Meg's water based tire gel?

XRL

XRL

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We had a pretty lengthy discussion over on autopia about water based tire dressings (because I'm paranoid with my new tires), and came up with a few OTC and more readily available tire dressings that were water based. Turns out Armor All's tire gel is actually water based, and it seems to be a common trend among "gel" products that they are water based.

So this got me wondering, are the Meguiar's tire gel products water based? I've heard good things about the Gold Class Endurance gel(especially the low gloss version), and I know there's the "hot shine" tire gel. Are either of these water based? Is it a requirement for a gel type product to be water based?

It also seems like the majority of water based products give more of low gloss/matte finish. Is this also a characteristic of most water based products? Or is it just random chance and the possibility that more people who are interested in a water based shine are just more likely to want it more matte?

Thanks guys.
 
I have both the Hot Shine Tire Gel and Hot Shine Tire Spray products and I am pretty sure that neither of them are water-based dressings. I also have the Armorall Extreme Tire Shine Gel and don't believe it to be water-based. I will check the back labels of the products for you tomorrow and update you for sure though.

While I wouldn't go around buying the cheapest tire dressing around from no-name brands, I've never found any tire dressing to do any damage to tires. Tire shines always provide UV protection to prevent cracking, browning, and fading...not to cause any of these issues.

If you are that paranoid about oil-based products, then consider Meguiar's Water-Based Dressing and the two Optimum Tire Shine products (Optimum Tire Shine and Optimum Tire Gel) are all well-known water-based tire dressings.
 
Poorboys Bold and Bright is water based and gives a good shine and last
pretty good for a water based product. Supplemental applications seem
to increase its lasting ability.
 
I've been using Four Star Tire dressing on my car and love it (especially the BOGO deal of it ;)) It's also water based and has a nice deep black matte look to it.

I actually emailed AA about the gel and they said that it was indeed a water based dressing. I was skeptical about it at first too.
 
If you want a water-based tire dressing then go with M40 or Hyper-Dressing, M40 is Meguiar's version of Armor-All only better and it's been around for probably close to 30 years so it has a proven track record and a strong following. The most common thing I hear from people that use it for the first time is, "that's good stuff".

Hyper-Dressing is an all purpose interior and exterior dressing that can be diluted with water your personal preference, I've used it straight out of the jug for a tired dressing and it works really well.

Both of the above products will leave a rich, dark matte finish, not shiny.

Here's what's cool about water-based tire dressings... you can remove them easily and there's a benefit to this. Let me explain. The rubber manufactures put an ingredient in the rubber to keep the rubber from drying out and cracking, it's called antiozonant. It's designed to come out of the tire when the tire is used, as in when you drive the car and centrifugal force and warmth will draw it to the surface. When it meats the ozone in the air it turns brown, this is called blooming. It's a sign that things are working as they should, the problem is you and I don't like the brown residue so we scrub it off with a tire cleaner to restore a black finish. Scrubbing the tire can dry it out, depends upon how harsh of a chemical you use to scrub the tire clean with.

Besides the antiozonant turning brown, tires get dirty with road grime and brake dust just like you're wheels, so for all of the above reason you want and need to clean your tires and do so before applying a fresh coat of tire dressing.

If you use a solvent-based tire dressing, they tend to last a long time because they don't break down easily with water. That's good if you want a tire dressing that will last on the surface along time in inclement weather, BUT if you want to remove it what happens?

Your tire brush or wash mitt gets all gooey and black from the dressing coming off as it doesn't want to break-down and wash off very easily. In other words it's messy. It might last longer than a water-based dressing but if you already know you want to wash your tires, (when you wash your car and wheels), and you know you want your tires to look great so you are planning on re-applying a tire dressing... then you WANT a tire dressing that won't last, in fact you want a tire dressing that will wash off easily, you want a tire dressing that will breakdown with soap and water so you CAN get it off so you can then apply the fresh coat of dressing.

Make sense?

Anyway, if you haven't tried the M40 you can get it in either a 16 ounce spray bottle or a gallon jug. Hyper-Dressing only comes in gallon jugs but has a lot of uses like engine detailing and as an interior dressing.


But the above stated reasons should apply to any water-based tire dressing, so pick a few to try out, kind of the women's shoe analogy, women collect shoes and some of them are very expensive! We guys get our reward and that's car care products... if you don't have you're own shoe collection, (car care products collection), then start building one. Might even be time to get your own closet or cupboard in the garage for your fine waxes and paint sealants.

:)
 
I only use M40 on my truck tires and love it for all the reasons Mike stated.

Easy to clean (doesn't get my tire brush black and gooey)
Leaves a nice clean dark matte finish. (I do not care for the high gloss)

:dblthumb2:
 
I believe both the Optimum tire products are water based too.
 
I have been thinking about trying Meguiars Hyper Dressing. I have a lot of Meguiars products that I would not do without. The Detailer line is a bulk of my purchases. Gonna have to order some and try it out.
 
I emailed Meguiar's about it and they said that none of the gel products are water based. Just to have the knowledge out there for everyone else.

FWIW, Black Magic said that only their "Titanium Matte Dressing" was water based.
 
MisterShark said:
Here's an informative tire read from the folks at 303.
Click to expand...


I use 303 Aerospace Protectant as my tire dressing. Come to think of it, it is actually a bit more pricey than other options stated in this thread, but, man, the tires look gorgeous when I'm done. Lasts 3-4 weeks, which is fine for me because I don't have time to wash the car every weekend anyway.
 
I have not found that just plain soap and water removes all remnants of a water based dressing. I have to use an APC (my fav is Optimum Power Clean) to really strip it and remove the browning build up.
 
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