<VV> Tire Cleaning & Armor-All

[Carl Kelsen Arlette Pat]

Hi everyone,I simply have to add my comment to the subject of Armor-All, like products and perhaps of greater importance, the dying art of REAL tire side wall cleaning.
In my view there is little need for products such as Armor-All for serious cleaning, detailing and or preservation of cars. Armor-All is a product that will suit the 'every day' lazy car cleaner who is seeking instant shiny results without the effort but it will do more harm than good.
Using Armor-All on genuine leather will speed up the leather's deterioration and vinyl will not not be softened or preserved.
Tire side wall dressing, tire black or Armor-All are for the most part designed to simply mask or cover up the in-ground dirt in the tire's rubber and produce an artificial shiny appearance. But make no mistake, the dirt is still in the tire's side wall.
The correct and ONLY method that will clean and maintain clean tire side walls regardless of whether those tire walls include a white side wall or are of the conventional black wall variety is to use hot water, laundry soap or similar, steel wool pads. Then scrub with a subbing brush before hosing off with water. If the tires are not regularly cleaned in this way or have not been cleaned correctly for some time then the above work will need to be repeated until the black and white tires colour is revealed.
If tire dressing has previously been used then it will take repeated cleaning to remove the products before you can tackle the covered up dirt.
An excellent commercial product that will be well known the Americans is Wesley's Tire Bleach. This product really cleans tire side walls (black or white rubber) and in doing so protects and preserves the tire. I have to import Wesley's Tire Cleaner to Australia at high cost as its not available for our Auto stores. But I do this as it produces excellent results.
In my opinion the most over looked item on cars displayed at car shows and often in museums is the cleaning of tires. Often white side walls are yellow rather than white and this yellowing has more often than not been caused by the use of tire dressings such as Armor-All.
In the is crazy world of 20 inch wheels with little or no tire wall and the disappearance of the white wall of main stream cars I wonder if the correct cleaning of tires is becoming a lost art.
My CLAIM to fame is that 44 years of owning and driving cars I have NEVER purchased a black wall tire or owned a car without white side wall tires. And those white wall tires have always been seriously 'WHITE'.
Regards from 'down under' and Happy New Year!
Carl L. KelsenMelbourne, Victoria, Australia1959 LHD Imperial Crown Southampton 4 door hardtop (2 inch white walls)1962 RHD Chevrolet Impala Sport Sedan 4 door hardtop (1 inch white walls)1965 RHD Chevrolet Corvair Monza Convertible (1 inch white walls)1983 RHD Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz Coupe (1.4 inch white walls)2002 RHD Rover Connoisseur 75 S.E. sedan (2 inch white walls)