Knickell
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Last Friday, I decided to run the truck cleaning gauntlet and detailing gauntlet yet again and give the truck a wash. Began at 0630 and got done around 1130. The truck looked A-MAZ-ING thanks to all of my efforts. While it did look great, all of the time spent meticulously caressing every cranny and curve of the truck displacing the dirt, scrubbing away the smudges, and eradicating the filth resulted from nearly two weeks without being cleaned ensured the certainty of one thing.... THUNDERSTORMS ALL WEEKEND LONG!!! ![Cloud with lightning and rain :thunder_cloud_rain: ⛈](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/joypixels/emoji-assets@5.0/png/64/26c8.png)
![Umbrella with rain drops :umbrella: ☔](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/joypixels/emoji-assets@5.0/png/64/2614.png)
![High voltage :zap: ⚡](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/joypixels/emoji-assets@5.0/png/64/26a1.png)
Over the weekend, I ventured out. The storms would surely be no match for my high-falutin' FX4 package! For my big night out, I made a trip for some Lord's chicken over to my local Chik-Fil-A. Unfortunately, my parking job while pulling into a parking space was anything but Godly....
One of my rules is you always try to park in a spot with a curb. That way you mitigate being door dinged by some soccer mom who isn't paying attention, at least on one side. As I selected my nice, large spot with a curb, i began to make a simple right turn into the space. As I was doing so, I knew I was hugging the curb close, but figured all the better so I would be far in enough from anyone who parked on my left side. It was not all the better.... As I completed what should have been a simple parking job, I noticed I got the slightest bit of trail over resulting in my tire's sidewall scraping onto the curb. I was extremely fortunate that the curb wasn't too tall, and my tire's sidewalls were. I didn't have any scratches or damage to my wheel, however, my sweet white letter Goodyear Wrangler Territory A/Ts were not as lucky. According to the right rear tire of my truck, I had a set of "Goodyear Wrangl"'s! The E and the R appeared to have all of their white lettering scuffed off of them!
Needless to say, I was pissed at my dumb mistake. I likely wasn't going to replace a good, brand new tire because it was scuffed up, but I began to condition myself to just looking at only the other three tires for the next 45,000 miles or so until this set wore out. It was going to suck, but "hey.... its a truck, stuff like that is bound to happen eventually" I rationalized.
After the weekend’s onslaught of rain and getting my blood pressure back down, I recalled seeing this stuff called Bleche-Wite on a few occasions when I’ve been in auto supply stores. I’d never used it since I always had vehicles with just straight black tires. “Besides, its a cleaner for old fashioned whitewall style tires, and what kinda name is “Bleche-Wite” anyway?! That’s stupid, why don’t you just spell it correctly; Bleach White!” I thought.
After my ignorant judging, I began to think it could possibly work on my white lettered tires. So I picked up a bottle from the friendly neighborhood Walmart and got to work earlier this morning to see if I could save “Mr. Wrangl” from my error. Apparently, this Bleche-Wite is some pretty high-test stuff. The directions advise to glove up, wear eye-pro, and DO NOT let it get on painted or aluminum wheels such as my 18” 6-Spoke Machined Aluminum Wheels with Gloss Black Painted Pockets….
I followed the directions to the “T” and let the stuff set in on the tire a few minutes and then wiped it off with a damp rag. I was pleasantly surprised when the “E” and the “R” on my tire came back into view like my kiss with the curb never even happened! I ran this stuff on each tire, and I have to say I’m thoroughly impressed thus far. The white lettering of my Goodyear Wranglers look as good, if not better than the day I picked her up off the lot! For those of you with white lettering tires of any kind on your F-150s, I have to give this a big thumbs up! Can recommend!
Here is a closer look at the before and after of using the Bleche-Wite:
Over my past few washes I’ve also been using Chemical Guy’s Hydro Speed Ceramic Quick Detailer on the wheels. This is another product for the wheels that I have to highly recommend. I began using this stuff as an enhancer for my original, thick base coat of wax I’ve got on the whole body of my truck. I may even begin to use the Hyrdo Speed in place of a wax in the future if it continues to hold up as well as my tried and true 3M Performance Finish wax. I also use this stuff on the wheels of the truck, and it thoroughly glosses up the black and aluminum finish of the wheels, and really makes my detail job pop! It has also done a decent job combating dirt and brake dust accumulation.
I finished off my tire and wheel cleaning adventure by trying out some of the Chemical Guy’s Tire Kicker Tire Shine. My experience so far with the large majority of Chemical Guy’s products so far while keeping my truck clean has been resoundingly positive. However, this Tire Kicker stuff is mediocre at best. To me, the bottle appears to deliberately mimic the orange and white color scheme of its direct competitor, ArmorAll.
The bottle promises an “extra shiny” finish once applied. To be fair, I may need to let it dry and set into the rubber a bit more, but this stuff went on leaving a brownish, nasty looking application, and did not have anywhere near the shine or luster of some of the ArmorAll products I’ve previously used. It currently has a very flat and full finish to it. If you guys are looking for some bright new car shine for your tires, I’d have to say steer clear of this one.
(Note the brownish sludge that is seeping into the crevices of the tires. That did not go away no matter how much I rubbed it in)
Anywhoo, that’s just a tad bit of how my morning went. Overall, I’d consider it a huge win since I saved my tire! I just wanted to pass on my experience on to you all in case you find your sweet looking white letter tires marred by a substandard parking job!
![Cloud with lightning and rain :thunder_cloud_rain: ⛈](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/joypixels/emoji-assets@5.0/png/64/26c8.png)
![Umbrella with rain drops :umbrella: ☔](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/joypixels/emoji-assets@5.0/png/64/2614.png)
![High voltage :zap: ⚡](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/joypixels/emoji-assets@5.0/png/64/26a1.png)
Over the weekend, I ventured out. The storms would surely be no match for my high-falutin' FX4 package! For my big night out, I made a trip for some Lord's chicken over to my local Chik-Fil-A. Unfortunately, my parking job while pulling into a parking space was anything but Godly....
One of my rules is you always try to park in a spot with a curb. That way you mitigate being door dinged by some soccer mom who isn't paying attention, at least on one side. As I selected my nice, large spot with a curb, i began to make a simple right turn into the space. As I was doing so, I knew I was hugging the curb close, but figured all the better so I would be far in enough from anyone who parked on my left side. It was not all the better.... As I completed what should have been a simple parking job, I noticed I got the slightest bit of trail over resulting in my tire's sidewall scraping onto the curb. I was extremely fortunate that the curb wasn't too tall, and my tire's sidewalls were. I didn't have any scratches or damage to my wheel, however, my sweet white letter Goodyear Wrangler Territory A/Ts were not as lucky. According to the right rear tire of my truck, I had a set of "Goodyear Wrangl"'s! The E and the R appeared to have all of their white lettering scuffed off of them!
Needless to say, I was pissed at my dumb mistake. I likely wasn't going to replace a good, brand new tire because it was scuffed up, but I began to condition myself to just looking at only the other three tires for the next 45,000 miles or so until this set wore out. It was going to suck, but "hey.... its a truck, stuff like that is bound to happen eventually" I rationalized.
After the weekend’s onslaught of rain and getting my blood pressure back down, I recalled seeing this stuff called Bleche-Wite on a few occasions when I’ve been in auto supply stores. I’d never used it since I always had vehicles with just straight black tires. “Besides, its a cleaner for old fashioned whitewall style tires, and what kinda name is “Bleche-Wite” anyway?! That’s stupid, why don’t you just spell it correctly; Bleach White!” I thought.
After my ignorant judging, I began to think it could possibly work on my white lettered tires. So I picked up a bottle from the friendly neighborhood Walmart and got to work earlier this morning to see if I could save “Mr. Wrangl” from my error. Apparently, this Bleche-Wite is some pretty high-test stuff. The directions advise to glove up, wear eye-pro, and DO NOT let it get on painted or aluminum wheels such as my 18” 6-Spoke Machined Aluminum Wheels with Gloss Black Painted Pockets….
I followed the directions to the “T” and let the stuff set in on the tire a few minutes and then wiped it off with a damp rag. I was pleasantly surprised when the “E” and the “R” on my tire came back into view like my kiss with the curb never even happened! I ran this stuff on each tire, and I have to say I’m thoroughly impressed thus far. The white lettering of my Goodyear Wranglers look as good, if not better than the day I picked her up off the lot! For those of you with white lettering tires of any kind on your F-150s, I have to give this a big thumbs up! Can recommend!
Here is a closer look at the before and after of using the Bleche-Wite:
Over my past few washes I’ve also been using Chemical Guy’s Hydro Speed Ceramic Quick Detailer on the wheels. This is another product for the wheels that I have to highly recommend. I began using this stuff as an enhancer for my original, thick base coat of wax I’ve got on the whole body of my truck. I may even begin to use the Hyrdo Speed in place of a wax in the future if it continues to hold up as well as my tried and true 3M Performance Finish wax. I also use this stuff on the wheels of the truck, and it thoroughly glosses up the black and aluminum finish of the wheels, and really makes my detail job pop! It has also done a decent job combating dirt and brake dust accumulation.
I finished off my tire and wheel cleaning adventure by trying out some of the Chemical Guy’s Tire Kicker Tire Shine. My experience so far with the large majority of Chemical Guy’s products so far while keeping my truck clean has been resoundingly positive. However, this Tire Kicker stuff is mediocre at best. To me, the bottle appears to deliberately mimic the orange and white color scheme of its direct competitor, ArmorAll.
The bottle promises an “extra shiny” finish once applied. To be fair, I may need to let it dry and set into the rubber a bit more, but this stuff went on leaving a brownish, nasty looking application, and did not have anywhere near the shine or luster of some of the ArmorAll products I’ve previously used. It currently has a very flat and full finish to it. If you guys are looking for some bright new car shine for your tires, I’d have to say steer clear of this one.
(Note the brownish sludge that is seeping into the crevices of the tires. That did not go away no matter how much I rubbed it in)
Anywhoo, that’s just a tad bit of how my morning went. Overall, I’d consider it a huge win since I saved my tire! I just wanted to pass on my experience on to you all in case you find your sweet looking white letter tires marred by a substandard parking job!
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