Loki 6

As I've mentioned before, from time to time I like to play mad scientist with products and come up with different "cocktails" to use either to attain "better" results for a given task, or to see if I can put together something to accomplish a task for which I either have no product for, or have a product that yields less than stellar results.

Today was about Tire Dressings...we all like them and are to some extent obsessed with them.

My take on them is that we have 2 basic kinds:

• Solvent based - which offer the wet drippy look that aside from making many people think lowly of you, can easily sling onto your clear coat if not applied and dried correctly. They do last a good amount of time. It is an old school classic look that may or may not be "welcomed" much in the detailing world.
• Water Based - offer a more matte, new, clean and basic deep black tire look. They stay put better on your rubber, and are "less obnoxious" than the drippy look. This is a more modern way to dress tires from what I can tell. These dressings don't last as long as the solvent based ones. These tend to be the more prevalent ones used at shows because "friends don't let friends apply shiny tire goo to their tires".

All kidding aside, I still likes me some shiny tires from time to time (not too often) but not overly shiny...just a wee bit to pop and make folks guess if "he's got the testicular fortitude and lack of taste to actually be using a solvent based dressing"?

For the record my go to dressing is Perl neat and uniformly applied with a sponge applicator that has a pointy end to the wedge. For my taste, Perl looks amazing and has the slightest bit of shine to it only in direct sunlight. In any light, it excels at bringing back a deep, fresh, clean blackness to the tires. I've experimented with a bunch of water based ones, and I have some honorable mentions, but I keep coming back to Perl. It actually lasts longer than many water based ones I've tried. In a solvent based product, the only one I can stomach is the yellow Adams tire dressing.

So on to the experiment...

I simply combined 2 oz. of Perl with 2 oz. of the Adams or, 1:1 (no water-both neat)

What I think I see is that the Adams adds a bit of "clarity" to the deep dark blackness that Perl does. One of the things Perl does on tires (when it's completely dried) is that it has the tendency to "mute" some of the lettering and 3D raised look of the lettering. This muting is not necessarily a bad thing, and is an inherent property of a non-solvent dressing. The lettering on the tires is clearer now (if that makes sense)The Adams also made the tires in undirect sunlight look like the Perl dressed tires in direct sunlight. I don't find these tires to look overly oily or greasy, but they are not muted either.

I have to honest...I think it is an interesting look. I'm still deciding if I really like it, or I like it because it is different, or does it simply look like an "oh no he totally didn't just use a solvent based dressing on those poor PSS ZP's"

Please comment and don't hold back if you hate it...I won't be offended, I'll still love you guys!

Loki6


Direct sunlight



indirect sunlight - haze in the upper right hand corner coming from sun behind and on the other side of the car

TXSteve

Neat thing to experiment with

I've run the gambit with most stuff and always come back to 303. The stuff just works.

PHXATC

Longtime PERL user, first time commenting in this section (long time creeper here too )and think it looks pretty awesome!

Loki 6

Thanks for opining Phx, and welcome to our little corner of the forum. Don't hesitate to contribute or ask questions instead of just creeping.

Gixxerman

Looks good in a pic.. like clean rubber look and not the over lip glossed hooker lips so many use

Loki 6

ILLUSHN

I'm a longtime fan of a couple of coats of Zaino tire dressing!