RE: Black tires WITHOUT that dipped in baby oil look?
Armor All is the single worst product a person can put on a vehicle. Before you joined us, (like 2 years ago) the members herein at that time heard the entire scenero that I went through with Armor All.
Here's the gist of it:
At the time I had a white Mark 8 (1998 Collector's-Edition). I coated the tires with Almor All almost every time I washed my car.
One day, I noticed behind my rear tires, on the lower side of the car, where the back bumper wraps around from the rear, and then comes forward toward the back tires, alot of little mustard-yellow "spots" - spots, but more like splash marks. I tried to wash them off. No Luck. I tried rubbing compound for clearcoat (DuPont). No Luck. I tried Safety Kleen Hand Glaze. No Luck. Finally, I took the car to a body shop. He looked at it and knew immediately what it was. He said, "Somebody put Armor All on the tires" ~ I admitted it was I. He then went on to explain to me:-
Armor All contains OIL. It's the oil by-product that makes the "SHINE". The oil dries on the tires, but remember that the tire is made with an oil compound in it. The two mix. Later, the car is driven thru water or in rain. The rotating motion of the tire causes the armor all to re-wet itself and then splashs off onto that panel on the car. But wait......That panel is also made with oil and the armor all seeps into the RUBBERIZED paint, staining it! The paint on the front & rear bumpers employees a rubberized paint, so that when the bumper bumps something and flexs the paint does NOT crack!!! The armor all impregnates itself into the rubberized paint, staining it permanently.
In the end, he tried sanding the area with the finest grain sandpaper going, it it STILL would not remove the mustard yellow color splash stains. Finally, I took it to my selling dealer who has a terrific body shop and they resprayed the rear bumper and it came out a perfect match, and the stains were covered. (gone).
After all that, I read on the Grand Prix board a warning to all Grand Prix fans about the ruination of paint to GP rear panels, especially on white or light colored cars. THEN, I (much) later saw the same warning on a Corvette board, and finally on a board devoted to Dodge Stealths.
As a matterr of fact, we have the warning HERE, on our LOD board as well!!!
Armor all is not only garbage, the company KNOWS about this and KNOWS it will do this, and will NOT accept responcbilty for the damage their product causes. They have received 100s of letters from users and just throw the letters away & ignore them. People have even sent registered mail that has to be signed, and have received back notice from the Post Office that the letter was received and still no reply from Armor All.
Urinating on the tires is better than using Armor All.
I'll try & find the warning of this product on LOD, and Post It Here.
HERE YOU GO:--
http://mark8.org/lod/alerts.htm
# 2 alert
so it doesn't come off in the rain.
