Household Jiff and a sponge works for me, (but I'll try the eucalyptus oil Adam) then hitt'em with a tyre "clear" spray. Gives you a wet look if you like that and helps protect the whites from more ground in dirt. Antique Tyres also sells a white wall cleaner that I think is made here in Melbourne...
Amen, Brother! Comet, Ajax or SOS pads all work well. Leave the whitewall whiter than white and are not harsh on wheels or paint
Big Kev's goo remover gets me excited every time. Sadly, tho, Kev's gone, but his product lives on...
In italy good solvent based cleaners are scarse and expensive. I use 500 sand paper on my rised white wall pinners, and then oven cleaner or any kitchen degreaser to shine'em all up. Being driven daily they stain EASY. a pain to keep clean.
I used to use Wesley's but now with the price of white walls being so expensive and I have to ship them into town, I use the Gojo Orange hand cleaner since it doesn't use bleach which can wear out the white walls with time.. just my opinion (or paranoia)..
If they get bad, brake clean then SOS pad.. I usially use Castrol Superclean or a cheap knock off. Orange cleaner works well and leaves the tires smelling citrus fresh. Makes your burn outs smell like an orange grove (not)
In the past I have used Wesleys pretty exclusively but have to agree that I now only use it when nothing else works. It DOES dry out the rubber and you start getting spiderweb cracking in the whitewalls. You also don't want to use a stiff scrub brush as it will leave scratches in the white portion. My tires yellow pretty quickly here in Florida, not sure if it is ozone in the air or what, so I have to use something to whiten them back up. SOS pads have been doing an ok job and every so often I have to resort to the Wesleys as it will make them white again, but I cringe every time I have to use it now. Don
I always had whitewalls turned in so I would not have to clean them,,,I like 'em but keeping them clean seems like a lot of work,,I thought if you scrub 'em too much you scrub right through to the black rubber.. Could you not apply wax to them to repel dirt? Something that would act as a sealant?
Was using Wesley's for a long time as well until a whitewall manufacturer recommended against it and recommended SOS pads with soap in them. They work well even for getting the brown tinge of the blackwall portion.
I used to use Wesley's but now with the price of white walls being so expensive and I have to ship them into town, I use the Gojo Orange hand cleaner since it doesn't use bleach which can wear out the white walls with time.. just my opinion (or paranoia).. __________________IV'E USED COMET, BABO, ETC FOR FIFTY YEARS AND EXPERIENCED NO SIDE/WHITE WALL PROBLEMS. I SAID WITH(CONTAINING SOME) BLEACH. A CAN WILL LAST FOR A COUPLE YEARS, THAT'S A BARGAIN.
I just got my new white walls and interested to. Years ago I used a brass bristle brush and Comet. Never could keep tires on long enough then to see if it had any long term effects. Dad always wandered why his new tires did not last long. I heard not to use anything with bleach or alcohol in it. Les Schwab's sells a white wall cleaner here in the NW.
Like stated above, after cleaning, wipe the tires (whitewalls and all) with mop and glo, do it a couple times to make sure it is completely covered. This helps to seal the cleanliness, and make future clean up a breeze, just wip em off. I did this a couple times a year, and it worked great, I would highly recommend it to anyone.
I also used to use bleach-white until I learned about it drying the tires out. Now I use simple green usually. My wife uses the Mr. Clean "magic eraser" on her whitewalls and that seems to work good too.
Last night I washed my daily driver and tried some of the Awesum Orange cleaner some of you mentioned on the white walls on it. It really did a nice job and also got a lot of the disc brake dust off of the factory mag wheels. We use it around the house to get grease stains out of clothes too. Really good stuff and it sells for a buck at the local Dollar Store. I finished up the whitewalls with an SOS pad because I had not done them in a while, but the Awesum took most of it off all by itself. Don
What do you guys use to get the white off the black? My car has been sitting for a long while while awaiting the new engine, and the white ran off onto the black part (presumably because of rain?) I scrubbed them a little, but have been afraid to scrub the black part Too hard. Should I just grow a pair and go at it? Went to the Les Schwab in my town to ask for white wall cleaner, and inquire about some new tires (just some pinner whites) and the guy at the counter looked at me like I was some kind of nut and said "you mean like on those old cars? They dont make those anymore"....
My wife suggested using baby wipes........the same thing you use to wipe a baby's ass. before or after you use it on the baby?! guess that could depend on your household budget, and what you feed your kid!!
Well, there's a lotta suggestions & solutions here, so I'll throw a specific problem at you guys. Bought & mounted my tires before beginning my build, in order to be sure other calculations along the way were made based on the precise size I'd be running ultimately. The tires are Coker American Classics. Here's the issue, along the way, the wheels/tires have been on & off a number of times, and once when off they were leaned one against the other with the black of each one touching the white of the next. There is a warning advising against this on the factory label [previously removed], and I did not do it personally; ...in all fairness however, the person who did wasn't aware of the disclaimer. Well, I've now got black rings on my otherwise new [~50miles] WWs. Thus far I've probably tried most everything that's been mentioned here, ...as well as a few that haven't, NO LUCK so far! Anyone else had this problem, ...any suggestions? At this point they've been mounted long enough that I'd feel remiss if I were to gripe at Corky about it [although it's pretty obvious they're not much used, ...there's molding flash & tits still intact]. Yet, even though there was a disclaimer, I think it kinda sucks; I can't recollect that I [or any of my Pal's either] had this issue with WWs back in the 60s. New rubber compounds I guess, eh? Anyway anything you can suggest would be of interest & appreciated, THX!