Raised letters........

rshooer

rshooer

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The raised (white) letters on my '82 Corvette get brownish quite easily, and am wondering if anyone has any tips as to how to keep them bright white.
Thank you for any insight you can provide!
 
Can't help you there but the Vette looks sharp. Link to pics so we can drool?
 
In the old days I would have told you a brillo pad. Are you asking about what to clean them with to get them back to white, or a way to keep them from browning in the first place?
 
Actually, if you have the answer to both of those questions, I would appreciate knowing! But my initial question was how to get them back to a bright white.
 
It's been over 30 years since I've had any whitewalls or RWL's, but today I would try a tire cleaner or APC. My cleaner of choice for tires is Optimum Power Clean, I use it at 3:1 (3 parts water, one part product) for tires.
 
WETS is a great product and I bet would help seal the lettering area up nicely thus preventing the dirt from embedding in there so easily. Just a few drops on an rag and dab them up. Once you do all four, just make one more round to wipe off any excess. WETS is awesome on trim work. I may clean up our van tonight and put some after pics of the trim that I treated with it. Was faded and work looking....very gray to white and now it's like brand new and the water beads on it like the paint.

Cleaning them I would just use a good brush and your favorite wheel cleaner. Honestly I buy the 5 gal pale of Simple Green concentrate every couple years and use it to clean a multitude of things around the house including the wheel wells and tires on my cars. Works great.
 
Thank you all for your responses....I'll give them a try.
 
Black Magic (formerly Westleys) Bleche-Wite. Nothing else works better. Nothing.
 
•I make a poltice from mixing water...with a mild,
powdered cleaner like Bon-Ami or Barkeeper's Friend.

-Wet tire; sponge on the mixture; thoroughly rinse.
-Afterwards: Apply a tire dressing, such as Opti-Bond.


•There are also "dedicated products" like:
TUF SHINE Appearance Products



Bob
 
Try some premium wash lacquer thinner on a clean white terry towel. Only touch the white part of the letter. If you dress your tires do the tire shine first. Then follow with the lacquer thinner.
 
I have RWL off road tires and have tried the best tire cleaners, apc etc and the only thing ive ever found to bring them back is brillo pads. Makes em look like new.I would stay away from degreasers or laquer thinners as there not healthy for the tire and they can dry out the rubber.
 
detailsbydennis said:
Try some premium wash lacquer thinner on a clean white terry towel. Only touch the white part of the letter. If you dress your tires do the tire shine first. Then follow with the lacquer thinner.
Click to expand...

This is what I do as well.

Nothing seams to keep them from turning brown again though. It happens with the car just sitting in my shop.
 
I've found Bleache-White to still be THE product to make white letters or whitewalls white. You still need a good brush and some elbow grease though.

I also agree with Alien Kleen, although I've never used it on anything white on the tires, over the years this product has always gotten the job done, so I see NO reason to think it wouldn't here either!
 
I know that many car washes use Ajax. Any form of powdered detergent would probably work since it will be able to scrub while cleaning. But I would start with a Degreaser first, if it doesn't work slowly up the ante until you find the right combination. As to prevent browning... I am not sure. White walls we no longer used when I started detailing, so I never had to deal with it. The browning comes from the Anti-ozonant in the tire, so I am guessing there is probably nothing you can do to prevent it. A tire dressing will likelly slow it down. So using something like Perl or Opti-bond would be my first choice.

Good luck and let us know if you find a good solution for both problems.
 
Between my wife's car having white letters and our 59 and 62 chryslers having wide whites my recommendation is optimum power clean as well as Duragloss whitewall cleaner. I find the Duragloss product works like Bleach White used to work.
 
After you clean the letters apply Tuf-Shine clear coat. This will keep the letters white for a long time. You may or not want to do the rubber on the tires. This depends on how you want to your tires to look.
 
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