Keeping White Walls clean

Hey sleepy, you were asking about the product so here you go...

Over the last few months I’ve been experimenting with a product and I find it helps tremendously to keep the white walls clean and looking white. It provides a coating and helps seal the rubber to prevent brake and road dust from embedding in the rubber. The product is “Inflatable Boat Protectant” and it’s made by Strico Products Limited. I’ve been using this product for over ten years on my Zodiac and its great stuff. It’s designed to protect the boat material from UV rays and subsequently the coating also makes the material much easer to clean. I thought of using this product on the tires one day after having worked so hard to clean them up. I did want time to test the product before I mentioned it on the forum, it’s been almost three months and 6000 miles and thus far I’m more then satisfied with the results.

*Please note this is ‘not’ a cleaner. The product is designed for PVC and Hypalon and is also suitable for Vinyl and rubber. It’s a milky liquid that you apply with a ‘small’ (about 1 sq. inch) sponge or piece of paper towel. Although this product has a dry finish and does not wash off with water *Do not put any product on the part of the tire that comes in contact with the road. I put two coats on in the spring to test the product and another two coats when I washed the bike a month later and haven’t put any since. Just wipe it on and let it dry about 10 minutes between coats, two coats should do (more is not necessarily better). I won’t have to put any more on for a while now as it seems to hold up very well, even after washing. It will dry with a bit of a sheen (which I think looks good) but more importantly it makes cleanup MUCH easer and you won’t have to scrub so hard or as often to get the ww’s clean. I wipe mine with a little Vim and I’m done. It helps keep the white white and the black black, I also use it on some of the vinyl. Use what you want to clean up the tires there are a lot of products that work just fine. Just make sure that when you put this stuff on that the tire is clean and dry. You won’t have to be as aggressive with the cleaning after applying the Strico.

Now for the bad news, this bottle has lasted me for a while, I’m not sure where you can get it or if it’s still even available. I’ll go back to where I got this bottle and see what I can find out, in the meantime if anyone else happens to know where it can be found please lets us know.

Thanks for the reply. If you find it great and maybe it will be in a popular store and I can pick some up . I will look in some stores near here but if it is only available near you then I will HAVE to take a trip-but maybe can find it here. Good luck to US!!!

dragerman,

During my search for the Strico product you wrote about, I ran across this product on the 303 website. Seems to have the same UV protection qualities as the Strico product.

http://www.303products.com/tech/index.cfm?fuseaction=product.display&Product_ID=428

I recently installed WWW on MyPalomino, so I ordered the free ($5.00 s/h) sample kit that includes the 303 protectant. Let me know what you think.

Jerry

Very interesting, I do see the similarities. Did you order the ‘sample kit’ or product? (dah, sample kit, that’s what you said... it's ok i'm awake now)

It might be a good idea to test the product on an old tire or bicycle tire first. Also, I used a small piece of paper towel as an applicator, it allowed me more control of the product... I didn’t want to get any on the threads. Keep in mind it will leave a bit of a sheen (which I think looks pretty good).

Let me know how it works out for you! I’m just about to change my back tire and the white wall is still looking great… it really helps with the maintenance.