the art of tire dressing?

Ok fellas. i'm tired of getting the hyper dressing or any other spray bottle dressing all over the place when i apply it. but if i dont spray it on i never seem to have a nice coating.

lately i have been using a thick normal cotton towel :yikes: (i know the horror) holding the towel on the tire and spraying under the towel. using it as a shield and a applicator. this works well but it is a PITA.

keep in mind that all my tires are 40 series so using the "tire dressing applicators" dont seem to do a good job.

in case it matters i currently use Megs Hyper Dressing.

 

I use a contoured foam block and Swissvax Pneu. I spray it genorously on the foam block and apply several coats to the wheels. Works like a charm. Pneu is milk like in texture and goes on very nicely. It is not a messy, oily, gel. Dats how i do it.

The foam block is big, so it might work for you. I cut mine down.

 

i've tried the foam too. it doesn't seem to get into the grooves / lines in the side of my tires.

 

Ken has a great way to apply the solvent based dressing I think he uses.

What you can do since HD is water based, get a little 4oz spritzer from a craft store and decant your dressing into that. Then just use the 4oz to spray the perfect mist around the tire, then 2 mists on your applicator and just go over the tire.

It results in a perfect even coat since you sprayed it on and evened it with the app.

I use HD as well, and this works for all water based dressings.

 

awsome idea!!!! i have a sample bottle of the adams glass cleaner in a little 4oz/er and the spray / mist is so much nicer i think.

off to the craft store

 

i just spray dressing into an old wash sponge (cut into 4 pieces) and go about dressing

 

Well done.

 

The cool thing is that you can control the amount and the location and still get a super fine mist from the bottle.

Then all you need to do is use the towel that you would buff down(if you like a flatter finish) the tire with, lay it flat on the floor as you go around the bottom of the tire. It prevents the ground or floor from being dressed and since it will eventually come in contact with the dressing anyway, its not cross contaminating anything.:thumb:

 

I use a foam brush or a paint brush like the SV Penu brush to apply tire dressing. Spriz it on there and paint it on. Has worked on large to thin sidewall well.

 

I use a blue foam app from Phil, just rub it on, then flip it over and go over the tire again because I like it as matte as possible.

 

Detailers Domain applicators are the bomb. The small one is for regular car tires and low-profile tires and the large oone for SUV/truck tires. I jjust spray or apply the product onto the applicator and then wipe it into the tire. Make sure the tire is completely clean before applying the dressings. Some dressings and some tires may require you to use more product and/or use more pressuure when spreading the dressing.

 

Its much easier to use a spray and a thin foam or MF applicator. The DD applicators are too blocky to get into all the crevices that something thin or soft/flexible wouldn't have trouble with. Its different if youre just applying to the sidewall in which case anything would be good. But when you talk about tread and near the bead, the DD applicators aren't really effective, nor cost effective unfortunately.

 

I second that, using a brush has worked well for me. For what getcha just said, it makes it really easy to get into every crevice w/o wasting product or getting any on the wheel.

 

These are probably the best tire dressing applicators I have used. Extremely durable (I've been using the same one for 6 months and still going strong, dressed hundreds of sets of tires with it!), comfortable to hold on to, and always leaves an even finish.

What I do is spray a line of dressing (AA Original) around the tire, spritz the applicator, and work it in pretty well. Rarely do I have to go over tires a second time, the finish it leaves is perfect.

 

thanks for the feed back i have some of Phil's BLue and Red foam applicators. along with some black foam blocks. i'll have to give them all a test this week and see what works out best. I forgot i had the ones i had from phil.

 

how do you guys do the inside of the rim guard thats on some tires ?also how do you not get any dressing on the rim or have the applicator scrape the floor ?

BTW i just tried megs AS dressing and it is the best i have ever used so far .

 

metsfan. the inside of the rim guard i can get with my cotton towel. my guess is once i try the pump method i will still use my towel to get in that rim guard gap as on my cars the gap is large and always pools water from the wash.