New Tires Tuff Shined !
I got 4 new tires today. General Grabber AT2s
Of course the tire shop had sloppy hand prints in tire bead lube all over my wheels and new tires:
They also got some mystery grease on my wheels that wouldn't come off with regular wheel cleaner. It took Meg's Degreaser to remove it:
Then there is the obligatory scratches where the tire "technician" jammed his screwdriver into my center caps to pop them off:
Anyway, everything needed to be cleaned up, and I wanted to get Tuff Shine on the tires. This is my first set of tires that will never see any conventional dressings from the get go.
The stuff for the tires::
I ended up cleaning the wheels as well. I don't think a lot of people know this, but the excellent Tuff Shine tire cleaner (non concentrate) can be diluted 1:1 with DI water without affecting its performance. The cleaner is very good for what it's designed for, cleaning tires, but its kind of expensive for a tire cleaner ($40 a gallon). Diluting it 1:1 cuts the cost in half, but the cleaner still works very well.
TS Tire Cleaner 1:1 :
It had no problem taking care of this yellow mark:
I also always drive up on pieces of wood so you can clean and dress the whole tire without rolling the vehicle around and getting the tire dirty. You want the tires completely clean with Tuff Shine.
I was curious to see if I would get any dark foam from the cleaner since the tires where brand new.
Foam stayed mostly white:
However, I like to apply the TS all the way into the tread on the tire edge, it stays pretty well. So, I cleaned about a 1/4" into the tread. There was some dirt there. I always find when cleaning a tire its best to clean from the part closest to the rim out, as that area is farthest from the ground and the cleanest.
After I made sure the tires where 100% clean and dry, I coated them with TS's Tire Clear Coat. I used 3 or 4 coats. Once the tire is clean, TS is pretty hard to screw up. The coats dry pretty quick. However, the first coat never dries perfectly even for me.
1st coat:
After 3-4 coats I was very happy with the look. I find if you brush any wet spots out (hight spots) while the coating dries it evens it out and looks better when it dries.
Before:
After (different wheel):
I was going to do a waterless wash, but of course it started to rain. I love TS because it makes maintenance washing easier and faster. You never have to clean or dress tires. You can just wipe off the tires with soap and a towel. There is no dirt or brown that sticks to the tire.
Also, the tire remains new looking forever. Since it doesn't get dirty, you never need to scrub the tire. You never have to remove the TS from the tire, you just top it off every once in a while. My last tires were coated over a year (driven daily) and I never removed the original coat.
The tires always look good and new. You only use the cleaner once during the initial application. Snow, road salt, soap, and rain seems to have little to no affect on the Tuff Shine coating. Yes, it is expensive compared to traditional dressings. But, since I'm almost out of the coating, I plan to get the 32oz bottle and that should last years.
