and general grease and crud.

 

OOPS!:rolleyes

 

Depends on the letter. The outlined letter, like the Goodyear ATS. WILL wear off. I'll post a picture off it if you want. The solid block letters generally are fine.

 

actually I've always used Wesley's Bleach White for w-walls and white letters with absolutley perfect results. I wet the tire first then spray on the juice with nozzle set to mist. Go around the wheel twice. Grab a nylon toilet brush (unused of course ) and scrub the entire sidewall, then immediately rinse the tire, rim, and fender. I even use it on my current truck for cleaning the blackwalls just because it really cuts the road grime and crap left over from the tire gloss (Eagle One wet tire shine, excellent stuff when applied with applicator)

 

SOS pads are the way to go ! If you use BleachWhite on clear coated wheels be careful it can damage the clearcoat.

 

i use Mean Green that stuff is great........and it dont hurt your wheels dspite what you hear......i have used it since the first time i cleaned my truck and they still look as good as ever!

 

Simple Green!!!! $8 for a gallon at home depot or walmart. Cleans the white letters like new with barely any scrubbing. Will not hurt wheels or anything.

kev

 

Whiter Letter Tires are White Wall tires with a thin layer of black sidewall rubber layed over the white wall before curing. After curing in the mold(which puts the tread pattern and any lettering on the sidewall) the tire is ground on the side to remove the black rubber from the top of the raised lettering, which exposes the white wall rubber to form white letters. (All white letter tires are "raised white letters" for this reason. So that only the highest part of the letters gets hit by the grinder.)

White wall rubber has bleaching chemicals in it so that it "refreshes" it's whiteness as the tire experiences weather, water, or washing, etc. Also, the whitewall rubber is designed to lose it's outer particles little by little, also to help "refresh" it's white appearance. That is why so many posts about SOS pads working so well. The abrasive pads are wearing away the outer part of the whitewall rubber, exposing fresh new whiter rubber. Before I learned of this,I used to notice the black part of the sidewall becoming lighter and lighter, after each washing. What was happening was that after numerous scrubbings (circular scrubbing around the sidewall) I was spreading little bits of the sidewall rubber around the entire sidewall and the miniscule particles were imbedding themselves in the black sidewall rubber. No more round and round scrubbing for me!

As for cleaning them, a little ammonia in water with a nylon brush has always seemed to work well.