Tire coating or not?

RippyD

RippyD

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I have 3 sets of tires that are relatively new (~2-4K miles) and have not had any products applied. I'm considering coating them before Winter. The dressings I have look good but don't have great longevity. My concern with a coating is the look - I prefer flat black tires to shiny.

Any thoughts on a coating that has a flat black look and doesn't add any shine? If not I'll just stick with using dressings every 2-3 months.
 
TuffShine works well. Adds just a bit of shine but mostly just looks clean if you limit the amount of coats. Stuff lasts for months; here in NE Ohio, usually give the tires a coat or two (after cleaning) in Spring and that'll hold well into winter when, well...who cares. Clean, re-apply next Spring.
 
I've been using tire coatings for four years now. You couldn't pay me to go back to dressings. I've found with coatings there's a direct correlation between shine and number of coats.
 
The only thing I have to add is to make sure to clean them well with a tire cleaner such as Tuf Shine tire cleaner. If they are not clean the coating will not bond well and will look brown.

McKee's 37 updated their formula a few months ago to add a bit more gloss compared to the original formula. It is not overly glossy. It looks like a freshly dressed tire.

Tuf Shine tire coating is like the previous formula of McKee's. It is more satin in appearance. Even with three coats it looks more satin compared to McKee's.

The tire compound will also play into the overall look of the tire. I don't use tire dressings on my personal cars anymore. I made the switch over to a tire coating long ago. Take a little more prep but worth it compared to the longevity I get. Give it a go.
 
Thanks guys. Prep is not a problem. No browning on any of them and scrubbing several times won't be an issue. Will try a coating on one set of tires and see how it goes.
 
The McKee’s 37 Tire coating is great. It has a satin/matte finish with 2-2 coats. Anymore and it will develop a shine. I’ve been quite happy with it.
 
The Guz said:
The only thing I have to add is to make sure to clean them well with a tire cleaner such as Tuf Shine tire cleaner. If they are not clean the coating will not bond well and will look brown.

McKee's 37 updated their formula a few months ago to add a bit more gloss compared to the original formula. It is not overly glossy. It looks like a freshly dressed tire.

Tuf Shine tire coating is like the previous formula of McKee's. It is more satin in appearance. Even with three coats it looks more satin compared to McKee's.

The tire compound will also play into the overall look of the tire. I don't use tire dressings on my personal cars anymore. I made the switch over to a tire coating long ago. Take a little more prep but worth it compared to the longevity I get. Give it a go.
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Guz, do you touch up the coating on a particular schedule? I had good success using Tuf Shine but felt like I needed another to add another layer every 5 weeks or so. Not redo the whole process, but wipe another coat on after washing the tire with car soap.
 
gspam1 said:
Guz, do you touch up the coating on a particular schedule? I had good success using Tuf Shine but felt like I needed another to add another layer every 5 weeks or so. Not redo the whole process, but wipe another coat on after washing the tire with car soap.
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https://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/product-reviews/51896-tuff-shine-review.html

Good review of the tuff shine coating here. Some pictures are lost, but on page 3 swanicyouth mentions eventually settling in to topping it off every month, so I’d imagine 5 weeks is in line with that.

After finding that thread I may actually give either tuff shine or McKee’s a try. Was on the fence for awhile but he lives in a similar climate to mine, and I hate the losing battle I fight with dressings...


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gspam1 said:
Guz, do you touch up the coating on a particular schedule? I had good success using Tuf Shine but felt like I needed another to add another layer every 5 weeks or so. Not redo the whole process, but wipe another coat on after washing the tire with car soap.
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No set schedule. I just do it on whim. McKee's needs less touch ups between applications. That is one thing I noticed about Tuf Shine as well. It seems to fade rather quickly. Roughly about 8 weeks in or so. McKee's I have for probably close to 6 months and it looks like it needs a refresher. I also don't strip the entire tire coating off the and start over. A thorough cleaning with some N914 and onto to the next coat. Seems to work well.
 
Tuf Shine coating and cleaner arrived. I got two tires coated so far. The tires I coated have 4K miles, have never had dressing and have been cleaned with a brush dozens of times. I figured no issue with the cleaner. Wrong.

As soon as I hit them with Tuf Shine cleaner brown stuff was running down them. Scrubbed them. Spray again. Repeat a few times. 4-5 times before I had relatively white looking cleaner foam. It was never completely white on the brush, but after 5 times I called it good. I also scrubbed with water to get any soap off the tire. Coating is a couple of days old. Looks fine. A little shinier than I like.

Reading above... if I have to re-coat ever 4-6 weeks I may as well stick with a dressing. I'll see how it goes and maybe try McKee's if this doesn't have better durability than that.

FYI, I also tried cleaning with APC. Tried at 1:1 and straight with 3 of them. They all get the brown out but not as well as Tuf Shine cleaner.
 
RippyD said:
Tuf Shine coating and cleaner arrived. I got two tires coated so far. The tires I coated have 4K miles, have never had dressing and have been cleaned with a brush dozens of times. I figured no issue with the cleaner. Wrong.

As soon as I hit them with Tuf Shine cleaner brown stuff was running down them. Scrubbed them. Spray again. Repeat a few times. 4-5 times before I had relatively white looking cleaner foam. It was never completely white on the brush, but after 5 times I called it good. I also scrubbed with water to get any soap off the tire. Coating is a couple of days old. Looks fine. A little shinier than I like.

Reading above... if I have to re-coat ever 4-6 weeks I may as well stick with a dressing. I'll see how it goes and maybe try McKee's if this doesn't have better durability than that.

FYI, I also tried cleaning with APC. Tried at 1:1 and straight with 3 of them. They all get the brown out but not as well as Tuf Shine cleaner.
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Took me 15 cleaning cycles to get completely white foam.
 
Wow... I'll keep going on the other two tires and see how long it takes. I'll need to get a gallon of tire cleaner.
 
Just did one tire with APC at 1:1. Took about 7 cleanings before it was white. Then followed up with Tuf Shine cleaner. Still white. It seems APC is adequate. Tuf Shine cleaner may work a little faster.

Edit: just did one of my Nokian winter tires. Perfectly white on the 2nd cleaning with APC. Did a 3rd with Tuf Shine cleaner to be sure. Still white. As others have mentioned the browning coming out seems to vary by brand. Not overly thrilled the summers tires I have on now in this regard (Hankooks).
 
So far going it's going well. No idea on longevity yet, of course.

Finished my winter tires and did the Pirelli's on the wife's Boxster, so 12 tires coated so far. The Pirelli's took 4 cleanings with Tuf Shine cleaner, 5-6 with OPC at 1:1. I'm using Mike's recommendation and applying with a brush. This is working better than a sponge for me.

Eager to see how it holds up when the rain starts in a few weeks.
 
Been a couple of weeks on the Rover tires. Still looking good despite not cleaning them. This is what they look like after driving in rain.

9hzsvQql.jpg


A little more shine than I like, but not too bad. With the heavy texturing on these tires there's no way to apply the coating thinly. Even with a paint brush it settles into the nooks and crevices. Just very little smooth area on these tires.

9FcSPdTl.jpg


One side effect: it's now far more apparent how crappy everybody else's tires look. A few look ok. Some look bad. Most look terrible.
 
You’re making it difficult for me to keep myself from ordering a tire coating..

The last two times I cleaned my tires I didn’t put anything on them, and tbh I think I like the look of just a clean tire.

Makes me wonder if I’d just be happy scrubbing them with a dedicated rubber cleaner and calling it a day


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Hard to say. I prefer more of a dull or satin look as well. While I don't like the shine, they do look excellent and are staying far cleaner than before I coated them. Maybe check back in a few week and see how it's holding up. I wouldn't want to do this every month. Every 4-6 months would be no issue at all.
 
RippyD said:
I wouldn't want to do this every month. Every 4-6 months would be no issue at all.
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Do you mean stripping the coating and redoing it? In the review that Swanicyouth did, linked earlier in the thread, he gave a long term update in which he said he's never had to strip the coating off. He instead just uses a mild cleaner (I think he said in the pictures during that particular post he was using a CGs wheel cleaner) to go over the tires, and then throw an extra coat on to the tires to freshen the look up.

Almost seems like once the coating is prepped and applied properly, and bonds, you shouldn't ever have to strip anything off if you want to keep using it. Just apply regularly(ish) and they'll always look great.

That's probably the biggest selling point of a tire coating to me. Only having to quickly go over my tires even once a month would still seem worth the effort of putting the product on. Depending on the look you like to go for, you could probably stretch that quite a ways I'd imagine.
 
RippyD said:
Been a couple of weeks on the Rover tires. Still looking good despite not cleaning them. This is what they look like after driving in rain.

A little more shine than I like, but not too bad. With the heavy texturing on these tires there's no way to apply the coating thinly. Even with a paint brush it settles into the nooks and crevices. Just very little smooth area on these tires.

One side effect: it's now far more apparent how crappy everybody else's tires look. A few look ok. Some look bad. Most look terrible.
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Do you have a metrovac sidekick? That works very good getting the tire coating into the grooves. Also helps cure the coating in between applications.
 
Finick said:
That's probably the biggest selling point of a tire coating to me. Only having to quickly go over my tires even once a month would still seem worth the effort of putting the product on. Depending on the look you like to go for, you could probably stretch that quite a ways I'd imagine.
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If it needs to be applied once a month I'm not seeing the advantage over a dressing which is easier to apply and needs less cure time. My other issue is this is tough to do in the Winter. For an outside car dry days generally don't exist here between Nov 1 and March 30 (roughly). Would be good if something could go that distance.

The Guz said:
Do you have a metrovac sidekick? That works very good getting the tire coating into the grooves. Also helps cure the coating in between applications.
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I don't have one. Will consider it. Blowing it into/out the groves is an interesting idea. It wasn't hard getting product in - it was hard not having it pool there.
 
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