Whitening BF Goodrich Tire Letters - Finally a Success
 

I am hoping this might help other C3 hobby brethren - based on at least 50 Google/YouTube postings on the topic - who have also been frustrated with trying to whiten their BFG lettering. I tried everything that seemed credible on the forums. Nothing worked - same dull white no matter the effort. Bleche White was totally useless despite success by many others. Laquer thinner and a half-dozen other tips didn't work.. Word had it that the hopeless dull white, in some cases was normally (but, carelessly in my view) caused by BFG or it's warehouse distributors stacking freshly produced tires on one another with the black side in contact with the white letters in the stack, permanently staining them the dull, cream-white color. It got more serious for me to find a solution when invited to display my car on the grounds at the Concours @ St. Johns in Plymouth, MI last month. The car finally looks nearly like new except for the crappy colored tire lettering as shown in the first photo despite my best efforts.

I happened to come across a posting on a Facebook C3 where the poster combined a few ingredients which did the trick for him. I built upon his approach with my own thinking as follows and shown in the second photo in case it will benefit you:
1.) put the following into a plastic bucket or bowl, loosely measured so don't be too specific: . 4 oz. of 40% peroxide cream from Sally's Beauty Supply store, . 4 oz. of bleach, . 4 oz. of an abrasive cleaner, . 8 oz. of water. It creates a thin, watery, but effective poultice. 2.) Dip a brillo-pad into the slurry and vigorously rub it onto the white letters. 3.) Let it sit for 20-30 minutes 4.) Rub hard (hard) on each letter on each tire. You'll spend 10-15 minutes on each tire, focusing on each individual letter. 5.) Use a plastic brush on each letter while spraying with a garden hose to completely rinse off the poultice. 6.) You will notice that the poultice/rubbing lifts a rubbery, gray substance out of the white lettering, so you will need to touch up each letters to get rid of all of the substance. Part of it is probably normal tire dressing that has gone rancid and become dirty - but, not all of it. Some of it an oily substance drawn from the white letters leaving much whiter letters behind.

It was not a perfect "10". It is maybe a "9" as you can see in the pictures, but a significant improvement of the "6" or "7" level of lettering whiteness that I was ever able to get before. If Michelin (BF Goodrich owner) cared they would not have produced/sold an inferior product in the first place so that you didn't need to invest/waste an hour and at least $10 in materials. But, if you are on a mission to make your BFG tire's white lettering the way they were designed...as "white" (or, noticeably closer to it) - here is an alternative approach that worked for me. Good luck and hope this helps!




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We use oven cleaner with a hard brush on my friends lowriders before shows. and rinse the crap out of them with water. People use all sorts of crazy stuff.
the chlorine stuff can be bad and rust your wheels/fenders if it stays on the bead too long. se use comet and make paste so it doesnt drip all over. after a few minutes it like pulls the brown oils out.
Also all the chemicals can eventually hurt or penetrate the rubber. The crappy 13 bias ply dont really last long on hydraulics anyway so rubber degradation aint really a problem.

Now that are clean do not get tire dressing on them. I use a tire dressing applicator that I spray tire dressing then put it on the tires. I also use a foam paint brush to get between the letters. An add bonus of this method is a nice mat finish not a wet slimy mess.

To the OP - Thanks for the post. :thumbs:

Please dont mix cleanser and bleach!

I use a fine grit sanding sponge and dishsoap. Works great. Its not rocket science.

No concept? Really? Wrong! I bought my TA's new and had the browning problem you discribed. My method works!!

:lol:

Water on tires then soak sos pad in water and scrub sidewalls and lettering.
Wash off well at car wash

Lakeside49, from the nice way your car and rims look, I can see why the dull white lettering would stand out. Nice job on getting this detailed.

kdf

To keep them looking nice...and the rest of the sidewall, too...give them a good coating of a POLYMER protectant. Petroleum-based "protectants" :ack: will degrade the rubber little by little. A polymer protectant, like Nu-Vinyl or Meguiar's protectant for plastics, will seal the surface; it won't turn yellow and it won't peel; it will act as a UV blocker to prevent sun damage to the rubber. And it will seal the pores in the rubber so that they won't turn brown in the first place.

I've used Nu-Vinyl for plastics, vinyl interiors, rubber hoses, plastic wiring insulation, and on tires for MANY years; and it's the single BEST 'appearance' product that I have ever used.

P.S. If you haven't actually tried it, don't bash it. It works!!

Hi Charley,
thanks for your note. Do you happen to have any pics of how a white-lettered tire looks after 3-4 years after applying the nuvinyl stuff? I'm a little hesitant to use a polymer base (liquid micro-plastic) product vs.water (not petroleum) based since, even with UV inhibitors it will eventually degrade (as any commercial polymer known to man) and would seem like a job to remove it and start over. For this reason I've avoided polymer waxes like the plague no matter how stunning they look and protect when initially applied. I have worked for Ford Motor Co. for many years and was the aftermarket accessories product planning manager for 4 years. I am not an engineer, though they reported to me on our team and I was continually amazed at how our quality and durability tests weeded out the good products from the crap. More often than not, products that would appear to look and behave incredible on the surface and seemed to hold much promise would fail badly in only the first of 4 batteries of our proprietary, and reasonable tests. Especially anything with ties to China, though maybe they have gotten better. I no longer work in that dept. but I see that our engineers have not yet released a Motorcraft polymer coating despite their popularity, so something must be up and wonder about your experience with visuals if you happen to have any `before', `after', and `after at least 3-4 years since I have no intention of selling my car during this lifetime. Thanks!. Dave

You are skeptical...and you should be. I have used this stuff since the early 1980's...cars, boats, home uses. I have never witnessed it peeling or yellowing (or darkening). Basically, it looks the same but wears off (disappears?) over extended time periods of months. When I see the luster it gives to a piece going away, I just wash and/or wipe it off to remove any dirt, etc and wipe on another coat of polymer. To my knowledge, it only does positive things for the parts to which it is applied.

I sound like I own stock in Nu-Vinyl. Well, I would--except that the major companies for these kinds of product must be lobbying it off the shelves of the major auto parts stores. I haven't seen Nu-Vinyl in those stores for over 20 years! All I can say is that the possibility of this stuff being so good should get folks to buy one bottle to prove (or disprove) it to themselves. Today you can order it thru ACE or Tru-Value hardware stores. They won't stock it, but they can order it. Or you can get it on-line.

You've heard the phrase "This is better than sliced bread." I'm sure it was a polymer protectant that spurred that phrase! I've used polymer polishes also. In Arizona (desert areas) you HAVE to use them...you cannot use a wax if the car sees 110+ degree, sunny weather. Wax won't last in that environment. But you can put polymer polishes on at high noon in Phoenix, let it bake while you eat lunch, and then easily buff it off with no problem. I prefer the shine of waxes to the polymer, but other than that, I've seen no downside to the polymer polishes, either.

P.S. You do not want to get any polymer protectant on your car's paint, glass or metal. It won't damage anything, but it will adhere like it does to plastic/rubber/leather. It is difficult to remove, although it doesn't do any real harm.

Thanks, Charlie - yep, a bit skeptical, but thank you for your thoughtful recommendation. DV

WD-40 and shop towel always gets mine white in less than 2 min a tire.....:thumbs:

:iagree: I have been using Meguiar's Gold Class Quik Wax on my tires for a couple of years now instead of greasing them up with dirt attracting tire dressing which yellows the lettering. Not to mention if you rub your pant leg on the tire walking by or worse, your wife does.... I haven't had to clean the lettering in about a year and they look like new. It seals the tires keeping the rubber black and the lettering white and attracts no dirt or dust. The big job is cleaning the tire and lettering the first time before you use the spray wax. Just spray it on, wipe of the excess and let it dry.