I have a set of Goodyear Eagle ST tires that are new but have been sitting around for abour 6 years and I am now going to use them. This morning I cleaned off the blue protective crap they spray on the letters at the factory and found that the letters were severely stained. I cleaned them with everything I had here and nothing worked, not even laquer thinner. Not knowing how deep these stains were I figured I had nothing to lose so I put a 180 grit disc on the DA sander, locked it into grinder mode and sanded them off. They came out looking new, or better than new since they are now smoother than they were from the factory. So, if you have some old looking white letters that need to be brought back to life, there is hope. Just thought I'd share this with everyone.
Thanks Bill, I am going to try this. I have some BFG TA that have nevr been outside yet the letters are turning brown and Wesley's Bleach White will not take it off.
Did you try lighter fluid (the kind that is used in zippo lighters)? When I mounted my tires with the white letters out, lighter fluid always made the white letters pop.
I tried all of the above and nothing worked, the stains were too deep. Spent a good part of the morning trying to get them clean and simply ran out of options. At least the DA sander worked :TU:
One additional note to this: When you store tires seperate the white from the black! If the white letters or stripe rests against another tire the black will soak into the white rubber. I use cardboard to seperate my tires if I have to store them side by side. - Bill
Yeah, he said none of that worked for him though. For "normal" cleaning though, I've always used steel wool soap pads. How thick is the white though? I'd be too afraid of taking all the white off right down to the black with a DA sander.
The white is as thick as the letters so there is plenty of white there to work with. I have seen some white lettered tires that have the letters scuffed completely off from rubbing on curbs, leaving the entire side of the tire white, so I believe these tires have white molding into the entire sidewall area. I only removed whatever took to make them white again. I'd guess less than .015". What impressed me was that the letters turned out nice and smooth, unlike some I have seen that have a more course texture. I'm very happy with the results.
Hi Bill I made a set of wide white walls using white letter tires and a grinder, worked pretty good,theres even a couple "how to's on youtube" Mel:beers2:
try using hand cleaner. a friend says that it works great on whitewalls & white letters. i use bleach.
I've always used carpet cleaner (Spot Shot) to take all of that grime off of white walls. Works like a damn, spray it on all of the tires at once and work your way around with a rag, just rubbing the white lettering/walls. :TU:
Like the grinder/sander idea. I was gonna use steel wool and bleach - but that always gives me dishpan hands. :af: . When my garage was being built, I was moving the old 53 out and parking it on the street, then back into the driveway until they came back to work again. A couple times I touched the curb with my nice WWW's and a couple spots turned up marked pretty badly. o No: . Rip Rohring :Comp:
guys i don't know all the facts but i am posting a link about tires over six years old. found out the tires on my buick are over 10 and show no signs of dry rot or any other problems check out the video Subject: Tires THIS COULD SAVE YOUR LIFE... Pass it on to all your friends and family... this is nothing short of criminal. There is a 30 sec. Commercial at first --- and then the video. The video is well worth watching. Please watch until the end, because some of the most important stuff you need to hear and see are past the middle of the segment. It could save your life or that of someone you love. Pass it on after you've seen it. I think you'll want to. WOW! http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=4826897
Something to keep in mind. Unless the lettering is already roughed up using anything abrasive to clean it will only open the rubber pores up causing the lettering to dirty quicker.
I glad u posted that Chris I was just about to worn Bill about the dangers of old new tires :TU: It's not worth the risk set them free and buy new ones. I have a set of BFGoodrich tires that have never scene the road only used to move a car around the shop and they R already 8yrs. old and I will not put them on any of my hot rods or sell them to anyone to use on there's and I have over $600 invested in them.
