Tire sludge

ShaneB

ShaneB

New member
Im finding that more and more of my customers are using these new tire "coatings" that are found OTC. You know, the really nasty ones that last because they are sticky as heck and literally nothing takes them off? Problem being they use them, then use them again, and again, and again....... you get the idea. When I come around the tire is literally covered in a sludge of this "coating" and all the dirt its picked up between applications. Ill have to share pictures of a Lamborghinis tires I had done recently just covered with this sludge. I believe it was some Meguiars product or something as I recall him showing me what he was using, it was some type of long lasting coating. Long story short, Tuf Shine tire cleaner did almost nothing to this stuff. After 6-8 rounds of spray, dwell, scrub, rinse, repeat, I was still chasing spots where this stuff wasn`t coming off.

Im wasting so much time on these jobs just trying to get tires clean and its to the point where I spend more time cleaning tires than I do the rest of the car. What other options are out there to remove this stuff? I went back and looked at a post from a year ago where someone found that mineral spirits did the trick, however I question getting into solvents and whether or not its actually a safe option for the rubber.

So what options do we as detailers have for these situations? I cant continue to piss away my Tuf shine cleaner as well as my time on these types of jobs. Its getting costly!
 
If you have a steamer (dry vapor), I would try that. That should be safe on rubber -- vulcanization uses lower temperatures, but much longer exposure, so a momentary blast of steam shouldn`t hurt.
 
Lacquer thinner, Acetone, perhaps Xylene (something with low residual after flash). Understand it sounds crazy, but a solvent may be your only reasonable option, here. If you`re spending more time on the tires, than the paint...humbly suggest your re-think what type of cleaner you need to have on-hand for these jobs. Griot`s makes a solvent based cleaner for tires, Rubber Prep. Works like a champ, but suspect you can get similar performance with the above "pedestrian" solvents.
Tarminator also is a superb tire cleaner.
 
My go to for anything that is sludge is mineral spirits. Please don`t tell me it will harm the tire - because I`m calling BS on that.

IMO no water based product will easily remove what you are dealing with - simply because what you are dealing with is not soluble in water, that`s why it`s "long lasting" & so tough to remove.
 
Thanks for the replies everyone. I`ll look into some of those other products. I`m skeptical of an APC because typically tuf shine would work when APC fell short. I`ve never noticed it the other way around.

Ill probably grab some mineral spirits just to keep on hand I guess. Was just looking to see if anyone had any input on whether or not it would damage the rubber. I guess not.

The griots has me intrigued because it`s solvent based too.
 
Last week I did my step-son`s Indian and have no idea on what was on his white sidewall tire but Tuf Shine concentrate mixed 1 part water and two concentrate didn`t phase it with the brush. I then used my GG6 with a blue cyclo brush and it made short work of it.

Tire1.jpg


Tire2.jpg
 
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