Review: Pinnacle Vinyl and Rubber Cleaner and Conditioner

acuRAS82

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Our favorite detailing guru, Mike P, sent me a bottle of Pinnacle Vinyl and Rubber Cleaner and Conditioner, just because he and AG are stand up people.


From the AG website:

Pinnacle Vinyl & Rubber Cleaner & Conditioner restores the showroom new look and feel of your vehicle’s interior in minutes. Simply spray Vinyl & Rubber Cleaner & Protectant onto a microfiber applicator pad and wipe the dash, vinyl seats, and door panels. Treated surfaces will be enhanced with a non-greasy, satin luster that reduces dangerous glare.

Don’t forget about your rubber door seals! A quick cleaning with Pinnacle once a month will keep them soft and pliable. Your doors will no longer freeze shut during the winter months!

Pinnacle Vinyl & Rubber Cleaner & Protectant contains natural conditioning oils that provide a fresh, clean fragrance. Treated surfaces will be protected against the damaging effects of UV rays. Apply as often as you'd like to keep your interior looking, feeling and smelling new.



As a token of appreciation, and because I like being able to read reviews and figure others do too, I tried this out and I want to share. The product is meant for many different types of vinyl and rubber, such as interior dash, rubber door seals, vinyl seats, etc.

However, as Mike P. showed recently, it can do well for tires too. Mike’s article is below:

https://www.autogeekonline.net/foru...ire-dressings.html?highlight=Vinyl+and+rubber

I also used this on the Q5 tires, which hadn’t been dressed in about 5 weeks (shame on me). It’s typically dressed with Mckees Gloss Tire Gel since winter. I prefer the tire coatings for their longevity and self-cleaning after rain storms, but I switched to Gloss Gel in the late winter due to not wanting to do a heavy cleaning session to remove salt and apply the coating again. I basically despise cleaning tires because it dirties whatever brush, applicator or rag you use. I like that Gloss Tire Gel does light cleaning (when applied with an MF applicator) along with protection. However, it is a greasy gel that does not self clean well, and can shed residue on things that touch the tire.

Enter Pinnacle Vinyl and Rubber Cleaner and Conditioner (VRCC as I’ll refer to it). It’s a lightly creamy liquid, similar to an interior protectant. It has the classic Pinnacle pina colada or sun tan lotion smell.
I don’t have a nice machine brush like Mike, so I’m doing this manually with an old fashioned tire scrubber.

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I like that it is a cleaner (so less regular washing of the tires) and I like that it supposedly applies non-greasy with a low satin sheen.

The Q5 tires are pretty bare of old dressing, although I’m sure there is still gunk in the pores. The tires aren’t filthy but they haven’t been cleaned in 5 weeks. There’s a bland film and light dirt speckles on them but no mud or anything. Here’s the rear drivers side before:

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Using the scrubber brush, I sprayed the bristles with a few squirts and worked the VRCC into the tire. I doubt this is the best type of brush to do the job, but the VRCC applied/spread better than I thought it would with such a robust brush.

Here’s the same tire after initial application, still kind of wet.
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To get the inner rubber near the rims, I used a MF applicator with light scrubbing to remove the dirt.
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Here’s the tire after completion and given a few minutes to dry:
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I proceeded to do two more in the same way, the second picture is the front passenger side with no sun shining on it:
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Finally, I did the final, rear passenger tire with Gloss Tire Gel for comparisons sake. It’s a little greasier and has a blacker, shinier look to it.
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My wife was outside as I did this. Her take of VRCC: It has a very new tire, matte look. She likes it a lot as she does not like oil based, shiny tire dressings. She preferred the VRCC to the Tire Gel due to the low key, matte look (even though I don’t consider 1 application of Gloss Tire Gel to be overly shiny).

My final thoughts:
I also like it, for the two reasons I hoped I would:
1) It has good cleaning ability and made the tire look clean without me having to wash it. That’s a huge plus for me and my L5 & S1 vertebrae.
2) It dries completely... dry. Touch it 5 minutes after application and there’s no greasy residue like most dressings. I compare the feel and look to be more similar to a tire coating than a dressing.

I probably would have used 0.5oz for 4 tires, if I had to guess. Maybe this would be reduced with a better brush or machine application.

Given that I will be using this on my rubber door seals next, I think it’s a nice, versatile product that I will consider purchasing over a tire dressing or gel, unless I stick totally with tire coatings in the future.

For now, I’ll enjoy the gifted bottle and the Q5 will wear this instead of the Gel, because a happy wife makes for a happy life.
 
I've been using the Pinnacle BL Tire Gel myself. Your results looks great!
 
acuRAS82 - Thanks for taking the time to do the write up!

Results look great. I love your wife's comment "She likes it a lot as she does not like oil based, shiny tire dressings." (I'm being careful to not say I love your wife. :laughing: ) - awesome she's into it too.

Looking forward to hearing how it holds up compared to other tire products you've used if you have time to check in!
 
acuRAS82 - Thanks for taking the time to do the write up!

Results look great. I love your wife's comment "She likes it a lot as she does not like oil based, shiny tire dressings." (I'm being careful to not say I love your wife. :laughing: ) - awesome she's into it too.

Looking forward to hearing how it holds up compared to other tire products you've used if you have time to check in!

Lol, you are fine to love my wife’s detail sentiments. I’m pretty proud of her myself. She naturally has good taste in clothes, decor, etc. and I’m glad that it seems to spill over into car stuff.

Brief funny story from a few days ago: I hurt my lower back, so she said she would help me wash all the lower panels. I taught her all the basic 2 bucket wash stuff that we all know, including to rinse often (and I always rinse with hose spray before rinsing in bucket 2). At the end she had a sad look on her face and I asked what was up. She said “This was actually pretty fun... but I feel like we wasted a LOT of soap from the wash mitts.” I thought that was funny and explained how dragging dirt across paint and causing scratches is the worst outcome. She sort of understood, but I think it’s hard for “normal” people to grasp the extent to which our obsession is centered around keeping dirt from marring. Next time she will witness the 1 bucket method and understand why I do so many laundry loads. :D

Anyways, I’ll definitely keep everyone posted on how the tire protection holds up.
 
Very nice review and write up. The comparison was a great touch!

Thank you for sharing and taking time to do this!!
 
Nice review Acura. Well done. Next up, wheel well detail. :xyxthumbs:

Thanks for putting together and sharing with us.

I was waiting for someone to post that since the moment I took the first picture. I’ll be correcting the paint soon and should hopefully get to all the “unheralded” areas at that time. :)

Actually I’m already bothered since you spoke up, even knowing someone would. I’ll probably clean them tonight.
 
I was waiting for someone to post that since the moment I took the first picture. I’ll be correcting the paint soon and should hopefully get to all the “unheralded” areas at that time. :)

Actually I’m already bothered since you spoke up, even knowing someone would. I’ll probably clean them tonight.

Hahaha. Thats funny. All in good fun.

Please document and share the transformation of the Audi.
 
I’m trying to make the leap here but the price point is killer on this stuff
 
I’m trying to make the leap here but the price point is killer on this stuff

This probably makes more sense if you also plan on using for it’s normal use as well (assuming you can take the price to do interior, rubber seals, and tires.
 
Washed the tires last night, and then the morning I topped the front driver’s side with 2 coats Mckees Tire Coating.

Here are the two remaining VRCC tires:
0e1eac0cd67fb4a2c39e51a6c5dc89a8.jpg


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Here’s the Gloss Tire Gel:
0b6cba098c09a4094190a3b20e33226d.jpg



And coating
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The main purpose of me trying the coating is because I have a lot of it to use, and might as well see what happens on top of VRCC. In theory, it should not last since the tire is not bare in any way.

VRCC seemed to look identical after being washed with soap and water. Gloss Tire Gel dulled a bit, which doesn’t surprise me. Advantage VRCC after a few days and 1 wash.
 
AcuRAS82- Thanks for taking time to review. As you may know I’m new to detailing, so this product you don’t need water to clean dirty tire? You simply apply with applicator pad and it will clean the dirty tire?
 
Yeah, I might. In theory it shouldn’t work, but why not try a tire and see what happens, right?

Hey how do you think this would work on rubber floor matts? Is it sticky or slick?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Hey how do you think this would work on rubber floor matts? Is it sticky or slick?

Oh, great question. I only felt it once dried on tire, and put no thought into slickness. I can try it on a small area of rubber mat tonight and let you know.

I have bad memories of using trim sealant on floor mats and banging my knees or shins the moment I stepped in the car. Maybe this stuff is much stickier.
 
Ok, did a small patch of the Acura floor mat. Just a quick spray and heavy wipe (note these were just cleaned with Rubber Floor Mat Cleaner two days ago). Made it look nice. It doesn’t feel slick, which is surprising.

But I’m hesitant to vouch for it since it’s only a small spot. I’ll do the full passenger side mat tomorrow when I can see better, and let my wife be the judge.


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All,
I drove through a massive downpour with my son yesterday, literally about 45 minutes straight with only a couple minutes of let up in between.

Before I clean the wheels and tires, I wanted to share pics of each wheel. IMO, only the drivers side front with tire coating stands out as cleanest. The other 3 non-coated tires look similarly hazy, but not bad overall.

DS Front - VRCC + M37 Tire Coating
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DS Rear - VRCC
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PS Front - VRCC
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PS Back - M37 Gloss Tire Gel
fdb030860bb3c92cd0c02a1c573e88a3.jpg
 
All,
I drove through a massive downpour with my son yesterday, literally about 45 minutes straight with only a couple minutes of let up in between.

Before I clean the wheels and tires, I wanted to share pics of each wheel. IMO, only the drivers side front with tire coating stands out as cleanest. The other 3 non-coated tires look similarly hazy, but not bad overall.

DS Front - VRCC + M37 Tire Coating
0c5f8535b4773a1d7070b0580517e198.jpg



DS Rear - VRCC
7e62d2090c654a7a0b139d8243b156c4.jpg



PS Front - VRCC
c4de7a4b099d71aa632739decdfef511.jpg



PS Back - M37 Gloss Tire Gel
fdb030860bb3c92cd0c02a1c573e88a3.jpg

Did you try on a whole mat yet? Thinking of ordering for just this and door seals


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
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