cv67

Used comet or ajax and a scrub brush as a kid never wrecked anything and made em super white. Use some elbow grease


Thought armor glossy look went out in the 80s?
Looks horrible esp when they use a bug sprayer full of it on the entire engine compartment

jim in oregon

you need to NOT get the westley's blech white on your aluminum or mag wheels.
anyone ever contact the mfgr of the rwl tires to see what they recommend?Jim

Carl 72

ajax used it back in the day always worked good just got a set of the bf goodrich and think i may try the awesome, works great on the work clothes may be little easier, just spray and rinse, with rally wheels

jrheyerly

Mine looked exactly like yours! The browning is embedded in the white coating on the letters and Wesleys is useless when that is the case.
Try the starting fluid on a rag and rub lightly with one finger. It takes some time working several coats of the starting fluid in the rag and some pressure with your finger back and forth. The brown will come out and the white letter will be shining white again.
Wesleys and some of the other cleaning methods mentioned in this thread work fine, if the browning is just on the surface. My BFG,s are new and the white letters were brown from day one. Ether is a fairly strong solvent, but not as severe as lacquer thinner. You want to make sure that the white coating isn't damaged. I don't think "ether" will hurt the white coating.

Yellow1980

I never use tire dressing, and only Simple Green and a interior Brush to clean tires.

LS4 PILOT

I use the AA tire and wheel cleaner in the orange hand squirt bottle. I get it from dollar general. And the rags .

I find it works great .

The tire black , dirt ,oil ......will smear across the white letters .....if your tires are dirty ......LOL .

I buy the cheap white cloth rags ......to clean the letters

Always wipe the letters only with your perfect rags ...quickly after rubbing the letters with the AA tire cleaner applied to your rag,

I ve run TA since 1976 . They never seem to stay as white as the Goodyear or Firestone I occasionally owned .

CFLVette

I sand mine with a 3M sanding sponge (med coarse grit).
Works excellent.

jim in oregon

For what it's worth, this is from BF Goodrich themselves..:
Regarding the maintenance and cleaning of you raised white letter tires, I’d like to use my passion for BFGoodrich products to offer you the following information:

We recommend using a soft brush and mild soap to clean tires. Tire dressings that contain petroleum products or alcohol can accelerate the aging process and contribute to cracking
Michelin does not endorse the use of after-market conditioners. The effects of such products are unknown as it would be impossible to test all of the products on the market today.

We hope that your issue has been resolved or addressed to your satisfaction. If we can assist you further, please respond to this email or call us at 1-877-788-8899 (toll-free) between 8:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. EST Monday through Friday, or between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. EST on Saturday. We appreciate your business and thank you for choosing BFGoodrich

I use dawn dishwashing liquid soap and a small piece of 3M Scotchbrite..then rinse with water..harsher abrasives knock down the raised black rubber surrounding the white letters..A stiff old toothbrush works well also..Jim

25thToi

Went to the local Autozone and they only had the Westley's knock off. I've had Radial T/A's on my 79 TA since 1984, getting the white letters clean had previously been tackled with a whitewall brass wire brush and some good soap (either Dawn or now Zaino). This last set of tires which get replaced more to age than wear, have been the worst in terms of turning brown with no sidewall treatment. Pretty certain, they had not been touched since mounted. The first pic shows representative condition,(they were all brown not just fronts or backs etc)


This is the stuff I used...



I did my typical routine, washed the wheel and tire with normal soap (Zaino) and then liberally applied the bleche-wite - being careful ever since the Eagle One Caustic acid wheel cleaner incident
I tried per the directions to apply it on a dry tire and it did seem to act faster but found that to be more of a pain, so washed tires did just fine. I then applied some elbow grease via the whitewall brass wire brush and this was the result.


Not perfect but waaaay better
I've not uncovered the car since I did this two weeks ago but when I go get it today, I'll look to make sure the wheels which were clearcoated with automotive paint clear about 10 yrs ago are still OK.

25thToi

Hi Jim,

I too had gone to their website in search of a recommendation and felt BFG's response was a bit of a cop out and did not really address the problem.

jim in oregon

Well, I've been cleaning, fixing stuff for over 60 years..from farm to industrial..
I enjoy the effort and a bit of elbow grease is good for us if we can still do it..

I wash the wheels and tires using a med soft brush and warm soapy water..then dry..
For tires I apply Meguiars 57 Marine RV vinyl and rubber cleaner & Protectant..Whatever clear protectant may have been applied to my '78 aluminum wheels has long ago ceased to exist.I hand polish them with Mothers paste cleaner..Great looking wheels and tires require some attention..but like nice looking shoes add much to the well dressed man or woman....they set the whole car off nicely if done well.


Meguiars RV Marine 57 doesn't leave the tire looking greasy..but black..White letters look brilliant.
Lasts for weeks..great UV and oxidation resistance..Works great on conventional 'tupperware fender flares bumpers etc on newer cars..Great for weatherstripping too...oxidation and UV are the enemied of most rubber products.Typically good marine rated products do a bit better than run of the road stuff..

Experiment with methods and different protectants..Generally, I have found the Meguiars products to be excellent..READ & Follow instructions..Jim

Rmodeler

I had BFG put on my 82 a couple yrs ago, the back were a different size then the front, so different tire mold. From day one the back would turn brown before anything had been applied, the front always stayed white. Went back to where I purchased them and complained on the difference. They they used a small metal buffer on them and it helped temporarily, but went back to the yellow/brown look. They will turn brown just setting, while the front will stay white. It has to be something in the rubber formula that is doing it. I've tried a little of everything and nothing is permanent. I'll try the starter fluid once. Just a lot of work keeping the back white like the front.

The13Bats

On Westley's the last I bought wasn't the real deal it was a bottle and made to look like it but was some copy, I didn't notice until got it home,
But I recall a while back the real Westley's changed it's smell seemed to work the same but I am very allergic to bleach it will wither up my fingers fast and even the smell at times gives me nervous panic issues, you know that weird slimy feel bleach gives your fingers that purple stuff does that to me too,
So I was reading around google and a lot of info saying putting "bleach" on tires is really bad for them and will even grey them out anyone heard that to be true?

LS4 PILOT

I believe you. I've had 5 sets on various car past three decades and it seems they do never seem to act the same with the letters.

I thought it was me until I used the old Goodyear GT for like a ten year period and never had issues with letter discolor .

The set I have now is one of the more consistent sets , all are equal color , and stay decently white .....better than most sets I've had .

7T1vette

NEVER use Armor-All for anything on your car! It's nasty stuff and will eventually eat your plastic and rubber items. Use lacquer thinner on a clean cloth to wipe off the 'brown' letters on your tires. Then wash whole tire with Westley's Bleech-White. Spray dry tire with Westley's, wait a few minutes, scrub with brush, re-spray Westley's, scrub again, then rinse with lots of clean water. If you need more, let tire dry then do it again. Once clean, let dry then use Nu-Vinyl or Meguiar's for plastics spray into a clean cloth then wipe on tires. It will seal the rubber pores and keep the dirt out of the tires/letters. I do that about once per year and just clean tires normally with soap/water thereafter. If at a show, I may wipe them down with Nu-Vinyl again. Great stuff.

C3 4ME

Myself and a buddy have also notice the browning of lettering on our brand new BFG TA radials. Mine are about 2 months old, and were white when i first cleaned them after coming home form installation, but have browned since then. I do use Armor All foaming tire dressing. Strangely, I use it on all tires on all of my vehcies. I have BFG white letter tires on my Jeep and they don't brown, nor do the Goodyear Wranglers on my C10.

Eljay

Ill jump in with another +1 for the Westleys on a dry tire then scrub brush and wash. I use "Black Magic" tire dressing the same jug I have had for I bet 20 years (LOL) but I never spray it on the tire, I use the curved sponge aplicators made for the process, still never going "over" the letters but as close as I can get, then I use a cheep foam paint brush with the black magic sprayed on it and get between the letters but again not on the letters, I keep a rag handy to wipe off any overage. I get a nice mat black that does not look greasy. Also you cannot do the whole job without rolling the car forward or back a couple of feet to get the entire tire.

71 Green 454

Thanks CFL, after seeing your post, I took my sanding block and some 220 wet/dry sand paper and used it to clean my BFG letters. It work perfectly and the letters are white again.

CFLVette

Glad to hear it!

Kubs

The brown is a reaction of the white rubber compound with the ozone elements. The only way to get rid of it is to scuff off the top layer of oxidized rubber. That's why people using sand paper, stiff brush, or abrasive cleaners are having the best results.