Quick Tip: Tire Cleaning

Rick's Camaros offers outstanding advice on wheel cleaners for the best tire shine you'll ever see on your ride.Tires are one of the most unique surfaces on your car to clean. That rubber sidewall is much different than the chrome on your wheels or the metal or fiberglass you've It is and and because of that, tends to up dirt easily. Granted, most tires are black colored, so they hide that dirt well.But you're not here for things that hide dirt. You're here for eye-catching, jaw dropping shine that makes your Camaro look majestic.At Rick's Camaros, we want to help you restore that in your garage so you can take it out for a car show or a night of cruising. Wheel cleaning is an important step for helping your car look its best, but the can often be overlooked. Below is a set of tires that have up in something a bit tougher to hide - overspray. Yeah, it's a mess. You'll see for yourself below.We know how to clean tires with household but we also know that those home cleaners can't give you the you crave for your Camaro. We'll show you how a Meguiar's rubber and some (actually, a lot) of elbow grease got these filthy tires looking gorgeous. This may seem like a super simple little but believe me, when your tires have been coated in overspray, it's not.Our Chevelle was in the shop undergoing bodywork, more bodywork, more some finessing bodywork, a little more ... you get the idea. The car was moved around in the shop (a lot) over the course of the months, and quite often, our wheels and tires were the unlikely recipient of some nasty overspray, rubbing compound, etc.Our tires are BFGs, the original factory 14" size, and the wheels are the SS style 5-spokes. Both are approximately 5 years old, but after the beating they've taken over the few months, they look worn out - definitely not show-ready.We're going to show you a few tricks for cleaning wheels and tires, and make them look brand new. Be forewarned: this is not an easy task. It's simple, sure, but it takes of elbow grease, and about 90 minutes tire. Here we go...Image 1: Heres our beauty shot: Our wheel and tire, a few rags, a mat (for kneeling on), some 00 grit steel wool, a scouring some 2X Ultra Tide (with bleach), a bucket, garden hose, some Meguiars Gold Class VinylRubber Protectant, and that bottle of water was for us. Were doing this in 85F heat, but in the shade. Image 2: Here's our before shot. That nasty overspray is a tough one, but we'll fix it. Image 3: First step, hose that wheel and tire down. In the bucket: two capfuls of 2X Ultra Tide with bleach, mixed with about a quart of hot water. This is a super concentrated mix. You should use gloves during this We didn't because, quite frankly, we forgot. The Tide won't hurt your skin, but it does take a couple of days to get your hands feeling normal again. Your hands feel sticky and no amount of washing seems to get rid of it, just time. Image 5: We'll also take our first shot at the wheel at this We don't use the hard side of the scouring just the soft to remove loose dirt. Image 6: After a good initial scrubbing, we hose the wheeltire down and get a look at what we're up against.We're nowhere near clean yet. Another round with the scouring More dirty soap suds. You can much scrub as hard as you want here, the rough surface is not tough enough to scratch the tire's sidewall. The object is to apply continual in a circular motion, working away at the overspray.We hose the wheeltire down again. Image 7a, 7b, 7c: We're not done with the front side of the tire yet. Now's the time to tackle the back side. This is kind of important, just so when your wheels are turned or viewed from under the car they don't look too filthy. We didn't get too carried away here, just enough to remove the first few layers of crud. Note that we decided to keep the raised white letter side of the tires facing inward. It's a choice, as we just the black sidewall look. Image 8a, 8b, 8c: After hosing down the tire's back side, we take a third crack with our scouring and super concentrated Tide mix. Then another rinse... Image 9a, 9b, 9c: A few stubborn spots of overspray get taken care of with a of 00 grit steel wool. We recommend using the 00 stuff. Anything much coarser and you run the risk of scratching the tire's sidewall. Image 10: Our wheels get a thorough going-over again, this time with the rough side of the scouring but lightly. If you scour too hard on the wheel's black sections, you'll start removing We did, a little bit. Some black semi-gloss touch-up fixed it up new. Image 11: Another complete rinsing. Image 12a, 12b: Satisfied that we're getting somewhere with all that dirt and overspray, we take a soft cloth and give the tire a good wipe down. It's not bad, but not quite there yet.We give it another scrubbing, this time really focusing on the outer edge of where the wheel meets the tire. Dirt tends to accumulate here. Image 13: After yet another rinsing, we set the tire on a slight angle, letting excess water run out of the rims. Image 14: The wheel and tire get completely rubbed down again, this time making sure both are totally dry. Image 15a, 15b: We're good. No signs of dirt on the clean rag.After drying off the backside of the wheeltire too, we take yet another clean, soft cloth and spray a healthy dose of Meguiar's Protectant on it. Image 16: Rub the Meguiar's in a circular motion into the tire's sidewall. We did 3 separate "coats", one right after the other. Image 17a, 17b: Done. The wheel and tire both look new. Elapsed time is well over an hour (per wheeltire), but we think you'll find the extra effort well worth it all when you see that nice new wheel and tire on your ride! data-pb-style"636B5E08C7573"justify-content: ; ; ; border- : 1px; : 0px 0px 10px; : 10px; data-pb-style"636B5E08C757D" border- : 1px; : 0px; : 0px;