Review & How-To: Pinnacle Advanced Tire Cleaner

[Mike Phillips]

Review & How-To: Pinnacle Advanced Tire Cleaner


Pinnacle Advanced Tire Cleaner





Review

I'm sharing my review in the first post of this thread because this is what the topic of the thread is about. That said, I don't know anyone, and especially me, that ONLY cleans tires when using a tire cleaner. Nope... a tire cleaner is part of a SYSTEM when washing a car and washing a car includes a LOT of moving parts. For this write-up however, I'll focus on the tire cleaner but also include the other moving parts needed to do a full tire and wheel cleaning followed by applying a tire dressing.


The Pinnacle Advanced Tire Cleaner works great just like you would expect from any product with the Pinnacle name on the bottle. I wash my car regularly, usually every two weeks due to my intense travel schedule. If I wasn't travelling as much as I have the last few years with TV and the Roadshow classes, then I'd probably wash my car even more often.


What the above means is my tires are never that dirty - because every time I wash my car I do a thorough job of everything, it's my nature. I have to test out another new product, which requires a washed car, so instead of using a co-workers car I went ahead and used my own vehicle, the Golden Eagle.


What you want

The thing you want in a tire dressing is to be able to remove,

1. Normal oxidation
   
2. Tire Blooming - this is the BROWN color you see on the sidewalls
   
3. Previously applied dressings
   
4. Road Film
   - this is the dirty, oily film you get on your car when you drive in the rain and the cars in front of you throw rainwater off the road mixed with all the oils and other fluids cars drip while driving mixed in with the rainwater. If you don't know what I'm talking about, here's my article on road film.

Road Film - If you drive your car in the rain your car has road film





So a great quality tire cleaner is a lot more complex than most people understand. The Pinnacle Advanced Tire Cleaner is formulated to remove all of the above problems from your car's tires without being so harsh that it stains the tires white like I've seen with other products guys tend to substitute for a dedicated tire cleaner, such as a engine degreaser or an apc.

On the tires of my SUV, because I clean the car and thus the tires often there really wasn't any blooming to speak of to show peeling off the tires from just spraying the product onto the tire sidewalls. I did spray this product onto some brown tires and it instantly dissolved the blooming (brown junk on tires), without even agitating with a brush. So if you have brown tires, this product will make quick work of brining back the black. What I did have on my tires was oxidization and road film. I've been skipping out on applying a tire dressing for some time now mostly because by the time I'm done with a proper wash job I wrap-up and go home.


I scrubbed the tires on my SUV 2 times to get them perfectly clean. The first time you could really see some black/brown foam being generated by the hand brush.


First application - See the brown foam suds created by scrubbing?







Then rinse....





Second application
The foam from scrubbing the Pinnacle Advanced Tire Cleaner turned white, that's a pretty good sign the tires are clean and everything that can be removed has been removed.






And of course, re-rinse...





Now these are some clean wheels and tires....





So if you're looking for a great dedicated tire cleaner and especially if you're already a Pinnacle user, then get a bottle of the new Pinnacle Advanced Tire Cleaner and a good hand brush and I'm confident you'll get the same great results I achieved.


[FONT=Arial Black]Before[/FONT]





After
(no dressing applied yet)






On Autogeek.com


Pinnacle Advanced Tire Cleaner - 16 ounce - $24.99

Pinnacle Advanced Tire Cleaner - 1 gallon - $79.99

[Mike Phillips]

Continued....


How to properly clean your wheels and tires

In this section I'll show you where a tire cleaner fits into the wheel and tire cleaning process. Did you know there's an ORDER in which to clean wheels and tires? I teach this in all my detailing classes as well as share it all my videos and articles. So if you haven't ever learned the correct order, keep reading.


Products and tools needed
First you need a great wheel cleaner and a great tire cleaner. Next you'll need a few brushes for cleaning your wheels and at least one good tire brush for scrubbing tires.

Picture below are my favorite brushes as well as the Pinnacle Advanced Wheel Cleaner and the Pinnacle Advanced Tire Cleaner

• Speedmaster Wheel Brush
• Wheel Woolies Black Boar's Hair Wheel Face Brush
• Low profile tire scrubbing brush
• Mighty Mini - cordless tire scrubber

Always start with wheels first.

Why?

Gravity

Because later when you're scrubbing the tire you'll have a second and third chance to re-rinse the wheel to remove any residual wheel cleaner and the gunk it loosened off the wheel (and tire), after GRAVITY does its thing and cause the previously applied tire cleaner (and the gunk it removed), to move downward and POOL in lower areas of the wheel.


Step 1: Spray Pinnacle Advanced Wheel Cleaner liberally over the face of the wheel, the lip of the rim and the barrel behind the spokes. Allow to dwell for a few minutes so the chemicals can go to work dissolving and loosening brake dust and road film.







Dwelling...














Next - use the Speedmaster Wheel Brush to scrub the barrels and the back of the spokes.

Note where I'm running the brush...




Here's a shot in the same location - look how clean the barrels are now....





Flex the brush a little to bend it so you can get behind the spokes...




Because the Nylex bristles on the Speedmaster Brush are extremely flexible you can get the Speedmaster Wheel Brush into tight areas like in and around the brake calipers.

Check out this cleaning action...







Now that's what I would call a tight fit!





The barrels are clean as are the back of the spokes, now it's time to clean the front of the wheel...





The Wheel Woolies Black Boar's Hair Wheel Face Brush
That's a whole lot of words to describe the best brush investment you will ever make. Besides the BEST wheel face brush on the market it's also great for engine detailing for scrubbing all the various components and the different shapes of the various components in an engine compartment. After you purchase one and find out just how right I am, shoot me an e-mail to let me know. mike.phillips@autogeek.net










Another great brush from Brawn Automotive, the maker of Wheel Woolies is the actual "Wheel Woolie" brushes. Here I have a 30 degree bent brush that works great for reaching and scrubbing stubborn brake dust as well as getting behind the spokes.





Rinse time
After you've scrubbed the heck out of a single wheel, before the wheel cleaner can dry, rinse thoroughly...





Here's a tip
Get a good spray that has a SHOWER setting. I use this not only for rinsing wheels but also for rinsing cars and most important - for Wet Wash Engine Detailing. If you've ever taken one of my detailing classes you'll remember I explain why this type of spray is so valuable to avoid costly repairs when doing a wet wash to an engine compartment. Especially when it's NOT your car!


Be sure to spray upwards, not just downwards. By spraying upwards into the wheel area you'll do a better job of completely rinsing all the wheel cleaner out of hard to see areas.








Tire cleaning

Did you now there's a SCIENCE to the bristles of brushes? You bet there is. I'd say it's hard to find anyone that can verbalize the reasons for different types and sizes let alone someone that can type it out. When it comes to scrubbing tires you don't want to use a brush with long bristles.

Why?

Because using your hand, arm and shoulder muscles to scrub a vertical surface a LOT as in over and over again, taxes your muscles and then you simply don't do a very good job of actually getting the tires sidewalls clean. What works better for the tire and for the human is a brush that uses SHORT STIFF BRISTLES like the hand-held brush you see in the picture below. What works even better is to machine scrub your tires.





By hand

Step 1: Spray a liberal amount of tire cleaner to the tire.








Step 2: Scrub tires thoroughly to agitate the tire cleaner to loosen and remove tire blooming, road film and oxidation.





Note the brown, mud like color in the tire foam? This is the blooming, road film and oxidation coming off the tire.









Step 3: Rinse thoroughly...







In this close-up from the above picture, you can see the wave of brown ick blasting off the tire sidewall...





Repeat process
If you really want your tires clean, for example to apply a tire dressing or a tire coating, then repeat the tire cleaning process until you see a white colored tire cleaner foam on the sidewall. This is the visual indicator that the tire cleaner is completely clean.







Here you can see the tire cleaner foam is now white after scrubbing... this is the sign the tires are clean.

[Mike Phillips]

Continued.....


By machine


Step 1: Spray only one section of a tire at a time with the Pinnacle Advanced Tire Cleaner. I find it's better machine scrub in sections than try to knock out the entire tire at one time. The reason why? Because the fast action of the spinning bristles tend to use-up or dry-up the tire cleaner faster than when working by hand, so you may need to apply a second sprits of tire cleaner to the section your machine scrubbing to keep the tire wet with cleaner and thus best results.






Step 2: Machine scrub the tire sidewall




Mike's Tip
The Mighty Mini comes with 2 speed settings. Choose the #1 setting as this is the slower setting and then just feather the trigger. You don't need super high speed to scrub tires, just a medium, consistent speed.







Step 3: Rinse thoroughly







If you look at the pavement out in front of the tire just a little ways you can see all the black/brown crud being rinsed off the tire after both hand scrubbing and then machine scrubbing...










These wheels and tires are CLEAN!





Repeat the wheel and tire cleaning process to the other 3 wheels and tires.





Car Wax History

I think I'm the first person to show machine scrubbing tires back in 2013 that's almost 6 years ago. At least I can't find any video or article or anything before 2013 that shows machine scrubbing tires. I'm also the only person that remember all this stuff and then shares it. There's no such thing as an old article or video if the information is still accurate and helpful.


Here's my first article on this topic dated 3/28/2013

Best darn tire cleaning brush I've ever used!


Here's my video on this topic dated 10/25/2013




Point being - the machine always outperforms the human, just watch any Terminator movie.

[Mike Phillips]

Continued.....


Tips for applying a tire dressing

Applying a tire dressing can seem pretty straightforward but here's a few tips and techniques I use to do the job right the first time and avoid any tire dressing sling on the lower panels of your car.


First - Remove all water from the tires and especially around where the lip of the rim meets the edge of the tire sidewall.




Metro-Vac Sidekick
This is the handiest dang tool you can have. Metro-Vac sponsors our detailing classes and I show this hand-held hurricane in every class I teach. I show the students all kinds of ways they can use this tool when detailing a car. This is just ONE way to use it and it works GREAT!







Surgically Clean
Here's what tire rubber looks like after it's thoroughly cleaned and dried.





Apply tire dressing
Next - choose a tire dressing that fits your taste. For this write-up, because I'm already showcasing Pinnacle Advanced Tire Cleaner I'll show the Pinnacle Black Onyx Tire Gel.





Technique tip
Pour some dressing onto the face of a tire dressing applicator and then instead of smearing this across the face of the tire and more than likely having it drop all over onto the rim and the floor, take your finger and spread the tire dressing out.

Also note I applied some to the extreme edge of one side? That's to get the rubber sidewall closest to the lip of the wheel rim.





Then use the tire dressing applicator to apply the tire dressing equally over the tire sidewall to leave behind a uniform layer of dressing.






Here's the tire sidewall completely covered with dressing but we're not done yet...





Back to the Metro-Vac Sidekick
Next I use the Metro-Vac Sidekick to force blow the dressing into the grooves and letter outlines on the tire sidewall. This is more effective than JUST wiping with an applicator pad.







MOST IMPORTANT - Wipe off excess tire dressing
Use a microfiber towel to wipe down the tire sidewall. This will remove any excess after force blowing to prevent tire dressing sling and also create the perfect MATTE BLACK appearance I prefer. If you like the wet look, skip this step.





Now that simply looks beautiful!





And... the Michelin Man approves!




Here's the finished look....








Here's the finished look in outdoor light...




The tires look perfect!




And the wheel barrels are clean enough to eat off of....





You can get everything you saw in this article on Autogeek.com

Just call Autogeek's Customer Care Hotline and cite this thread and our friendly staff can help you get everything you need for your next detailing project and get it shipped right to your door.

1-800-869-3011






And you can get the brand new tire cleaner via the links below...


On Autogeek.com


Pinnacle Advanced Tire Cleaner - 16 ounce - $24.99

Pinnacle Advanced Tire Cleaner - 1 gallon - $79.99

[Dan Tran]

Superb Mike!


Sent from my iPhone using AGOnline

[JustJesus]

Great write-up
Those tires came out so clean!

[Mike Phillips]

Superb Mike!

Thank Dan.

Over the years I find guys get excited about,

New tools
Compounds
Polishes
LSP

Not so much all the peripheral stuff like carpet cleaners, tire cleaners etc. All the different catagories of product are important, it's just the things we use to make PAINT look great is always where the action's at.

Great write-up

Thank you Jesus. Sometimes I think I'm the last guy on Earth that actually knows how to work with pictures on a forum. Anyone with a thumb can make a picture show up on FB but it actually takes some work and some brains to make a picture show up on the Interweb.

And while I'm not a professional photographer by any means, I think most of my pictures do what's most important... they tell a story.

Those tires came out so clean!

And so did the wheels.




If I had the time I would remove the wheels and apply a ceramic paint coating to the barrels to make future cleaning fast and easy.