Bfg tires letters turn brown

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mycuda said:
Years ago always used carb cleaner and tooth brush.
But each time your removing white pigment
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Ummm...no.

The White pigment is titanium dioxide and it is completely non-reactive and insoluble with solvents.

What you were removing was the solvent soluble materials. Some of the oxidized rubber containing titanium dioxide may have come off with it.
 
Ddaddy said:
This thread made me go back to my chemistry roots and figure out WHY the white letters are turning brown.

It turns out that the reason why is because of an antiozonant compound that they put in the rubber to protect it called N-Isopropyl-N′-phenyl-1,4-phenylenediamine known as IPPD.

IPPD reacts with ozone faster that the rubber does and therefore protects the rubber. However, IPPD also turns brown when it oxidizes.

The comments about brake cleaner working made me go look at the solubility of IPPD. It is practically insoluble in water and slightly reactive with chlorine. However, it it highly soluble in Acetone.

To confirm the hypothesis that the IPPD oxidized residue is the culprit, I took some acetone and an old tooth brush and scrubbed the “A” on my T/A tires for 15 secs and then wiped it off.

Hypothesis confirmed.

View attachment 1715265305

This explains why brake cleaner seems to work also since it contains solvents similar to acetone.

Now everyone should easily be able to clean their white letters with just some acetone and mild scrubbing. I know I will!
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Thank you Dave.
 
adriver said:
If I had white letters, I would want to be paid for advertisement.
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I suppose that you have the emblems removed from all of your cars, logos removed from all clothing and shoes, don't drink from a soda, beer, etc. without covering the label...
 
SpeedThrills said:
I wonder how replacing them will help?
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I wonder that too. If a company has that many issues, sooner or later they find a fix. May be our @Ddaddy could figure out a chemical fix and save BFG millions. Lol
 
SpeedThrills said:
I suppose that you have the emblems removed from all of your cars, logos removed from all clothing and shoes, don't drink from a soda, beer, etc. without covering the label...
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Marketing
Branding
Advertisement
Identification.
Labeling

You are conflating.
Try and keep up.
 
I have a pair of Coopers with this problem.

No amount of scrubbing with any cleaner will take care of it.

I understand there was a bad batch.
 
Got BFG's on my Barracuda, the front ones stay white, the back ones turn brown.
 
BTW the BFG's on my Dart are 3 years older and they all stay white!
 
Since I've always turned my BFGs blackwall out, If somebody wants to sell a pair of 245 60 14s with discolored letters off, I'm in the market for a pair!!! :)
 
When I had these tires, my solution was to wet-sand the tops of the letters only. Use 240 grit on a rubber sanding block and plenty of water. You remove a microscopic layer of discolored rubber, and they stay white for months. Armor-All and almost any other "preservative" tends to worsen the discoloration problem, so try to stay away from it.
 
I switched to M/T street tires and, they seem to be better. I think they take less weight to balance them also.
 
tried lots of stuff over the last 30 plus years, by far the best and easiest is spray9 and a scrub brush....do it each time I wash and just hose off...bright white
 
I use I paint stir stick and wrap it with 320 sand paper,works well,but it's a lot of work.need to go get some acetone.
 
I had to try the brake cleaner as I don't have any acetone. Wow was I surprised, it cleaned the lettering right up. They still have a very little yellow tint to them but it's very faint. Going to buy some acetone tomorrow and see if it's any better.
 
68 Coronet RT said:
I had to try the brake cleaner as I don't have any acetone. Wow was I surprised, it cleaned the lettering right up. They still have a very little yellow tint to them but it's very faint. Going to buy some acetone tomorrow and see if it's any better.
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Please let us know if acetone works better than brake cleaner.
 
I will need to look into this as my redlines are looking a little muddy.


Alan
 
As I said in post 69 the brake cleaner worked pretty good but there was still a very light yellowish tint to the letters.I bought some acetone today. $7.59 for a quart at Wal-Mart. Hands down that's the way to go. It's probably about the same cost as two 14 oz cans of brake cleaner but with the brake cleaner you get the spray mist spraying it on a rag acetone you don't. The acetone definitely worked better and I used a clean rag and no brush. The letters are not bright white but they are a lot whiter with no brown or yellowing.
 
68 Coronet RT said:
As I said in post 69 the brake cleaner worked pretty good but there was still a very light yellowish tint to the letters.I bought some acetone today. $7.59 for a quart at Wal-Mart. Hands down that's the way to go. It's probably about the same cost as two 14 oz cans of brake cleaner but with the brake cleaner you get the spray mist spraying it on a rag acetone you don't. The acetone definitely worked better and I used a clean rag and no brush. The letters are not bright white but they are a lot whiter with no brown or yellowing.
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Thanks for the conformation. I see Menards has acetone as well.
 
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