What is the deal with cleaning tires?

StuDLei

StuDLei

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I use OPC at full strength. Even after four or five rounds on one tire, I'm still getting brown. Do clean tires do this or what am I doing wrong? They're relentless! I've experienced this on multiple sets too.
 
Is this personal or a customers car, either way the tires may have embedded dirt from not begin cleaned regularly or a solvent based dressing was on the tires, thus making it hard to release the dirt fully in two or three cleanings
 
I've found that some really bad tires need multiple types of cleaners. Meg's d108 or zep citrus are other good options to compliment OPC.
 
Took me 4 tries with Tuf Shine cleaner last spring to clean my car tires. It was brown, brown, brown, brown then went white. I would try a diff tire cleaner.
 
Buy the scrub brush that mounts to a DA

Huge time saver

I think Mike P has a video somewhere

These.brushes are also great for brushing carpet before vacuuming and for cleaning seats
 
Just through some tire dressing on and make em black.

Easier than cleaning 9 million times.
 
In addition to all the comments, I would like to add that rinsing off the tire brush after every scrub is necessary to prevent dirt from going back onto the rubber.
 
allenk4 said:
Buy the scrub brush that mounts to a DA

Huge time saver

I think Mike P has a video somewhere

These.brushes are also great for brushing carpet before vacuuming and for cleaning seats
Click to expand...

Have you done this brushing method personally? And if so, have you noticed any marring on the rubber? Thanks in advance!

allenk4 said:
:props:


"Easier" is not how we do things around here
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Thank you, sir, for posting what should be an automatic reply to such comments, even though it may have been a sarcastic rely... who knows :dunno:
 
Cg6LeMoN said:
In addition to all the comments, I would like to add that rinsing off the tire brush after every scrub is necessary to prevent dirt from going back onto the rubber.
Click to expand...

I did this.

I'd like a brush attachment, now that I have the 4" plate for my Flex, how would that work?
 
On the cars that I do, I scrub them twice and then let them dry and see how they look 'undressed.' If they look good, like a brand new tire or they look like they have a low gloss dressing on them I stop and apply the dressing. If they still look dirty, I'll scrub them some more.

I think it's a good way to gauge just how much cleaning a tire really needs and when I dress the tires, they always look great.

Here's an interesting article on why tires turn brown: Why tires turn brown "Blooming"
 
I think this is a fairly complicated subject...yes, some tires seemingly need to be scrubbed endlessly to remove the brown, I find this is exascerbated by oily dressings (not necessarily only clear oil dressings, some of the white dressings seem to have some this characterisitic also, and of course the white "water-based" dressings are also just emulsions of silicone oil).

Second, I have been using OPC lately as my tire cleaner (settled on 1:1), and I find that it causes less browning during cleaning than more caustic tire cleaners (which I thought meant it wasn't working as well), but I am finding dressings to last much longer and much less tire browning with OPC.
 
Try Zep 505 w/ multiple rounds if need-be--that stuff is magic.
 
If you have tires that degreaser won't get clean use Goof Off on a dampened terry towel. Cuts right through the old solvent based dressings.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using AG Online
 
The best thing I did for tires was I bought the cyclone brushes. I put them on my PC at first, but didn't want to ruin the PC so I bought the harbor freight DA just to clean tires.
Cleaning tires by machine is the way to go! Between the Machine and Zep 505. Cleaning tires is now not a big deal!

Plus you can use the brushes for the interior also!

Ian
 
Yeah but the Cyclo brushes are too big for LP tires on many cars. Just fine for minivans, SUVs and trucks, though.
 
The $5 Tuff Shine brush is probably the best investment I've made for detailing accessories. While I'm sure the DA brush attachments are superior, I don't yet have a DA. Prior to the TS brush cleaning my tires was much more of a chore.
 
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