Review: TUF SHINE Tire Clearcoat by Mike Phillips

[Mike Phillips]

Review: TUF SHINE Tire Clearcoat by Mike Phillips

Last month I detailed this car to maximize the gloss, clarity and shine of the original single stage metallic paint. At the time I was going to apply the Tuf Shine Tire Coating to the tires but due to some questions the owner had about the tires themselves he asked me to hold off on the coating until he contacted Firestone and Coaker's Tires about the appearance of the sidewall itself. Now that any and all questions and concerns were removed, the owner Pad contacted me to move forward with applying the Tuf Shine Tire Coating to the sidewalls of these brand new Firestone Wide Oval tires.


Here's the link showing how I restored the original single stage paint carefully and methodically.

1971 Corvette Original Paint detailed by Mike Phillips

If you LOOK closely - you'll see there is NO tire dressing on the tires at the time I did the paint correction - the owner and me waned to hold off until the owner talked to Firestone.







Previously Machine Scrubbed
At the time I did the paint restoration on the Corvette I had first machine scrubbed the tires using the Mighty Mini with a Aqua Cyclo Brush and the Tuf Shine Tire Cleaner. Here's the link showing how I machine scrubbed the tires.

Review: Machine Tire Scrubber by Mike Phillips - NO SHOCK HAZARD WHILE WASHING YOUR CAR!






Tire Coating Time

This is key - Tires must be free from any tire dressing
Ever since that machine cleaning the owner has NOT applied any type of tire dressing to these tires and no tire dressing had been applied since they were purchased new. To me this is the key to using any tire coating successfully and that is to start with tires that have NEVER had a tire dressing applied to them. The reason why is because with some tire dressings, it can be pretty much impossible to remove 100% of the dressing off the tire sidewall and out of all the tiny crevices around lettering and other design features on the sidewall. So for me, my personal rule of thumb is I won't apply a tire coating to tires that have had dressings already applied.


Even though I had previously machine scrubbed these tires, before applying the tire coating I re-washed the front passenger side tire again. This was to ensure that there is no road film or any other substance on the tire since the initial cleaning.





Here you can see the very clean and also very dull and lifeless looking rubber sidewall.





I applied the Tuf Shine Tire Coating to the top portion of the tire and then had the owner move the Corvette forward until the portion of the tire in contact with the floor had rotated 180 degrees. This was to make it easier for me to get the other half of the tire but to also get the portion of the sidewall that was resting against the floor as the tire compresses a little.






Here you can easily see a portion of the sidewall that has 5 applications of the coating and above it, the un-coated sidewall.





Here's the tire completely coated with 5 applications. After applying each application I use the Metrovac Sidekick to do two things,

1: Speed dry the coating so I can add more layers without waiting.

2: Blow the coating into all the intricate areas on the tire sidewall and then blow any excess away from the tire by blowing from the lip of the rim outward.

Done.











The results are a hard dry shine that makes the tires look great and adds the finishing touch to the car.





Review and thoughts...
I love this product. BUT only for tires that have never had any tire dressing previously applied. Too hard to 100% remove some tire dressings. So if I have a car that already has tire dressing on the tires I continue to use tire dressings on them. Only when I know 100% for sure there's never been a tire dressing on a tire do a go forward with the coating. When I do coat a tire I prefer to machine scrub the tire until any foam created via the scrubbing process shows to be white, no more brown or black foam building up while scrubbing. I usually machine scrub tires up to 5 times just to ensure they are completely clean.

Completely dry surface
What I like about a good tire coating is it turns the tire sidewall a very deep, dark black appearance BUT it's completely dry to the touch. If you run your hand over the tire sidewall or if you were to accidentally rub your car wash mitt over the tire, nothing comes off the tire. No oily, greasy black goo comes off like you can experience with some tire dressings. So it's a very clean way to seal and protect your tires and you don't have to worry about dressing-transfer onto you, your cloths or tire sling onto the body panels of your car.




On Autogeek


TUF SHINE Tire Clearcoat 16 ounce

TUF SHINE Tire Cleaner 22 oz.

Metro Blaster SideKick



For cleaning tires...

Mighty Mini Cordless Polisher aka Machine Tire Scrubber

2 Pack Cyclo Polisher Aqua Soft Carpet Brush

[Mike Phillips]

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Question?


Would anyone like to see a video of my application method for coating tires?

[Finick]

.


Question?


Would anyone like to see a video of my application method for coating tires?

#♀️ I sure would


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[TTQ B4U]

I like the idea of using that scrub brush on a drill. I have that same one and am going to see if it fits on my cordless unit now.

[The Guz]

Mike a video would be great. I have used your method when using Tuf Shine or Mckee's tire coating. It is a time saver.

[JustJesus]

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Question?


Would anyone like to see a video of my application method for coating tires?

I remember being at a buddy's house watching some 4x4 tv show. There was a commercial (or product spotlight?) in which you applied the old DP tire coating on a 4x4 tire. It was cool to see how you did it. Would be cool to see your current process

[Mike Phillips]

I remember being at a buddy's house watching some 4x4 tv show.

There was a commercial (or product spotlight?) in which you applied the old DP tire coating on a 4x4 tire.

It was cool to see how you did it. Would be cool to see your current process

Yeah that was me with Matt Steel and Bruno Massel showing how to apply the DP Tire Coating which is now McKee's 37 Tire Coating.

Most of any how-to you see on TV is mocked-up, mostly due to time constraints. I remember that episode, they were putting BRAND NEW 37" tires on monster Jeep build so the tires didn't have anything on them.

In the real world, I would try to machine scrub tires before applying a coating. Working by hand is a tick on the wimpy, in-effective method.

[Mike Phillips]

Also just to add for anyone reading this into the future and considering applying a tire coating to there car's tires....

Don't waste your time if you have LOW PROFILE tires.

Why?

There's simply not enough tire to "see" and thus enjoy for all the work it takes to coat thin or low profile tires. I always use a dressing on low profile tires.

[Coleroad]

Also just to add for anyone reading this into the future and considering applying a tire coating to there car's tires....

Don't waste your time if you have LOW PROFILE tires.

Why?

There's simply not enough tire to "see" and thus enjoy for all the work it takes to coat thin or low profile tires. I always use a dressing on low profile tires.

I can see that point when detailing professionally. For me on my personal car, I would never go back to tire dressings. Low profile or not, coating looks better, way easier to keep clean. They continue to look cleaner between cleanings. Don't have to reapply every wash. I find in the long run it's a time and product savings. I don't find the initial work to be that bad even for a low profile tire. I just do it when I have the wheels off to clean them, and the wheel wells.

[Mike Phillips]

I can see that point when detailing professionally. For me on my personal car, I would never go back to tire dressings. Low profile or not, coating looks better, way easier to keep clean. They continue to look cleaner between cleanings. Don't have to reapply every wash. I find in the long run it's a time and product savings. I don't find the initial work to be that bad even for a low profile tire. I just do it when I have the wheels off to clean them, and the wheel wells.

Copy that.

If a person wants the benefits then the prep work and application work is worth it.