White Wall Tire Cleaner

[Rgcaddy]

As many of you probably know, the Westley's Bleach White product that was great for many years no longer is as the formula has been changed.  The product now seems to be worthless.  Does anyone have a go to product for cleaning white walls and getting them bright white?  I have tried just about everything and nothing seems to work anymore.

[The Tassie Devil(le)]

I use Brakleen when cleaning my Whitewalls.

I spray the Brakleen onto a clean piece of cloth, and only wipe the actual white portion, in a circumferential pattern, making sure that I don't touch the black of the tyre.

Touch the black, and it will mark the white when going back to the white.

Bruce.

[76eldo]

I still use Bleech White and it still works well.  I am going to try adding just a little bit of real bleach to boost the cleaning power and see what happens.
Spray Nine is also a great cleaner and sometimes you can use a Brillo pad along with any of these cleaners.

Brake Kleen is carbon tetrachloride which is cleaning fluid like what dry cleaners use.  It's solvent based, like lacquer thinner and in my opinion a little too strong for whitewalls.  You don't want to eat into the white rubber and damage the surface.  I fairly fine scrubbing pad or nylon bristle brush with the Bleech White should work well.

Does anyone know what they took out of Bleech White?

Brian

[Matt CLC#18621]

Brillo pads.

Regards,

Matt CLC#18621

[Mike Josephic CLC #3877]

Just as a "caution" I would not recommend adding
"real bleach" AKA Clorox or a generic version thereof.

Despite the name, Bleche-Wite does not contain chlorine
bleach.  Chlorine is actually bad news for rubber products
and causes cracking and loss of elasticity.

Bleche-Wite did contain a very strong detergent (sodium
metasilicate) that safely cleaned the white wall.  However,
since this is a strong eye irritatant, the product was
reformulated and the amount of this item was reduced
or eliminated.

Simple Green works well by itself or with a Brillo / SOS
pad if your whitewalls are badly stained.

Mike

[TJ Hopland]

For those that don't think westleys works anymore I'm curious if you let it freeze?   I had some that seemed to work fine last year.    A few days ago I grabbed it off the shelf and tried to use it on the same car as last year and it didn't seem to work as good.   Should be the same 'dirt' and everything as last year, new brake pads were 3 years ago and tires 4.  Only change I can think of is I'm sure it froze in the garage over the winter. 

[Cape Cod Fleetwood]

FWIW, Diamond Back Classic only approves of soap and water with a gentle brush on their white walls.
The use of Simple Green with a scrubby sponge is authorized for tougher stains.

\m/
Laurie

[David Greenburg]

I use diluted Simple Green on a rag or sponge, with a green scotch-brite pad on the tough spots.

[The Tassie Devil(le)]

Brake Kleen is carbon tetrachloride which is cleaning fluid like what dry cleaners use.  It's solvent based, like lacquer thinner and in my opinion a little too strong for whitewalls.  You don't want to eat into the white rubber and damage the surface.  ..... Brian   

The number of times I clean my whitewalls, I am never going to have a problem with damaging the surface.   They might get cleaned three times in any one year.

Bruce.

PS.   I hate having to clean whitewalls, but I must admit that my Elo does look good with the 1" whitewalls.

[gross707]

I’ll echo Matt’s suggestion in naming Brillo pads for cleaning white walls.  With a little elbow grease they work just fine.

[Big Fins]

TJ may be onto something. I have DB's on my car and just last week bought a new bottle of Westley's. It works like it always did for me. I make sure I spray it on a dry tire, hit it lightly with a plastic bristle scrub brush and rinse it off. With 4 wheel disc brakes, and the humidity here, they get dingy looking in a hurry.

[cadillacmike68]

FWIW, Diamond Back Classic only approves of soap and water with a gentle brush on their white walls.
The use of Simple Green with a scrubby sponge is authorized for tougher stains.

\m/
Laurie

Thanks, I guess that gallon jug of Simple Green I bought will have more uses now.

[Cape Cod Fleetwood]

TJ may be onto something. I have DB's on my car and just last week bought a new bottle of Westley's. It works like it always did for me. I make sure I spray it on a dry tire, hit it lightly with a plastic bristle scrub brush and rinse it off. With 4 wheel disc brakes, and the humidity here, they get dingy looking in a hurry.

Diamond Back discourages the use of that product on their tires. YMMV.

\m/
Laurie

[EAM 17806]

"SPRAY NINE" is the best cleaner of them all by far including for seat belts too, in my opinion!.  EAM

[Big Fins]

Diamond Back discourages the use of everything. I've been using Westley's for many, many years with no bad results.

I used the Spray Nine only once on the tires, because I didn't have any Westley's. Same result. Perfectly bright white sidewalls.

[signart]

I use Scrubbing Bubbles.
Shake it but don't break it, cause... you know who is barely even around anymore. Spray it on, let it work, wipe & rinse. Only use something stronger if marked or stained. Take longer to get the skirts off than anything.

[Matt CLC#18621]

Well all my current rides including 2001 ETC all have black walls.
Currently, when I clean the ETC’s black walls and chrome wheels, I spray Lysol bathroom foam cleaner (same as scrubbing bubbles) and use a heavy duty scrub brush on the Michelin’s walls before dressing the tyres.

When I had my 67 Fleetwood Eldorado and 78 Power T-Top Biarritz, I would spray with bathroom foam cleaner ($2.49) on tyres and either use Brillo or SOS pads ($1.99).

Consistent with the Eldorado’s leather interiors, I dressed my wheels with Pledge orange furniture polish ($3.49) which smells great and lasted just as long or longer than Armor All. Also, the Pledge sticks much better and does not fly off the wheels like the Armor All et al. products.

Best regards,
Matt CLC#18621

[fishnjim]

Since the product line was bought by Black Magic, about all I notice is you can not get the gallon refill jugs anymore.   They make you pay more for a spray bottle.   I guess to make the merger pay.   I've used it over 50 years, and don't see much difference.  A repeat spray, if needed, but if you stay on top each wash, no issue.  It is quite irritating if you inhale the overspray.   Avoid eye contact.  I use a spray head that can be adjusted to coarse/stream for what I'm spraying.   i bought a dozen or so online as reusing the home use ones don't last.   
You can get a 55 gallon drum of sodium metasilicate soap grade fairly cheap from a chemical supply house and dilute your own.  But who uses that much?   If you want it blue, add a little bluing.   Bluing promotes optical whiteness by cancelling out yellow.
I bought a bunch from a door to door peddler as a clean "all", a few years ago, and still have a supply.   It's colorless/undyed and works the same.
PS: SAFETY WARNING: Be careful if you add bleach to anything.   You're just lucky this is a basic material.   If you add bleach - 5% sodium hypochlorite, to acid, it will instantly liberate chlorine gas.   Many janitorial workers have been injured or killed mixing bleach with cleaners.
pps;We used to use brillo on scuffed WWs back in the day.   Also "cleans" chrome that's pitted/rusty.
NIH study on inhalation attached.

[Jeepers Creepers]

For the Aussies, use Joel's White Wall Cleaner..... easy to use, looks great.

Available from Parry Road Performance in Brisbane.

[64\/54Cadillacking]

I have always used Simple green for years but was advised by the manufacturer of my WW’s to never use Simple Green because it contains saline, and saline damages the WW. Reason being is because I have cracks in my WW’s and I would always use Simple Green which works great BTW, but the saline causes premature cracks and ruins them.


They told me plain dawn dish soap, water and a scrub brush will prevent cracking.