Wheel & Tire Cleaner vs Tire Cleaner on Running Boards

[RayS]

This may not be the best place for this discussion, but given that is about Wheel & Tire Cleaner vs Tire Cleaner and their effect on a body part, I'm starting here. 

 

I'm going to start with a picture of the Running Boards right after I coated them with Ceramic Spray Coating, September 2nd 2019.  I thought they looked fantastic and I received multiple compliments about then and I cleaned the running boards just like the rest of the body, which one exception.  The rubber step pads always had Tire Cleaner applied to them and it would keep them nice and black and looking good.  I would apply the Tire Cleaner about once a month and never had any issue.

 

Before you continue reading, this is not a blame the product thread - it was operator error and I was the operator, nobody to blame buy myself.  Think of it this way, you get to learn from my mistake so you don't have to repeat or try it yourself.

 

Today I was washing the truck and as I have been doing for the last six months for so, I used Wheel and Tire Cleaner on the wheels and tires.  Love the product, it works great, my tires and wheels look great and is a one step process.   Now for the bonehead move that I did - instead of going back to the detail cart as grabbing the Tire Cleaner, I hid the running boards with the Wheel and Tire cleaner.  I figured it couldn't do any harm, so I went ahead and cleaned them and rinsed them off, nothing dried and they looked fine.  I went ahead and washed the truck as normal and when it was all done, the boards now look like the second picture.  

 

Again, this was entirely my fault since the product is not designed for running boards.  For everyone else, let my mistake be a lesson about making sure you grab the right product before putting it on the vehicle.

 

The running boards are powder coated and they will clean up with the Swirl Killer and a little effort, then I'll prep them and recoat them.  What I need to decide is whether or not to go ahead and do the entire truck again.  I know the tonneau cover needs to be redone, but to be honest I never expected the coating to last a year on the tonneau cover, so I'm very impressed with that.   

Edited September 13, 2020 by RayS

[Dan@Adams]

Ouch, sorry about that Ray! As a warning, I would be hesitant to use Tire & Rubber Cleaner on powder coated running boards as well - it's good to hear that it works well for you, but it is intended for rubber and textured exterior plastics. Some powder coating is much more durable than others, so I'll usually just use Car Shampoo and water, or I'll go to Eco All Purpose Cleaner if I need a little more aggressive cleaning. Revive Hand Polish should hopefully bring those back if you have any, but it may take an application or two. Again, sorry for the frustration there

[RayS]

Hi Dan,

No worries, we live and we learn.  In this case, I had the bonus of teaching a lot of other people at the same time

 

As for the Tire and Rubber cleaner, I only used that on the rubber mat portion, not the entire running board.   I love my Revive hand polish and I do have a couple of bottles on hand and will most certainly give it a try.   Revive is the best thing there is for tail lights, marker lights and golf carts and I'm going to find out about running boards.

 

Either way, I'm pretty sure that I have an excuse to redo my truck before I redo Mary's Terrain and they'll both get Graphene.

 

Update:  I had to go outside and give Revive a try - Thank you @Dan@Adams

 

It is starting to get dark, so I hit the center section and with the puddle lights on, you can easily see the difference where I went over it with Revive - I'm impressed.   I did the other two flat sections and stepped back and snapped a couple more pictures.   The second one is the whole board with the puddle lights on and the last picture has part of the sequential turn single on.  

 

Based on what I can see tonight, it sure looks like Revive will be the easy cleanup to my mistake and now I have a new use for Revive since I would have never thought of using it on anything powder coated.  Thanks again Dan, I appreciate the response and recommendation.

 

 

Edited September 14, 2020 by RayS