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EFV-8 Club Forum / General Ford Discussion / White wall tires

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Posted By Discussion Topic: White wall tires -- page: 1 2     56MarkII 10-14-2016 @ 11:16 PM reply profile send p.m. Member Posts: 63 Joined: Jan 2012 I have Firestone Deluxe Champions on my Merc and Continental and for years all I have been using is Spray Nine and a stiff bathroom brush used for cleaning hands and fingernails. The only time I ever used steel wool is on curb scuffs. My tires are quite old now on my Merc and never had issues using this cleaner. Also regarding tire pressure I always run 32-34 PSI in these tires with even normal wear on my 50 Merc and very heavy 56 Continental. randycapes417@yahoo.com 10-11-2016 @ 5:54 PM reply profile send p.m. Member Posts: 44 Joined: Oct 2016 The Mr Clean magic erasers worked very well! Thanks Grant 10-07-2016 @ 4:09 AM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 537 Joined: Oct 2009 We use S.O.S. steel wool soap pads. And elbow grease. Cost is about two bucks for ten. They do a very nice job on wide whitewalls, and also clean up the black portion of a tire quite well too. And these little pads make a dirty hub cap shiny again with a minimum of effort. TomO 10-06-2016 @ 9:12 AM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 7256 Joined: Oct 2009 LA's Totally Awesome General Purpose Cleaner also works very well and is only $3.00 a gallon at Dollar General. I have also used Maguier's car wash soap to clean the white walls. After washing the car, I take my wheel brush and wash the wheels and tires. It works quite well unless there are grease or tar spots on the tires. Tom trjford8 10-06-2016 @ 7:22 AM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 4220 Joined: Oct 2009 I use Fantastic Spray Cleaner on my DB wide whites. Seems to work just as good as Westley's or any of the other whitewall cleaners. Big Red 51 10-06-2016 @ 7:01 AM reply profile send p.m. New Member Posts: 192 Joined: Oct 2009 Diamond Back Experience - I have used the DB Michelin radial tire WWW on my '51 F1 and on my '53 Victoria, both original rims, for 6 years with plenty of hiway trips at speed for several thousand miles. No problems what soever. I run them at 32 PSI and clean the white walls only with a fine steel wool and soap/water, period. I am due for a set next year due to age, not wear, and DB is now using Michelin Defender for the white walls set. I installed a set of Coker radials on my '54 Victoria original rims in 2000 which I sold 5 years ago and as of last year they were still on the '54 and are driven. I WOULD NOT ever drive them with that age, locally maybe. Don len47merc 10-06-2016 @ 6:14 AM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 1165 Joined: Oct 2013 Digressing from the topic for a moment to respond to woodiewagon46 - I too received the 'show car only' representation from Coker which I rejected, this after going through and returning several sets (you would not believe how many) of Firestones at their expense before finally receiving a full set that both road-force tested acceptably on Hunter equipment and also ran smooth at highway speeds. After going through this debacle with them, during which time my 'case' was bumped up the chain on two occasions, and to their credit during which time they remained reasonably customer sensitive and supportive, the tires have performed well and show little to no wear, and are wearing evenly after several thousand miles (5K+) of long distance and local driving. It was an exhaustive, time consuming and frustrating exercise. If the tires were only for 'show cars only' they should have been, IMHO, represented that way on their website - which of course for THEIR obvious business reasons they are not. Additionally, Coker initially advised that the tires would have to be run at 32 psi or the warraty would be voided. After less that 2K miles the tread was 75% gone in the middle of the tires. After speaking with them and educating them on the proper tire pressure for my '47 Merc (26 psi), which they validated, they stood behind their error and replaced that set as well. The set on the car which has even and little wear after 5K+ miles has been maintained at 26 psi since install. Back to the topic - I have been pleased with the performance of the tires and the whitewalls and have maintained the whiteness with the products mentioned above. I do not use any wheel dressing on the whitewalls or the rubber and the tires still look great. I too use the Simple Green for mild cleaning as needed, and originally Westleys (now diluted Red Ripper) to whiten the whitewalls when necessary. Steve Gary M. 10-05-2016 @ 6:19 PM reply profile send p.m. Member Posts: 218 Joined: Oct 2009 Don't use dressing on the white wall. Carefully apply dressing to only the black part outside the whitewall. If you dress the whitewall , dirt will stick all over it and it will discolor the white. woodiewagon46 10-05-2016 @ 11:05 AM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 704 Joined: Nov 2012 Len, I would not put stock in anything Coker tells you. I (and several others) had a severe wear issue with their tires, and we were told that Coker tires are for "Show Cars" only, not drivers. len47merc 10-05-2016 @ 9:25 AM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 1165 Joined: Oct 2013 Tom is correct (as ususal!). Many people believe Westleys/Black Magic contains bleach due to the 'BLECHE-WITE' name on the label, but it only contains sodium metasilicate which is basically an alkaline material/cleaner. I was erroneously advised by Coker to avoid Westleys on my Firestones because it contained bleach. After going through this discussion with them they would not relent and indicated use of Westley's would 'void the warranty' on the tires. Hmmm... Still keep a bottle in the garage and use it on white letters and whitewalls at times. Steve

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