Hello again, I was so impressed with the response I got to my question about Oldsmobile that I was bragging the site up to my friends at lunch today. One of the regulars has a 1949 Ford pickup. It is original with 16" tires on stock rims. It is not a show truck, but he likes to keep it nice. He is not computer savy, so he asked me to ask if anyone can tell him how to remedy the yucky look that his tires have taken on. He says he has tried paint thinner, gasoline, SOS pads, and nothing seems to take the crud off of his tires. It is sort of a yellow film of some kind. The spray on tire stuff does not help. I told him I would clean them the best I could with soap and water and then paint them with tire paint. Is there anything better?
i dont want to sound like an ass, so please dont take it as snark.....but time for new tires! hard to keep the truck nice when those tires come apart at speed. but if he does not want to get new tires for some unknown reason, westley's bleach white cleans black tires like crazy. matt
With "yucky" in the title, I have no idea why I even clicked. Time for new tires, unless he wants to rip up a fender or cause an accident. Also time to move this thread.
Good old Wesley's Bleache White and a a scrub brush should do it. Nothing wrong with those tires other than a collection of dirt. Don't see a single weather check on them and I'll bet they are bias.
ALL tires constantly, and naturally, 'leach' some of the chemicals in their rubber compound and that is what is responsible for the eventual hardening of the rubber. Some tires outgas a more conspicuous brownish color than others. The tire pictured definitely has that more obvious color but also appears to have been run on dusty roads and that will make it even more obvious. "Wesley's Bleche White" is the best I have found to cut through the grime but I also have to wonder if it removes even more of the tire chemicals in the process. Don't really know the answer to that.......but use it anyway.
Never seen this on car/truck tires.... but I have seen this on motorcycle tires. This may be just an appearance thing; the bike tires that I've seen do this weren't that old (2-3 years) and were fine other than looking weird. Explanation? What I was told was that when the rubber was mixed, they failed to add enough black dye to the mix. The color you're seeing is 'natural'. Only fix is to paint them with some black tire dressing on a regular basis.
They look to be bias ply-traditional.Hotrods and hot rod trucks get driven on a regular basis-traditionalTtires get dirty-traditional.Thats why.
Probably because the tires are bias plies on a '49 Ford and the topic itself has been discussed before. The tires are turning brown because of issues with the dye in the rubber. You didn't think tires were naturally just black did you? Anyhow, if the OP does a search for brown tires he may get more answers.
Where do you get tire black? Around here it has been off the shelf for years. Most counter guys say EPA made the paint companies stop selling it.
WD-40, let it soak in the first time and see what they look like, those might need to be done twice. makes the tire look brand new without any shine. lasts for months too.
Thanks to all. I apologize for posting a rather lame topic, evidently in the wrong place too. In spite of that I did get some good suggestions and for that I am thankful. I should have told you that the tires are not particularly old and have like new tread with no cracking. So although replacing them would fix the problem it is not an option. I will pass on the information to my friend and I hope my next post will be a little more interesting. Lanny
Well its not, but I would suspect that original pie crust tires on a '49 pickup are pretty traditional tires certainly more traditional that Coker repops. Looks like they are just 60 year old tires and they are not going to look new after all that time. Clean them good with lacquer thinner or chlorine to soften them up a little them hit them with tire paint. I haven't tried the new stuff in the spray bomb but JC Whittney still sells the tire paint that has been around since those tires were new and it actually works real well.
I've used Eagle one A2Z wheel and tire cleaner,seems to be a touch better than Westly's,use a brush and it may take a couple times. I don't know if tire sprays or what causes the brownish effect,one of the toy buses here does that and the tires on my other halfs OT does that also.
For tire black try companies that sell tire supplies for big trucks,probably need to buy a gallon though. And by the way the 'die' used is carbon black ! Without that the tires would be whitish grey. Look at pre 1915 pictures of cars !
IIRC from the other thread, it's due to how the tires were made or cured or some such thing and it will keep coming back possibly for the life of the tire.
This is the natural color of rubber. They add stuff to make it black, like carbon, soot, coal tar, What ever they added is leaving the rubber
Just had same issue, and spent $10 on CRC tyre cleaner. Thought it be no good, but it worked great. Best stuff ive ever used.
Sand blast the tires, a friend of mind did that a ton on vintage motorcycle restorations, cleaned them up nice
It's hard to tell since the tires are very old, but those saying it is issues with the dye may be on to something. At the company I work for (Peterbilt) one of our parts delivery trucks has tires that are a nasty shade of brown. Our trucks get washed every now and then, but the brown has never gone away.
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