My new tire process....

[justin30513]

I've developed a new tire cleaning/dressing process (well new to me) and thought I'd share it with the rest of you here. I've tested this for over a month on over 15 vehicles including my own. I'm a big fan of Armor All's Extreme Shine Tire Gel and Foam. Both have great durability and the cost is perfect for my customers. The foam was being used totally as a wheel well finisher when I noticed something. I would clean the wells and then spray the foam onto them. I'd come back and wipe down with a white MF mitt. I could not believe the dirt that the foam was pulling out of the plastics and rubber. So I decided to use the foam on tires as prep for the gel.

Heres what I do....

1. I clean the tires along with car as usual. I just use degreaser if bad or my left over wash water.

2. I rinse the car and tires clean. While wet, I spray the AA foam onto the tires and wheel wells. I also spray onto a clean, wet engine too. The car remaining wet helps aid in the removal of any overspray as well. I let the tires and wells dwell as I dry the car. I then come back and use a MF mitt to remove any remaining residue. You will be amazed at what dirt and grime comes out of nowhere now.

3. The tire now will appear a matte, clean, black glow. To me, I just polished aka prepped the tire for a LSP aka the AA gel. The gel now goes on so smooth and takes even less product than with a non foam prepped tire. The gel's durabililty now goes from a week (which is awesome to me for an OTC product) to full month in most cases. I only do this process on my initial detail of an auto or when I feel it needs it......just like paint prep. I know this may seem like a lengthy process to some, but prep is 90% of the game in my business. All of this is achieved from under 10.00 worth of products (Foam is 2.55 and Gel is 5.47 at my Wal-Mart). Expect to get 2-3 uses out of a can of AA foam and 50+ uses out of the AA gel depending on tire size.

****I'm currently testing the AA foam/gel system on the trim of a '99 Jeep Cherokee with tons of rubber/plastic moldings.

Please post questions or comments.

Thanks guys. You all are great!

[GregCavi]

Thanks for the observation. A good clean tire is indeed vital for a dressing durability.

Greg

[toyotaguy]

you are always going to pull dirt and crap out from tires....as long as there are oils in the tire (in the rubber - good thing), then you are going to get a dirty mitt after you wipe it....try it on brand new tires...it will do the same thing, at least in my experience it has...

[justin30513]

Originally Posted by toyotaguy

you are always going to pull dirt and crap out from tires....as long as there are oils in the tire (in the rubber - good thing), then you are going to get a dirty mitt after you wipe it....try it on brand new tires...it will do the same thing, at least in my experience it has...

I know that. I'm just saying how easy it is to use this product to clean with and leave a good base for the gel.

[BlueLibby04]

Good observation! Ive always wondered why my applicator was dirty after putting endurance on.. Guess I know why now..

[CleanFreak2]

I'm gonna have to try this!

[justin30513]

Originally Posted by CleanFreak2

I'm gonna have to try this!

Please do and let me know your results. I don't think you'll spend a better 10 dollar bill than on these 2 products.

Once again........just my opinion from my experience.

[sftempest66]

I've definately noticed that if you prep the tire with a cheap OTC foam, I personally just use Black Magic tire foam (for the wheel wells mainly) but I have found that if you shoot a quick bead around the tire (with the foam) it does help take off some road grime/grease, you can hear it working while its fizzing and like you said, come back with a cheapo rag and wipe the excess off and you are left with what you said, a nice matte finish, If its a big truck/suv I usually leave the low gloss finish but if its on a sportier car I like the look of the gel

The only thing I don't like about the gel is that on my car, (2003 White Mach 1), and on lighter cars for that matter, if you use too much gel, it will get caught in the tire's little lip at the bottom, and when I get out of the car I've got black spots from where the tire gel has kicked up on my doors/rear bumper, it makes me angry so I try to lay a thin amount as soon as I'm done washing it and try to let it dry before I go out and drive it (same applies to all cars that I detail)

[topnotch]

interesting info. It is important to make sure that the tire is clean prior to applying dressing to it. You are 100% right on that Justin. I have never thought of priming the tire for dressing though which actually sounds good. Maybe it can become a sales pitch

[paul34]

Indeed... I've been wondering what would happen if put 303 on my tires first after cleaning and then high endurance gel.

I never tried it, however, since I just assumed that 303 would repel proper bonding of the tire gel.

[justin30513]

Originally Posted by paul34

Indeed... I've been wondering what would happen if put 303 on my tires first after cleaning and then high endurance gel.

I never tried it, however, since I just assumed that 303 would repel proper bonding of the tire gel.

Some of the best things are found by accident. Post-ITs for example!

[krouchchocolate]

u should provide some pictures of all the steps!