Tyre sidewalls turn brown sooner than anything else on a car. You wash the wheel, the rim shines, and the rubber next to it has a grey-brown cast that a cloth lifts for a moment and two weeks later it is back. On an almost new car it stands out the most — the tread looks like day one, yet the tyre looks older than the whole vehicle.
Ceramic tyre protection
Browning tyre sidewalls handled by FEYNLAB Tire Coating (Tire Pro) ceramic. Applied at the studio in Ústí nad Labem, certified FEYNLAB installer.
What is going on
This is not dirt you could scrub off harder. Rubber contains antiozonants, substances that protect it against ozone and against cracking. They migrate slowly from deep in the compound towards the surface, meet the air there and change chemically (they oxidise) — and this brownish film is what is called blooming. It cannot be stopped entirely, but it can be slowed down. Heat, driving and centrifugal force speed it up — and most of all solvent dressing, the glossy tyre spray. It covers the cast for an hour, but it washes antiozonants out of the surface and leaves a sticky film on the sidewall that catches dust and gets flung onto the bodywork while driving. The rubber then browns faster than before and the shine lasts ever shorter.
What we do about it
We apply FEYNLAB® Tire Coating (Tire Pro) to the tyre sidewall — a two-component semi-permanent ceramic developed for elastomer, that is for the sidewall of a tyre. The layer seals the rubber surface, so the antiozonants that migrate to it have nowhere to oxidise, and the film does not build up nearly as fast. The manufacturer states a durability of a year and more for this ceramic. Application runs in several stages with curing time between the layers, which is why the manufacturer recommends it be done in a studio; SEVEN Works is a certified FEYNLAB studio and installer. You will get the price for your car in the proposal.
Where it has limits
This ceramic belongs on the tyre sidewall only. It does not replace wheel protection or the treatment of the plastic arch trims around the wheels, and it goes onto a prepared surface — old dressing and baked-on deposits have to come off first, which is handled by decontamination wash. Once cured, the sidewall needs a gentler hand than bare rubber: the manufacturer advises against wheel and tyre cleaners and expects a soft brush and a pressure washer kept further than five centimetres from the surface. If you wash the car yourself, you get these instructions at handover; if you leave washing to us, both hand exterior wash and maintenance wash for protected cars account for a treated tyre.