Review: 303 Tire & Rubber Cleaner and High Gloss Tire Shine

Review: 303 Tire & Rubber Cleaner and High Gloss Tire Shine - C8 Corvette

303 Tire & Rubber Cleaner and High Gloss Tire Shine

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What are these products?

The Tire & Rubber Cleaner is a stand-alone or dedicated cleaning product specifically formulated for cleaning tires.

The Tire High Gloss Tire Shine and Protectant is a stand-alone or dedicated product for dressing tires that have been pre-cleaned using the Tire & Rubber Cleaner.

What do they do?

The tire cleaner deep cleans tire sidewalls and the tire dressing seals the tire sidewall to protect it from aging and fading while adding gloss and shine.

When do I use them?

The tire cleaner can be used anytime you want to clean the tire. Most people would do this when washing their car. The tire shine would be used after first cleaning the tires.

Why should I use them?

You would use the tire cleaner to remove blooming, (that's the brown color you see build-up on tire sidewalls and to generally clean the tires of previously applied tire dressings and/or normal dirt and road film. You would use the tire shine after cleaning to complete a "just detailed look" to your car.

My review tires

The tires I'm going to use for this review just happen to be on a brand new C8 Corvette. Since coming from the factory and then to the dealership, it appears nothing has been done to the car as far as detailing goes. When this car first arrived, it was hot mess. It was dirty as all get-out and NOTHING had been done to any aspect of the car since leaving the dealership.

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Road Film
Here's a closer look as to how the car really looked when it arrived. The dirt and water spots you see on the paint are road film from driving in the rain. Now follow me, the tires have this same layer of road film on them, it's just harder to see.

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See the "film" where the swirl finder light is lighting up the paint? This is oily road film. And because this same oily film is also on the tires it wouldn't do any good to apply a tire dressing to the tires until this oily film is first removed.

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2-Step Approach

There are a lot of great one-step tire dressings on the market. However, like any aspect of car detailing, anytime you can break-up a process into its individual components you usually get better looking results as well as longer lasting results.

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Photo-Documentation

I like to photo-document all my work. Here are some pictures showing the tires before cleaning.

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Step 1: Spray the tire sidewalls with the 303 Tire & Rubber Cleaner

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Next agitate the cleaner over the tire sidewall with a tire cleaning brush.

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Rinse the tires or if running water is not available, wipe the tires clean using a clean scrap rag.

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Considering these tires are brand new - that's a lot of grime to pull off a single, thin sidewall.

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Step 2: Apply a and work in a wet application of the 303 High Gloss Tire Shine and Protectant

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Allow the 303 High Gloss Tire Shine to dry before driving car.

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When allowed to fully dry the product leaves a high gloss finish that is dry to the touch.

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Repeat this process to the other 3 tires...

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Here are the final results...

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From neglected to respected

Now when the owner takes his Corvette to the local car shows he can hold his head up high knowing none of his buddies can put him down for ugly, neglected tires on his incredibly cool C8 Corvette Stingray.

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Review

303 makes great products and these to dedicated products for cleaning and protecting your car's tires won't disappoint.

303 Tire & Rubber Cleaner
Like all the various cleaners in the 303 line the Tire and Rubber Cleaner is no slouch. It easily dissolves and removes road grime, browning and previously applied tire dressings to uncover a clean rubber base to which you can then apply the tire protectant. For the above project I kept it simple and used the product by hand using a standard tire scrubbing brush as I know most people own a brush and a hand. Normally I machine scrub tires as machine scrubbing is simply a lot more effective plus, unlike me, the machine never gets tires. Either way, this dedicated cleaner works great for getting not only your tires clean but any rubber surface like rubber floor mats.

You could also use it to clean rubber door gaskets to get them clean before applying another cool product from 303 the 303 Rubber Seal Protectant. My guess is this cleaner is versatile enough you could also use it like an APC and clean about anything. In fact, the corporate website for 303 products states it can also be safely used to clean our car's wheels thus making this both a wheel and tires cleaner.

303 High Gloss Tire Shine
There are so many tire dressings on the market I think we're way past the point of being able to actually count and take inventory of just how many products like this exist. I'm not normally a fan of your standard-issue tire dressing because most are very oily or greasy and leave your car's tire a gooey mess. And if you're using a tire dressing that does not dry to the touch, this will simply lead to your tire becoming a magnet for dirt as soon as you drive your car after application. The 303 High Gloss Tire Shine & Protectant is water-based and silicone free and this is why it doesn't leave a gooey mess on your tires and the reason I like it. Besides easy to use, high gloss appearance it also protects your car's tire sidewalls from cracking and dry rot, which keeps your tires safer to drive on longer.

And hey... good enough for the tires on a brand new C8 Corvette - good enough for the tires on my car.

Final thoughts...
I meet a lot of people that know and trust 303 Aerospace Protectant and sometimes this is really the only product they use or know about from 303 Products. But in the last few years 303 has upped their game and now offer a wider selection of car care products including compounds, polishes and paint sealants.

Check out all their products here - 303 Products

And check out my recent how-to article for how to correctly clean and protect canvas convertible tops.

Review: 303 Fabric Convertible Top Kit - 1949 Mercury Convertible Kustom Streetrod

If you're a fan of 303 Aerospace Protectant you'll love any of the high quality product in the rest of the 303 line including the Tire & Rubber Cleaner and High Gloss Tire Shine.

On Autogeek.com

303 Tire & Rubber Cleaner

303 High Gloss Tire Shine

:)