How do I Clean White Letter Tires Without Ruining Clearcoat Alloys

P

Pekoe

New member
I have a '97 Silverado with stock alloy wheels. I used Bleche-Wite and streaked the hell out of the clearcoat. I used Blue Magic to clean them up but they are wrecked, which I have accepted - I am using them for winter tires.

I bought some decent used stock alloys for summer tires that have white letters that I want to keep clean. What should I use to keep the letters white, but not streak and ruin the clearcoat on the other alloys?

Thanks,

barry
 
Maybe you could use the new Michelin Tire & Wheel cleaner. I recently purchased the entire three step system and am pleasantly surprised at how effective all three work. Eagle One A2Z is also a very good cleaner. You might also try Simple Green and 0000 steel wool on the white letters ONLY and clean the wheels with your regular car wash solution. HTH!
 
I was careful about spraying the Bleche-Wite only on tires, but of course it ran on to the wheels when rinsed. The wierd thing is I have never had this problem with other Chevy alloys of the same exact type (on Suburban and Tahoes).

I just don't want to take the chance with these other wheels...
 
I'm planning on trying the new Michelin cleaner but what I've been using on the white walls of my Caddy as needed is Mother's Rubber and Tire Cleaner. You definitely need a good stiff brush, I use the same smaller brush with loads of short Tampico bristles for my low profile tires. I also have some old Meguiars APC+ diluted in a spray bottle. This is a bit more powerful.

Granted I never let the white walls get very dirt at all, but if something out of the blue were to happen, I might even try a Mr. Cleaner bar: at least the cleaning power of this product would be concetrated on the white wall area only.

When you're through and are ready to dress the tires, be sure to buff the white walls thoroughly, allowing them to remain damp will attract dirt. I've found when dressed properly, 303 seems to repel it and the white walls remain clean for a reasonable time.
 
RWL was a real pain for me but they are so nice. I'd guess there was already something wrong with your clear coated wheels because the heavily diluted solution that would have rinsed on them could not have been potent. Unless you sprayed all the tires and let the stuff run onto the wheel and sit before you got to it.

My method with Bleche White was to spray the entire wheel and tire. The water on the wheel will help to dilute any potential overspray from the tire of affecting the clear coat. I would then lightly spray the area coverd by the letters only with BLECHE. If the letters are really bad I use a small brass brush to clean them up and then rinse. I would use regular car wash solution and chenlie mit to clean up the wheels and a brake dust brush to get the insides.

Now that I have discovered BNB and my brake dust is pretty light, I just use the BNB to keep the RWL white and clean and follow with a cheap Costco MF over the letters to dry them up as mentioned above.
 
I second robman's suggestion of using a brass brush. Bold & Brite is especially nice for RWL tires as it has some light cleaning ability. When you are applying it as a dressing it doesn't "smear" the RWL's.
 
I usually spray the rim,tire and scrub brush with water, then spray the cleaner on the brush. Better control that way and by the time any cleaner would reach the rim, it's pretty well diluted.

FWIW, I third the opinion on the Avatar :yes: :naughtyD
 
I also do what robman does for my RWL on my Tahoe...Bold N Bright, a stiff brush and a couple of cotton towels for cleaning RWL's and tires without washing or getting the rims ruined. BnB is also water-based so if it gets on the rims or paint it will just wipe off..
 
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