Please contact your nearest Vogue Tyre dealer with any questions pertaining to Vogue products. 
Once considered the epitome of automobile fashion and luxury, whitewall tires provide a classic finish to vehicles that is reminiscent of era’s past. And although you can’t get whitewalls as an added accessory from the factory anymore these days, the style has remained a staple in certain car culture circles like hot rods, VW’s and classics.
If you’ve ever owned a car with a set of whitewall tires, you know they’re definitely more work to keep clean than the standard black wall tires used today. Jay’s got a few cars in his collection that sport the whitewall look, and we’re always working to keep them looking their best.
In today’s blog post, we’ll cover some of the basic care tips we use at Jay’s garage, and hopefully they'll help you keep your whitewall tires looking their whitest.
But first, a little history on whitewall tires. What are they and how did they even come to exist?
To start, rubber tires were originally entirely white in color.
Rubber in its natural form does not age or wear well. Because of this fact, tire manufacturers began blending specific materials with the natural rubber to achieve different characteristics. One of those materials was zinc oxide. The zinc oxide helped with traction of the finished tire, but it was also a contributing factor that caused the tire to be completely white, tread included. By today’s standards, an all-white tire might look funny, but in their day they were the height of luxury. See the picture below:
Black tires didn’t emerge until manufacturers began blending carbon black into their rubber as a reinforcing filler. The carbon black increased the strength & durability of the rubber, but more importantly, it helped conduct heat away from specific areas of the tire. In an attempt to increase the lifespan as well as limit the amount of thermal damage endured by the tires, manufacturers began blending carbon black into the rubber and using it as the treaded surface of the tire, while leaving the side walls white.
In the early 1900’s, you could buy tires with black tread and a white sidewall. This signaled that you had the best set of tires money could buy, and thus the trend was born. By the 1930’s, you could get whitewall tires on just about any car made, and customers flocked to the fashion statement.
The biggest downside to installing a set of whitewalls on your car is simply keeping them clean. They scuff easily, show even the slightest amount of dirt, and god forbid you accidentally run up onto a curb (who remembers curb feelers?). And even if you don’t drive the car, the whitewalls want to turn yellow and brown just from being exposed to the elements. Needless to say, they’re a little high maintenance, especially when compared to their black wall counterparts. Here’s some of the tips & tricks we use to keep Jay’s whitewalls looking their best year-round.
You want to steer clear of any harsh household cleaning products, or products that may contain alcohol or chlorine bleach. These may work in the short term, but they will also dry out the surface of the tire and cause premature wear.Pro tip: for really stubborn yellow or brown staining, you can also use a scrub pad, or even sand paper to slowly and gently remove the yellowed layer until the white layer below shows through.
Frequent and routine cleaning will help keep your whitewalls looking their best. You can also use a quality tire dressing to help combat the harmful effects of the sun. Our Tire & Trim Care leaves behind a nice satin sheen, while shielding against harmful UV rays. It’s our go-to dressing when caring for Jay’s collection.
Hopefully these tips will help you the next time you're faced with the task of cleaning whitewall tires. If you have any questions or suggestions, leave them in the comments below. If you'd like to see us cover other popular detailing topics, drop us a line at [email protected].
Chris Walters
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Updated:
27/07/2020
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Contents of article
The right technology and the right detergents will help get rid of brake dust and gravel stuck in the tread, improving the safety of the car, driver and passengers.
How to wash tires we will tell in this article.
To clean the wheels from dirt, dust and oil residues, you will have to act according to the following plan:
The wheel should not be treated with the same napkin as the car body. Traces of solvent or oil will stain the cleaned rubber. In the final, the wheel is applied with a protector that protects the tires from the harmful effects of ultraviolet radiation.
To clean dried-on dirt from rims and wheels, you will need a machine that generates high-pressure water. Such installations are produced by American and European companies, so they are quite expensive, but they can be replaced with an ordinary hose and a special nozzle that accelerates the water jet to a pressure sufficient to clean the car.
To remove residual dirt, you will need a medium-hard bristle brush and a cleaning solution that is used to treat wheels and rims. This solution can be prepared from household chemicals found in the kitchen or bathroom, or bought at an automotive store. Moreover, store products are divided into universal foam cleaners and solutions based on weak acids, which can only process car rims.
By the way, if you don’t know how to wipe rubber off a car, try this solution.
To wash the wheels of cleaning products, you need the same high-pressure apparatus or a hose with a nozzle. But as a napkin that will wipe off the remaining water, you need to use only clean microfiber from the package.
Summer Drive Protection Sound Comfort
Rating:
4.5
Tires Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 3 SUV
Summer Drive protection
Rating:
4.5
Tires Goodyear Eagle Sport TZ
Summer Drive protection
Rating:
4.
5
Tires Goodyear EfficientGrip 2 SUV
Summer Drive Protection Run On Flat
Rating:
4.5
Tires Goodyear EfficientGrip Performance
Winter Drive protection
Tires Goodyear UltraGrip Arctic 2 SUV
Winter Drive Protection Sound Comfort
Rating:
4.5
Tires Goodyear UltraGrip Ice 2
Winter Drive Protection Sound Comfort
Rating:
4.
5
Tires Goodyear UltraGrip Ice SUV
Winter Drive protection
Tires Goodyear UltraGrip Performance+ SUV
All season Drive protection
Rating:
5
Tires Goodyear Vector 4Seasons Gen-3 SUV
Summer Drive Protection Run On Flat
Rating:
4
Tires Goodyear Wrangler HP All Weather
All season Drive protection
Rating:
4.
5
Tires Goodyear Vector 4Seasons
Summer
Rating:
4.5
Tires Goodyear Wrangler All-Terrain Adventure with Kevlar
Summer Drive protection
Rating:
4.5
Tires Goodyear EfficientGrip SUV
Summer Drive Protection Run On Flat
Rating:
4
Tires Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric SUV
To prepare a solution that can clean dirt from tires, dilute in a small amount of water to half a standard bottle of dishwashing detergent.
Pour the resulting concentrate into a container into which it is convenient to dip a car brush. Thanks to the abundance of surfactants found in dish detergent, a homemade solution will clean tires as well as a factory cleaner.
Rules for the use of home remedies that can clean wheels are similar to the recommendations of manufacturers of commercial drugs. Before treating tires and rims with home remedies, make sure you wash the tires. Otherwise, brake dust and gravel residues will turn into abrasive particles that can scratch the tread when you scrub it off dirt with a brush or sponge. Do not try to clean the wheel with an old cloth that has been used to clean the engine compartment or bodywork - it will stain the wheel with oil or gasoline.
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You don't have to go to a car wash or a spare parts store to get your tires back to a deep black color.
You can get by with improvised means, and some of them are sure to be found in almost every home.
There are several ways to blacken tires that are safe and do not affect traction. In the absence of special means for restoring color, for example, shoe polish, glycerin, silicone oil, and even laundry soap and household chemicals are used. Each substance has its pros and cons, but it should be remembered that none of them fully possesses the qualities inherent in special solutions: neither long-term effect, nor protective properties, nor ease of use.
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Blackening tires with shoe polish or other shoe care product is the first thing that comes to mind. At the same time, the processing process itself is no different, only instead of a brush it is better to use a sponge so that splashes of shoe polish do not stain the body. We simply rub the sidewall of the washed and dried tire with shoe polish and let it dry.
Admittedly, the result does not look very good, even when using the product with wax: there is neither shine nor color depth. The application process itself is also inconvenient - imagine what it would be like to process four wheels. The downside is that you have to wait for the shoe polish to dry completely before driving. Otherwise, road dust will quickly stick to the treated surface, reducing all the efforts made to nothing. Of course, there are also quick-drying paint creams, but their cost is such that it will still be cheaper to buy a special product for blackening tires.
Due to its consistency, glycerin creates a stunning jet-black shiny tire effect, and the degree of "greatness" can be adjusted by diluting the product with plain water. For one procedure, only one hundred grams of glycerin and the same amount of water are enough. We mix them, taking into account the fact that the less water in the composition, the more "fat" the effect will be.
But it’s better not to spare water, otherwise dust will stick to the tires, as in the case of wet shoe polish. The composition is applied with a simple sponge without rubbing. By the way, unpainted black plastic body parts can also be processed with this composition.
The advantage of this method is its low cost and the availability of glycerin in any pharmacy. The disadvantages overlap all the advantages: glycerin quickly ages rubber, causing it to crack. In addition, the composition is very well washed off with water - the very first rain or driving through a puddle will not leave a trace of glycerin. In dry weather, tires will only stay black for a couple of days.
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Blackening tires with silicone oil is not the cheapest way because it is not sold in small containers and you will have to buy an annual supply of funds right away. This method is the simplest, most efficient and less labor-intensive than the others.
It is better to use medium viscosity oil, which will also come in handy for treating tires before winter or summer storage - this is the only substance described that somehow protects rubber from cracking, drying out, ultraviolet radiation and moisture.
Tires treated with silicone oil last longer and tires look blacker than new. Silicone oil is also treated with door seals and trunk lids so that they do not freeze.
Laundry soap is perhaps the cheapest product suitable for blackening tires. It can be applied with a pre-soaped brush, or by dissolving a crumb of soap in water, apply the composition with a sponge. There is no need to rinse off the soap: when it dries, the rubber will acquire a beautiful and deep black tint. Like most artisanal methods, blackening tires with laundry soap has its drawbacks. Rubber because of it, as in the case of glycerin, ages faster and may begin to crack, so we do not recommend this method of blackening.
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Household chemicals are often used in car washes.
This is a cheap, effective and harmless method for rubber and its adhesion to an expensive method, which can be offered as a bonus or "gift". It is mainly used for washing glasses, as well as dishes. The first is sprayed onto the sidewall of the tire and rubbed quickly, while the second is applied with a damp sponge. It is not necessary to wash off the compositions.
Also on the forums it is advised to blacken tires with drinks. More often than others, Coca-Cola is mentioned. But because of the sugar in the composition of the cola, it creates a sticky layer, on which dust quickly settles, and is easily washed off in the first puddle.
***
All of the listed products, of course, are inferior to the special compounds sold in auto chemical departments. Their blackening effect is short-lived and does not look so beautiful. In addition, most of them can harm rubber by affecting its chemical composition and reducing its service life. Nevertheless, the described methods are in demand due to their availability and spontaneity, because most motorists do not need to blacken tires every day.
