[1965gp]

I would take them back if the car hasn’t been in the road.

Next time I need white letter tires I am going Cooper Cobras. The brown letter look like absolute sh!t on the car. On my 69 TA I needed to replace a tire and you guessed it... one tire with brown letters.

[abefromen]

Originally Posted by 1965gp

I would take them back if the car hasn’t been in the road.

Next time I need white letter tires I am going Cooper Cobras. The brown letter look like absolute sh!t on the car. On my 69 TA I needed to replace a tire and you guessed it... one tire with brown letters.

BFG really needs to pull their collective heads out of their ass and FIX whatever the problem is with these expensive tires. Total joke.

[bird72]

I have some July 2019 date ones OK so far

[dataway]

I just bought a set ... but I turned the letters in anyway

[Old Goat Racer]

Saw this Trans Am for sale on marketplace. AM I reading the date code on these BFG's as the 53 week of 2017 ?
I didn't remember 2017 being that long.
Letters don't look too brown ?

[abefromen]

Reviving this thread...........

Anyone have updates on their brown letter tires?

Those who got replacements, did the letters stay white?

Those who tried various solvents to clean the letters did they stay white?

[67GTONUT]

I am still working on this.....

Tried a few Internet fixes.....

SOS Pad
Ajax / Comet
Goo Gone

So far...... the Goo Gone has made the biggest difference.....

[MUSLCAH]

Threw mine inside....I like the look much bettah. Raised white letters just look cheesy to me now.

[67GTONUT]

Originally Posted by MUSLCAH

Attachment 546437

Threw mine inside....I like the look much bettah. Raised white letters just look cheesy to me now.

LOL..... I tried that in the spring...... Just had them turned back to RWL...... just missed it too much....

I am determined to get them white

[68lemans462]

Originally Posted by MUSLCAH

Attachment 546437

Threw mine inside....I like the look much bettah. Raised white letters just look cheesy to me now.

Agree. I now prefer the look of black wall tires.

[David Jones]

I bought some Cooper Cobra's last year, because of the brown letter issue with BFG's.

The Cooper's turn brown too.

[65madgoat]

Shoot, I too never cared for the 'day 3,475' look of white letter BFG tires on 60s or early 70s vehicles.

For so many purists on this forum, amazing so many run these tires.

Problem solved by flipping them inside or never running them in the first place.

[Greg Reid]

Originally Posted by David Jones

I bought some Cooper Cobra's last year, because of the brown letter issue with BFG's.

The Cooper's turn brown too.

That was the least of the problems I had with the last set of Coopers I bought. I always liked them before that last set but no more Coopers for me. They did turn brown also...

[jays55]

I originated this topic. After posting, I contacted Coker Tire again (where I bought the original set) and they again offered to replace them under a defect warranty. The first time, they also paid the cost to have them removed and remounted. This time they did not reimburse me for that. The third set cleaned up nicely and maintained good brightness for a period. I have noticed none of the browning of the first two sets. However, IMHO they do not clean up as bright as other RWL tires I have had over the years. I will keep this set and kudos to Coker for working to make this right.

FYI, I also put a set of Michelin RWL tires on my truck last year. They do not seem to clean up as bright as RWL tires from years past, either. I believe the manufacturing process has changed and the quality of the material used for the RWL is not of the same caliber. Just my thoughts.....

[Shiny]

Some day I will get my car running and will need tires. Limiting enough to have 14" wheels but this thread is depressing, given the 2 common RWL tires still available in 14" both turn brown.

Just curious if anyone has experience with the Generals or the "Milestar Streetsteels" shown on this Discount Tire 225/70-14 page?

https://www.discounttiredirect.com/f...size/225-70-14

[F ROCK]

Tires turn brown because of the ingredients in the rubber.
Good tires apparently have "Antiozonant" in there to preserve them.
This antiozonant, when exposed to the air, turns brown. They are calling it "Blooming".
It appears we are now stuck with this; and I have read that the best way to prevent it is to seal the tires somehow.
Do a google search: Why are my tires brown?"
https://www.kenwoodtire.com/Blog/art...hile%20driving.

[John V.]

I see F ROCK beat me to posting this in a more concise way, but since I already typed all this up, I'll post anyway.

The phenomenon effects all modern tires, blackwall, whitewall, and RWL tires.

It is called "tire blooming".

It occurs because modern tire rubber is formulated with anti-ozonants. The purpose of these additives is to prevent premature drying and oxidation that can shorten the life of the tire.

The tire is designed so that these anti-ozonants will be "pushed" over time to the surface of the tire where it makes the surface look more brown than black. It does the same to the white stripe or white letters.

All tires will exhibit this tendency. There can be variation from tire to tire so one set may look worse than another of the same tire, but all will have it. The design of the tire will also play a role in how fast the anti-ozonants migrate to the surface so different tires will exhibit tire blooming more rapidly than others.

As the anti-ozonant additive migrates to the surface, it reacts with oxygen (oxidizes) and creates a brown appearance. You can aggressively remove the material at the surface with a stiff bristle brush and all purpose degreasing cleaners. Personally, I suspect the stiff bristle brush does all the work since you are removing the surface of the rubber to remove the "dead" material, you aren't "cleaning" dirt or grease although the cleaner can help clean surface dirt at the same time.

Regular cleaning will prevent build-up of the oxidized anti-ozonants on the sidewall surface. Lack of regular cleaning will make it more difficult to scrub the surface build-up off when you do try to clean the sidewall.

Once clean, a tire dressing will help slow the reappearance. SIlicone based tire dressings are NOT the cause of tire blooming but can make it more difficult to scrub away the tire blooming. For this reason, water based tire dressings are suggested. They will help to slow the reappearance of the underlying brown discoloration and it will be easier to scrub away when the brown does reappear compared to the silicone based dressings.

Mold release compounds also don't cause the problem but may chemically react with the anti-ozonants to make it more difficult to scrub off the brown. But even if the mold release compounds were thoroughly removed, the browning will still happen.

In the old days, you cleaned road grime off whitewalls and white letters and they came up bright white. I typically used a little Comet cleanser with bleach, left it on for a few minutes after scrubbing. For me, I wasn't done washing my car until those white letters (RWL or the Outline White Letters on the Goodyear GT Radials I had in the late '70s) were blindingly white in the sun.

Those days are gone. The anti-ozonant additive is throughout the rubber in the tire. Exposed to air, it will oxidize and appear brown. And the tire is designed for these anti-ozonants to continually migrate to the surface so the browning will always come back.

Before I understood this, I hated the brown look on my daily driver blackwall tires. I thought it was brake dust or road grime. I would scrub and scrub. But they always looked more murky brown than black.

My '64 GTO came with whitewalls (about half of all '64s had the no cost whitewalls in lieu of the iconic Red Lines). Modern whitewalls in a 14" tire are virtually nonexistent. I didn't want to pay repro Red Line tire prices so I opted for a Uniroyal Tiger Paw AWP II whitewall. Very disappointed that the whitewall looks generally tan with blotchy dark spots to boot.

Now I know why. I can "exfoliate" the surface with a very stiff bristle brush but I know they will never look as bright white as whitewall tires did in the '60s.

Anybody that tells you that old school spray it on and watch the grime run off will work doesn't understand new tire and rubber technology. Black Magic (formerly Westley's) Bleche-Wite is a good bleaching product but it won't remove or whiten oxidized anti-ozonants on the surface of a modern tire. I believe negative reviews of Bleche-Wite are related to the introduction of anti-ozonants to the rubber, not because Bleche-Wite was made inferior when Black Magic took over the brand.

It simply isn't the right product for the job of removing oxidized anti-ozonants.

Like the rest of you, I was hoping for a magic bullet. Don't know what it would take for a tire company to make small batch rubber without anti-ozonant additive but seems to me that is the only possible way for us to get tires that won't turn brown.

[Pershing]

I have had the same problem on several sets of tires. I am no tire expert so I am just passing along the information given to me by the tire companies I called. The posts mentioning the Blooming are correct. The chemicals in the tire are "excited" as the tire moves and flexes along the road. These chemical come to the surface. You usually don't see them on the black tires but they will discolor the white walls or white letters. If you compare the white of your unused spare tire in the trunk you should see that it still looks good while the road tires have turned off-white. After too much frustration I finally ordered a set of Diamond Back WSW tires for one of my cars. (I don't know if they can do white letters.) They said they put a barrier on the black part of the tire before they apply the white. This keeps the chemicals from migrating into the white. Not many miles, but so far so good on the set I bought.

[einstein]

Has anyone considered talking to the folks at Vogue Tyres?

https://www.voguetyre.com/
I was surprised to see a white pinstripe (correct for and a great look on some 69 Firebirds), which is available only in one size, 225/60R16. The difficulty would be finding a suitable 16" wheel for the 69 Firebird.

They also offer a redline, in 235/55R17. Might be easier to find a suitable rim for both F and A bodies. Isn't there a Rally II in 17" now, or a modern alloy rim styled like the Rally II? I saw something in Summit TX & GA locations recently but I don't know if they had a 16" or 17" version.

[David Jones]

Originally Posted by Greg Reid

That was the least of the problems I had with the last set of Coopers I bought. I always liked them before that last set but no more Coopers for me. They did turn brown also...

Seems like I remember you having some issues.


These are just shy of a year old now and are smooth and roll true. And that's with Cragar unilugs. I'm seeing a bit of browning, worse on the 60 series rear tires than the 70 series front tires, but on both. When I was trying to decide which rwl tires to buy, most of the brands available (other than BFG) seemed to have a fairly aggressive tread, which I assumed would be noisy. I was correct. The Coopers whine some. Coming from many year old, rock hard Radial T/A's, I was used to lighting up the rears fairly easily in 2nd and sometimes 3rd gear. That's not the case with these Coopers. They offer way more traction than the old T/A's.