Keeping tire lettering white
 

I recently ran across an article about keeping your white letters white so I'll share some of the content in paraphrase form.


Most tires, after a few years of age, start to fade or yellow. Tires that are used every day tend to pick up raod grime and look dingy and dirty. There are a few steps you can take to whiten them. So here are some tips about different things to use and what they do to the rubber.

-Whitening by a strong bleach will fade the black rubber on the rest of the tire, don't use it.

-**Degreasers (greased lightning, etc)work well but after many times of use it will start to dry rot the rubber because it is a chemical that works against petroleum.

-**Laquer thinner is by far the best at whitening, but it must be applied only to the letters themselves and without scrubbing.**[*]-Mineral spirits works with no majorside effects to the rubber.

-Bar soap is a good thing to use, but requires a lot of scrubbing.

-Tire bleach (Wesleys Blech-White, tire clean, etc) is great at cleaning the tire, but not whitening the letters if they are extremely filthy

-Shoe cleaner/glass cleaner or anything with mild amounts of ammonia work very well.

-Never use Varsol.

**Care should be taken around aluminum and alloy wheels and all painted rims.

RE: Keeping tire lettering white
 

I've used Westley's Bleche-Wite for years and found it does very good at both cleaning the tires and white letters. But then I don't let them get that grungy. :D

RE: Keeping tire lettering white
 

Neither do I, but I wash workvans too...

RE: Keeping tire lettering white
 

i just use the papertowel i cleaned my windows with and it works great- little bit of window cleaner does a great job

RE: Keeping tire lettering white
 

I know duplicolor makes a paint marker so you can paint your letters white, yellow, or red

RE: Keeping tire lettering white
 

You won't get good results from those. They make a mess if you are not careful.

RE: Keeping tire lettering white
 

Is it very permanent?

RE: Keeping tire lettering white
 

I used them on the old set of goodyears I had. The right rear had some curb scarring, so I went over it with the pen. It wroked really good, but it was splotchy and I put it on too thick in places, it ran when the water hit it and then stained the whole tire a grayish color. The lettering stayed white a long time though.

I have always had my lettering snow white using Westley's Bleech White. It seems to work pretty good for me. Then I wipe the tire down with Mothers Back To Black because it seems so get the tire real black and not give it the ghetto supershine look.

Just my opinion.

I am not a professional detailer and there might be something better out there.