Advice on Cleaning Tires

Let me follow up with my experience this past weekend. I revisited the Optimum Power Clean at a 1:1 ratio. It melted the tire grease on a foam trigger sprayer... Totally impressed with it. I was totally unimpressed with my ProForce foam sprayer though. The trigger mechanism was getting stuck depressed... causing much foul language.
 
TOGWT said:
Wesley’s Bleche-Wite® Whitewall Cleaner - It is formula with Butyl Cellosolve (2-butoxyethanol) Sodium Met silicate, which are acidic,
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Don't you mean alkaline? ;)
 
gravytime said:
Yup, worked like a charm. I'll be curious to see how the rubber cleaner works next.
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The Rubber Cleaner is soooo mild that it doesn't always take off my Z16 (at least not to the point that they need redressed). Which probably means that I'm not getting the brakedust/etc. off very thoroughly either :o
 
....so are you using Rubber Prep to clean your tires from time to time? ...or do you just use it on seals/trim?
 
Kean- I only clean the tires with Rubber Prep if/when doing a "major detailing" of the wheels and tires. No more often than before/after the winter/spring changeover, for instance.



But I'm probably far less than Autopian about how I treat my tires...as long as they don't look brown/gray/terrible I'm satisfied; this is not a white-glove level of maintenance :grinno:
 
....got it. I do periodic deeper cleanings as well but usually every 4 months or so. The dressings I use usually don't leave a lot of build up (currently 4 or 3:1 Meg Hyper Dressing) so they stay relatively clean in that regard. For the times they do start to get a little grimy, something like E1 A2Z and agitation usually does ok for me. I might just try the Prep the next time to see how it works in that application, but I have a feeling I will be using it mainly for other bits on our cars.
 
Kean- Yeah, I use the Rubber Prep on things other than tires maybe 90% of the time. I was pleasantly surprised by how well it works on exterior plastics.
 
There are a lot of good tire cleaners. ARO and Brown Royale my favs.



Here's the trick - after letting cleaner dwell a minute scrub the tire with an old short weave open loop mf towel.



Then rinse towel and tire and scrub again while flowing water over tire.



Drop the brush...
 
Cee Dog- I've used cotton on soft-compound tires that cant withstand brushes, but MF seems a bit gentle :think: Maybe it's because mine get pretty bad some times :o



What's *your* issue with the brushes? My issues with them are a) the can scratch up soft tires, and b) they can scratch rims if you're not really, *REALLY* careful (at least with some wheel styles). That said, I still use Tire Brushes most of the time, just not on the garage-queens.
 
It actually works great. Cotton would be good to I expect but brushes don't get it all. I sometimes use a brush for the first scrub and then the mf trick. The mf will always get a lot the brush did not pick up.
 
ARO wasn't anything spectacular for me. I have Griots Rubber Cleaner but yeah, that is rather mild. OPC always does a great job for me. It makes the white walls on my Cadillac nice and glowing white. :up
 
When I was a kid in the 70s my hot rodder neighbors used to use old fashioned Comet cleanser, water and a scrubbing brush for tires. Then they would finish them off with Armorall. The tires would shine and the white walls would glow. That technique seems a bit barbaric by today's standards. Dawn dishwashing detergent is an excellent mild degreaser and it easily gets old dressing off of tires.
 
Even in the early years when I got my first car I used Comet on my white walls. Today I still use it around the house outdoors. I does a damn good job of cleaning my garage utility sink as well.
 
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