Here is something I stumbled upon... Using a light amount of Goo be Gone rub down the white walls and avoid the black rubber or it will smear some black. Take your time and the tires will look great. Here are before and after picture - observe the upper tire - the bottom tire was cleaned as a contrast to the upper tire before the picture were taken. EDIT: These pictures were taken two months ago. Tires still look great, no yellowing yet.
I gave up on chemicals for white letters years ago. After fighting with the yellowed letters for about 30 min one afternoon I pulled out my air powered die grinder with a scotchbrite cookie like you use to clean old gaskets off and with with a light touch and about 10 mins time they looked like new.
400 grit wet-or-dry sandpaper, used wet. Doesn't dissolve the tire and is a lot faster than you would think. It's all tire shine of one sort or another, now, we've no whiteness of any sort on our tires (6 vehicles).
Did the sanding etc technique, but I was never happy with the results. This just seems to work. Not any more difficult than using Wet Black tire shine...In fact that is what I did, clean the white and then the black. :beers2:
Thanks (Re: White walls white again - Goo be Gone) Dear Chad and V-8 Buick whitewall fans, Thanks for the suggestion. Honestly, I've had very good luck with Megular's Endurance tire protectant: http://www.meguiars.com/en/automotive/products/g7516-endurancereg-tire-gel/ For a garage kept car, this stuff can literally last for years (proved it da' hard way . . . .) Used as part of routine cleaning it does seem to keep the whitewalls nice and glowing. However, Goo Gone is part of my chemical arsenal, I'll certainly give this a try if I find a bad spot. Cheers, Edouard P.S. Thanks everyone for the mechanical suggestions as well, but I would prefer to avoid abrasion if possible.
Great trick - thanks Chad! (Re: White walls white again - Goo be Gone) Dear Chad and V-8 Buick white-wall traditionalists, Today was wash and wax day for my trusty wagon after being without an engine for 18 months. Alas on her 3rd outing after her TA-Performance repaired engine was installed, I managed to scuff the passenger side tires quite badly. These tires are too small anyway so a lot of effort wasn't worth it, but I decided to try Goo Gone to see if it would remove the scuffing. I used a toothbrush to apply the solvent and I removed the muck with a worn out rag. It worked extremely well! :TU: The results weren't perfect, but given my needs it was very satisfactory. I'm sure there are plenty of situations where nothing short of sanding away part of the surface is the only remedy. However, before resorting to that, it isn't much of an effort to try Goo Gone and see what happens. Thanks Chad for posting the suggestion! Cheers, Edouard :beer
a little trick on white walls and letters from auto detailer, use a small rock, best is granite like you find in driveway gravel, wet it and rub the white areas to a brand new white color....cheap and easy:Smarty:
Wesley's Bleach White and a steel wool soap pad. A little Bleach White at every wash after that and your good to go. :laugh:
:gp: Did this for years in the past when I had cars with white walls or raised letters. It worked so good. Wesley's is no more, I think the bottles say Black Magic now. Could be wrong. If I was in need of cleaning any white on tires it is hard to beat the good old fashion kitchen SOS pad. Tony . .
A quick Google search shows it still widely available. That same search reminds me........DON'T get this stuff on anything but the tires! It's pretty caustic and will stain aluminum and streak wax/paint if it's not washed off immediately.
