Cleaning White Wall Tires
Mark SimpsonDescription
Most classic car owners agree that keeping white wall tires looking bright white can be a challenge. Mark Simpson shares the process he uses when cleaning white wall tires to keep them looking like new on his rides.
If you have wide white walls on your classic ride, you've probably run into this, too. Problem with these cars is that the tires wanna yellow, the white rubber wants to yellow and it, even on this car, where it hasn't even been off the lift yet, since we put the tires on, and we've already got some yellowing going on on the white wall. When the tires are brand new, right after you get the blue off, they tend to be a little susceptible to this until they get cleaned a few times. So we're going to, kind of, go over quick the process to clean up this white wall, so it looks nice and shiny and white again. What we'd start with, usually, is we take some water and then we kind of wet down the whole tire. This'll, kind of, clean things up. Get us started, here. A good thing to use is, like, some sort of a abrasive cleanser. And that would be, in this case, Barkeeper's Friend, also Comet or Ajax. And this has a very mild abrasive in it. It works good for getting in here and really deep cleaning the tires, themselves. After that's on, I like to dry them off and then come back, after we've got it cleaned some, I like to use a product called Bleach White. I know some guys that just like to use the Comet or a cleanser, and they'll be satisfied with that. I like the Bleach White. I think it gets the tire a little whiter, and the idea, here, is to get it on and let it actually soak into the tire a little bit. And we'll let that stand for about two, three minutes. Okay, we've let it sit for a few minutes, and now we're going to just use a soft bristle brush to, kind of, scrub up the white wall, get anything that's still giving us a little trouble, and we'll get that cleaned off, kind of, work in there our white wall cleaner a little bit. And then we'll just wipe them off and wipe them clean, at this point. And that'll clean up the white walls and make them look a lot whiter. You'll, you know, it's a, it's a process. Like I say, as the tires get-- When they're brand new, they tend to, I don't know if there's, like, some oils or materials inside there that want to leach out, but they tend to want to do that a lot, at first. But once the tires get a little age on them, you'll find they clean up a lot quicker. And, in no time at all, you'll be able to keep your tires looking really good. And, at about that time, you'll probably have those tires wore out, and you'll need to replace them, anyway. A little bit of elbow grease and you'll have your tires looking like new again, and your car is ready to go on the road.
Whitewalls
Diamond Bank specially says not to use abrasive or bleach based cleaners on their tires. DB says to use only Simple Green.
Another old school method I have used for years is an SOS pad. It works well, it usually takes a pad for one or maybe two tires.
Is he kidding? Spray whitewall cleaner on the entire tire, black part and all. Knowing the strength of your pressure washer, use it being careful not to damage the tire. Rinse the heck out of it. This is the part where is will actually rinse the black or discoloration out of it. If this does not not work, then I have wet sanded them with 1000 grit paper, being careful not to damage the detail of the white part if there is any. Then I follow up with another dose of whitewall cleaner. Tire dressing has a tendency to make the white part of the tire look dirty also. I do my best to only dress the black part because the dressing attracts dirt. I will admit, it is nearly impossible to only dress the black part of a whitelettered tire. I agree with the cleanser trick. I might try that next time before I go to the sandpaper. I have never scuffed up a whitewall with sandpaper or cleanser. I did one with a brass bristle brush, but that was only when I used the brass bristle brush every week on the car for two years. Come on? Use clean brushes and sandpaper of course.
LA’s totally awesome and mr clean magic eraser will do a better job than that ! You can get both for 2.00 at dollar tree.
An easier and less expensive way to clean whitewalls and with what i consider better results , is to use LA’s TOTALY AWSOME AND Mr.Clean magic eraser ! The brown that was left around the rim area will be gone and the tire will look brighter!!!
That tire did not come clean. Still yellow near the rim.
is he kidding There is bkeach in that and it yellows over time. Try biodegradable simple green. I would never use a bleach product because it is an oxidizer. Abrasives score the ruber. Who is this guy?