Tire Letter Whitening

[Brad H.]

Sorry for this dumb question, but I'm hoping some of you may have run across this problem and found a way to fix it.....
I purchased a new set of Goodrich, Radial T/As about 8 months ago. The white letters were discolored somewhat with a brown dirty tint to them. The tire dealer told me that they would be fine after a period of washing. As you would guess, they never improved. I don't drive this car much, but I washed the letters many, many times with Bleeche White and everything else I could think of and scrubbed them thorougly each time.
Now the dealer has changed owners and I'm out of luck. Do any of you have any ideas on ways to clean the letters back to white. I just don't believe they look good enough to show the way they are.
Thanks in advance,
Brad Hood
69 Coupe

[Tom S.]

Re: Tire Letter Whitening

I always have had good luck with comet and a stiff brush. Ther is a product that I think is called bleech white you might try also. Tom

[Ridge K.]

Re: Tire Letter Whitening

Westleys Blech-Wite tire cleaner.

www.westleys.com/

[Phil D.]

Re: Tire Letter Whitening

Besides the Bleche White stuff which usually works great, 25 years ago or so, I bought a sort of dressing for white letters. It was kinda like a white shoe polish with applicator except it was specifically for white letter tires. I haven't seen it in auto stores in many years, but then again, I haven't looked for it lately. I bet they still have something like it tho at some place like Pep Boys.

[Bill I.]

Re: Tire Letter Whitening

Try full strength Clorox using a q-tip on one 1 letter and see what happens. Bill.

[Martin N.]

Re: Tire Letter Whitening

BRAD-

What I've been doing over the last 5 years or so with my "raised white letter" tires on my 74 is to do a normal cleaning with whatever formula/soap/solution you prefer, let/wipe dry and then, clean each "letter" with "CRC Brakleen". What I do is take a rag, drape it over my fore-finger, hit it with a little bit of CRC and just wipe the letter with it and it looks like new. Repeat with each letter at each tire (rotating the rag every letter or two) and you should see some NICE results.

Marty

[Brian G.]

Re: Tire Letter Whitening

I use S.O.S. pads.

[Paul D.]

Re: Tire Letter Whitening

The Bleach-White is probably the best but most aggressive cleaner you can get and you say you have used that. I usually don't use it because it is tough on aluminum and clear coats. My experience with lettered or whitewall tires is to use a small, brass bristled brush like a grill brush (not the one you used on your grill, a new one!) and a all purpose cleaner or rubber cleaner available from the many detail companies. My favorite right now is Griots rubber cleaner. If that isn't to your satisfaction, try wet sanding the letters with about 180 on a sanding block, trying to stay flat against the letters and away from the black sidewalls. If the stain persists after a good sanding, it probably is imbedded in the white material and will never come out. You will then have to resort to one of the paints or dyes which I have never had much success with. Good luck! Chip.

[Don L.]

Re: Tire Letter Whitening

FWIW, I have heard that the brown staining is from the sidewalls touching one another. Therefore, I avoid letting them come in direct contact when storing (I have a set for driving and a set for showing/judging).

I had the brown staining problem too, and fixed it by LIGHTLY rubbing each letter with lacquer thinner, in the same manner as Martin's post above. A clean, white rag, dipped in the lacquer thinner can to wet, then using one finger under the rag and wipe each individual letter one at a time. Beware, though. You won't want to make a habit of this. Each time you do it, a little of the white rubber gets removed, much like, I suppose, the wet sanding method mentioned here.

Martin, does Brakcleen remove any of the white rubber?

[Richard R.]

Re: Tire Letter Whitening

I have the same tires and I use Prep Sol on a rag, rub lightly and they are white again.

[Paul J.]

Re: Tire Letter Whitening

Hit it with Wesley's Bleach-White, let it sit but not dry. Wet a Brillo Pad (or S.O.S. as Brian suggested) and have at it. Stay off the sidewall. Rinse well. If this doesn't do it then the dirt/discoloration is deeper than the surface and you may have to try something either more aggressive or paint it with a whitewall dressing, as suggested earlier.

Paul

[Richard T.]

Re: Tire Letter Whitening

I had the same trouble with a set of BF TA tires and the only fix the factory rep told me was after 2000 miles this problem will go away and she said remove the brown stain with soap and water. Well for a car that I show this was not acceptable. The problem is called blooming, due to chemicals in the rubber installed at the factory to help prevent ultra violet damage to the tire casing. You can clean the letters but the browning will show up again when the tires get hot. The chemicals bleed out. A set of Kelsey Hayes Goodyear Speedway tires I had installed to replace the TA's have also shown signs of this problem but not as bad. Even though no black tire casing has come in contact with the WW's. The Kelsey tires ride O.K. on flat surface tar roads but are rough riding on cement graded surfaces. The Kelsey Speedway is a bias non radial tire as used for a stock 1970 Corvette like I have. Getting back to your problem any cleaning process will remove the staining but it will come back, even when the car is parked on a hot day. In an effort to solve my problem with tires; I have a set of extra wheels with Firestone Indy Firehawk White Letter tires, so far, so good; no blooming and a nicer ride over the TA's and for sure over the Goodyear Speedways. You could consider having the black side wall facing out on the TA's to make cleaning less time consuming.

[John H.]

Re: Tire Letter Whitening

If the tire dealer stacked the tires after removing the wrapping, the brown stain will NEVER come out - it's oil from the black side of the tire stacked above it that's been absorbed by the white letters.

I had Goodyear make a special set of tires for my tube-frame Grand Sport replica 15 years ago, to be delivered to my local Goodyear dealer for mounting. When the kid in the back room saw the tires delivered off the truck, he unwrapped them and stacked them near the mounter overnight. When I brought the wheels in the next day, the yellow raised letters on the tires were all stained brown; I called the Goodyear Tech Center in Akron, and their chemist told me the yellow letters were history, and nothing would remove the oil staining.

After a couple of additional phone calls, Goodyear agreed to make me another set (at no cost to me), and told the dealer not to unwrap them until he mounted them, and not to stack them (or any other raised-letter tire) under any circumstances.

[Brad H.]

Re: Tire Letter Whitening

Thanks to everyone for the ideas. I'm afraid John is right and the stains are there to stay. I'll try complaining to Goodrich and see what happens. I know that answer.
Thanks again, if one of the ideas happens to work, I'll let you know.
Brad Hood

[Harmon C.]

Re: Tire Letter Whitening

I stacked two sets before finding the cause of the brown. You can make them look white but in a few days or weeks they will be brown again. I now store all extra tires in racks on the tread of the tire with carpet squares in between each tire. I think I used all the methods to clean them others in this thread tried.