[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.

[abefromen]

Im ready to pull the trigger on a set of 225/70/15's thru amazon but after reading this thread...yikes.

[ssj71]

Okay gang, here's where things stand as of 9/7/19 on my warranty claim with BF Goodrich and my browning 2016-purchased Radial T/A's with less than 1000 miles on them:


- called the BFG hotline at 877-788-8899
- immediately got a case number assigned, which is simply my phone number
- took the SSJ to the Pep Boys up the street
- service guy confirmed the browning and called BFG
- they said they needed all DOT #'s from the tires, as well as the tread depths
- service guy gathered all of that information
- he called BFG back and they said they would apply a 50% warranty credit


So now I can either argue with them and gather more stress in my life, or I can choose an alternative. The Pep Boy service guy recommends their Futura white letter tires, but I know nothing about them....

[abefromen]

Originally Posted by abefromen

Im ready to pull the trigger on a set of 225/70/15's thru amazon but after reading this thread...yikes.

I bought a set of four 70 series tires a few months ago all with a manufacture date of this spring.

The car hasn't even seen the road yet and I've noticed brown staining starting on some of them already.

wtf!

[Bentwheelbob]

I’ve had the same problem with a set of repop Wide Oval’s I purchased from Rusty Small. Prior to the TA Nat’s I carefully cleaned them a letter at a time using Brake Kleen sprayed on a rag wrapped around a finger. I followed this with a Brillo pad and then Bleche White. All of the staining was removed and the letters remain white after 75 miles of driving.




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[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.

[shaker455]

Originally Posted by 1beautifuldaughter

I wonder if anyone else here has had the same issue as me and a friend of mine where our go to tire for vintage white letter look with good handling has always been the T/A radials like most people. He and I recently put new ones on our cars and the white letters turn brown as soon as you drive a short distance, And have started to just clean off less and less almost like something from within the rubber is bleeding into the white, You can scrub them with bleach, bleach white tire cleaner, even laquer thinner and they just look like crap. even the black part of the tire looks bad like you drove it out of a dirty field. My question may serve as a warning to those considering them for a show car, and to see if anyone else has experienced this. They look so bad I am considering buying a whole set of tires like Mickey Thompson or something.

Last time BFG made a good street tire was prior to 1988.
I has a set with the old tread pattern with "Big Honkin" white letters that I ran on my 70' Camaro back around 86'.
But I wore the fronts out and got new fronts around 88'
It's the tire and tread pattern as well as smaller letter size you still see to this day..no sidewall cord to speak of and handle bad...hate them to this day!

Fast forward to today I now have used Mickey Thompson & Cooper Cobras which are still a step above the BFG's

[David Jones]

I went with the Coopers recently. No doubt they ride better than the 8 year old BFG’s they replaced. Here’s hoping the letters stay white and that the aggressive tread isn’t to noisy over time. I considered going blackwall but just couldn’t do it. I will admit that the much lower price of the Coopers vs the BFG’s helped sway me.

[Vid]

Originally Posted by David Jones

I went with the Coopers recently. No doubt they ride better than the 8 year old BFG’s they replaced. Here’s hoping the letters stay white and that the aggressive tread isn’t to noisy over time. I considered going blackwall but just couldn’t do it. I will admit that the much lower price of the Coopers vs the BFG’s helped sway me.

X2 on the Cobra G/T’s. I have a set on my LeMans that were manufactured Dec ‘20. They ride very nice and the letters are staying white. Boy they look good with Verdoro Green too, haha

I have a friend out in GA who owns 6 very cool cars. He was a staunch advocate of BFG TA’s but has had nothing but complaints of late and has switched to Cobras.

Back in the day I really liked the Dunlop G/T Qualifiers, something about the close, tight tread design gave them a very unique, deep “bark” when you chirped or smoked the tires. The ones I’ve seen lately are a completely different tread and sidewall design from the Qualifiers of the 70’s-80’s. Alas.




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[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?

[1beautifuldaughter]

Originally Posted by 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?

Glad you asked, Hope my answer might help. Since I started this post and asked if anyone else was having a problem ,I asked BFG for help and explained the issue. They had me take the tires back to where I bought them and have them confirm the problem , They then replaced the tires for me but did not pay for any of the change over cost, Also they replaced at 75% of the cost even thought the tires had no mileage on them to speak of. I paid 25%, So I had the new tires mounted on a different set of rims. When I asked if they knew what the problem was they said just that they know that there is a problem and think I will be ok with the new ones but cannot guarantee anything.
The old tires looked like they where in a fire, and nothing would clean them. ( NOTHING) the new ones are looking pretty good so far , Odd that the 245-60-15 s, turned worse on the first batch than did the 275-60-15s, I did have some small spots staining again on the new 245s , I was reluctant to go through the expense and efforts but I think it turned out ok so far, seems that something has changed at least enough to live with.
Lastly and maybe most important is that since I had nothing to lose trying anymore I came up with the crazy idea of sanding the letters on the old tires. I took a small orbital sander with fine paper and the brown actually sanded off. My thoughts are "how can the brown come off the surface? Why would you not expect it to be browned underneath ? The old sanded tires are stored and I am watching them turn coffee brown again but at a much slower rate. maybe if I continue to sand them I will some day have white letters again on them, Crazy , Pain in the butt fiasco , If you have a set that are driving you crazy you can try to sand a letter carefully and see if it works for you.
Sorry the long post. I guess the short answer is , BFG stepped up to the plate and helped for me,,, The new runs of tires seem to be much improved,,, May still be isolated staining on certain sizes or runs but for me so far much better,. And finally it seems Nothing is what it used to be.

[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