DIY Sticky Interior Repair using Degreaser and Elbow Grease

DIY Sticky Interior Repair using Degreaser and Elbow Grease

My 2006 F430 Spider has gone sticky, and not just a little. Most are so sticky that if you touch them your finger has a black tar on it that spreads with the same virility as napalm, just without the heat. My interior was great, just a touch sticky but very livable until it went to an unnamed south florida dealer for a header replacement under warranty. The car sat outside for 5 weeks awaiting backordered parts in the Florida summer heat and humidity. The car was returned cleaned but the interior parts had literally failed and melted to a black, tar like goo. There is really no recourse with the dealer, but leaving a 160k car outside, uncovered for 5 weeks in FL is disgraceful.

I realize there is at least one company that will de-sticky your interior pieces for a reasonable price. StickyNoMore for example. Please note that "reasonable" is highly subjective, but all reviews have been positive and this is labor intensive.

My main reason to DIY was that removing the parts to ship and reinstalling them after repair is a lot of work, so as long as I am committing to work, why not try and do it myself.

Now on to my DIY:
==============
*Disclaimer: Results may vary. Do this at your own risk. Some unexpected things happened along the way. Parts break when you try and disassemble them. Do this at your own peril.

1. Wear blue nitrile gloves. They protect your hands from the degreaser and wash clean with a bit of water, much easier than skin.
2. Remove each part from car. Some parts have hidden screws, etc, or require a trick. I will list a few:
-a. Passenger door handle: You have to remove a screw under the pull mechanism, then remove the plastic surround first, this will expose a phillips that holds in the oh-***** handle.
-b. The air vents can be removed by carefully inserting a flat head screwdriver under them in the center and pulling them evenly straight back. Some tabs will break, just use a bit of hot glue to reattach them. Some don't break off, but still have lost their foundation, I hot glued them as well. See pics.
-c. The window buttons, park, hazard I cleaned in the car, fully mounted. It was easy and worked well. I see no need to remove them.
-d. The door handles have a pull to open the door and wiring. I just cleaned the assembly in the car, by removing the one phillips screw and protecting the car with paper. Removing the screw gives you enough room to clean them just fine.
-e. Radio knobs. Very sticky *****es. I removed them by just pulling them off.

3. Spray degreaser [ I used Greased Lightning, buy simple green or the like might work] on the items. Use your blue glove fingers to wipe it around for a minute or so. Wipe off with paper towel, and repeat until the paper towel is clean. *Be careful where you spray the degreaser. Don't go crazy. i.e. the air vents have lubed mechanisms and the degreaser will unlube them. Just spray where its sticky. **Always test a small part first.
***The degreaser will remove all goo, and there was no paint under the goo, from the passenger oh-sht handle bezel (see images). This was a metallic silver after. I painted to match using Rustoleum Automotive Black Flat Enamel (image).

4. Rinse parts with water to remove all degreaser residue.

5. Dry. It helps the parts dry faster if you are consuming your favorite beverage.

6. Assembly is the opposite of disassembly

So I only had one part that needed to be painted. The rest wiped clean. The part is the passenger handle bezel as shown. It took me all of 5 minutes to spray it flat black and get back to business.

Notes:
===============
a. When cleaning buttons in the car, don't go cray with the degreaser. Just spray it on a paper towel, and then wipe the part. Let the chemical do the work! Then make sure to wipe a few times with a water soaked paper towel.
b. Protect your leather. I taped surrounding leather
c. You can remove your switches, help yourself, but did not seem to be necessary in my case.
d. I also cleaned the AC control numbers and icons. They were somehow sticky as well. I just wiped over them a few times.

How long did it take?
================
About 2 hours total, for all pieces:
-5x air vents. I also hot glued the tabs as needed.
-7+ buttons. Windows, parking lights, hazards, reverse, auto, top, rear glove box, etc
-2x door handel assemblies
-1x lower steering surround
-2x radio knobs (I removed these for cleaning, they come off)


What were the side effects or unintended results?
=======================================
1. I lost the white text on the driver door handle "Lock" lettering. The passenger side was fine? I suppose the driver door was half gone to begin with.
2. I lost the white arrows for the air vents.
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Well for some parts removal was easy, like the air vents. But to remove the door handles would have been another hour or so to remove and reinstall the door panels. So lets say in general removal/reinstallation is 50% of the work.

I used care.
1. Spray degreaser on paper towel, not the switch.
2. Rub gently as not to make the degreaser leak into the switch cracks
3. Repeat 1) and 2) until paper towel is not getting black anymore.
4. Wet a fresh paper towel with water and do the same to remove residue and clean up.

This is the same for any switch you do not de-install. Just use a little degreaser. Soaking the part is not necessary.

Only the top part of the passenger door handle. In the images, its the only part that you can see a metal color during cleaning. Its an oval metal piece with two holes about 3" x 2" x 1.5"

Yes, they were a "little" sticky and I agree they would have failed at some point as all 355, 360, and 430s will eventually. But it was just tacky and did not leave my dates fingers with black tar smudges that only gasoline will remove.

My F1 paddles are aluminum. Yours were plastic with a coating?

Not really. I needed the car for a date, so I just half-arsed it with a quick wipe down. The column was so bad that even carefully inserting my key would leave tar somewhere on my hand. So I cleaned up a bit, like 5 min, but I will revisit it with a disassembly and good clean next week.

 

If you want me to swing by and help you with the first few pieces let me know? As I recall you are in the general Melbourne FL area.

Dont throw rocks around here, many reading this have been married two or more times (not me personally)

True, very rare now a days. I see it only in a few fields;
1. Superbikes
2. Mars rovers (+1 to NASA)
3. LiPoFe batteries (LiPo to some. These are the ones used in Hybrids)
4. Younger women (could just be the ever changing contrast)
5. Cellular telephones; we sure have come a long way from the Motorola Brick aka DynaTAC or 8xxx series (you know you had one), but I dont miss the DynaTACs $3.00 / minute!

 

1. I dont know exactly what the coating is, likely a polymer but feels like plastidip.
If I had to guess the polymer would likely be:
ByWeight%...Chemical
30%............VM&P Naphtha
18%............Hexane
15%............Toluene
5%..............Methyl Ethyl Ketone
26%............Resins
6%..............?

Ferrari uses it on some of their sunglasses and their watch boxes if you want a sample to test with that is not part of your car.

2. The "R" is painted, and in a recess. It should still be there when you are done, but if not you can re-paint it because it is in a recess. My "R" was 100% post cleaning.

3. Once the "sticky" polymer coating is removed, you will have bare paint, not plastic, or at least so it seems on my button.

4. Posting a before and after pic here would be cool.

 

Based on the fact that the goo is on all areas of the sticky part, those toward the sun, and those areas that are almost always shaded I would say direct sunlight is not the sole contributing factor.

Here is my guess;
1. Heat (direct sunlight will directly increase heat)
2. Age
3. Humidity

I do not believe that car care products are part of the problem, nor do I believe that car care products will help prevent the issue.

I do believe that every 360 and F430 will suffer from the "sticky" surface issue at some point

Happy thoughts!