"solution” for melting/sticky rubber-plastic interior pieces

I stumbled across a “solution” for the melting/sticky rubber-plastic problem that I’ve been having on my 2001 360. It’s not a fix per se, but I think it’s about as close to a convenient fix as there ever will be.

At least for my 360, I found that 70% isopropyl alcohol (I chose to use B-D brand alcohol pads that you can find anywhere) will basically dissolve away the melted/tacky rubber-plastic instantly and leave any good surfacing underneath alone.

http://www.cvs.com/CVSApp/cvs/gateway/detail?prodid=619809

In my experience, it was quite amazing. When I say instant, I mean instant. Wipe on, wipe off a couple times and it’s over. The great thing about isopropyl on the melted rubber-plastic is that it lubricates the surface so it’s easy to wipe off the gunk.

My door handle and release were very tacky and my ashtray cover was worse… it looked like smudged liquid tar. It took about 60 seconds to remove all the tackiness leaving a smooth tack free finish that is holding up a month later. I’ve also tried this on some knobs that were slightly tacky (worked there too). The only tacky piece that seemed resistant was the panel that has the hazard switch and side mirror controls. For whatever reason, that piece, while not bad, still remains slightly tacky so this 70% isopropyl alcohol didn’t bat 100 for me, but I’d give it an A+++ regardless.

Anyway, on the first shot, I gave a good rubdown on all my tacky/melted interior pieces… I got most of what I wanted to done in a couple minutes. It’s been a month now and I haven’t seen any deterioration so I feel safe in recommending this method now. From what I’m seeing, I’m guessing that removing the melted gunk is slowing down/preventing the depolymerization/melting of the good rubber-plastic underneath.

Thoughts:
1) B-D and high quality swabs are the way to go, they have thick pads that can absorb a nice amount of the goo. If you go for cheaper store brand swabs, they tend to be thin and papery.
2) If you wipe down with the pads and let things air-dry, you will probably leave some hazy swirls on some of the pieces. You can prevent this by having a damp 100% lint-free cloth-like paper towel ready to quickly wipe the pieces down before they air dry from the isopropyl. Be careful here... this step might not be worth it if you don’t have the right towels. Even though the isopropyl will be taking the gunk off on the surfaces, there are inevitably going to be tiny crevices and edges where you can’t get at unless you remove the part from the car. What I’m trying to say here is, if you’re not careful and use normal paper towels, you’re going to have non-tacky surfaces with little lint pieces stuck on the crevices and edges where you couldn’t get good rubbing with the isopropyl pads.
I’d recommend using these cloth-like paper towels or something close. http://www.officedepot.com/ddSKU.do?level=SK&id=849320&Ntt=towels&uniqueSearchFlag=true&An=text


OK, I guess I’ll end it here with a couple pics. The 2 pics you will see are the touchup job pics where I go do touchup jobs on the door handle and ashtray cover 1 month after the initial cleanup. I wish I took pics on the original cleanings 1 month ago, but I did this isopropyl thing more on a whim and was surprised/amazed at how it was working. Basically, it was in a dark parking lot before going to dinner, I had about 3 minutes and brought down a bunch of pads and it worked on everything it touched. I did it in the dark so it wasn’t an ideal situation to do a complete job.

Picture1:
For the door handle “BEFORE” pic, notice the left edge where it took it down to the metal but left alone the surrounding good rubber-plastic. Also notice the door handle cup area circled on the right side, see the hazy mess at the bottom. That hazy mess is actually the goo/tacky substance that initially covered the whole door handle/release lever. 1 month ago, on the initial cleanup, I didn’t pay attention to cleaning out the bottom area of the door handle cup so it left a good opportunity for a before and after picture today.

In the “AFTER” pic, the goo is gone and the surface is non-tacky like the rest of the door handle. Please note, the AFTER color in the door handle cup is pretty uniform to the eye. The color difference you might see in the pic is more due to the front area of cup was “wet” with isopropyl at the time of the pic. When dry, everything was uniform. Also, the yellow window shows some B-D swabs after wiping off the goop.

Picture 2:

In the “BEFORE” pic, focus on the red rectangle in the top right corner of the ashtray. It shows a tarry smudge on a spot I missed on the initial cleanup. On the after pic, it’s gone. Also, in the after pic, I did a pretty good job of wiping the piece down after the isopropyl to reduce the overall hazing that you see in the Before pic. However, in the after shot, there’s a little hazing I missed this time around right in front of the grab lip for the ashtray lid.

I’ll make this post here and in the techncal Q&A.. I’d like to make this post in the 355 area too, but I don't want to spam this post everywhere, although this melting issue affects a lot of different models and I think people who are affected will really want to see this post. Please pass this info around and please only post questions to me in the 360 forum. Good luck --- John

P.S. I was surprised to see my JL Audio subwoofer that I keep behind the driver’s had speaker surrounds that crumbled to the touch. I wonder if it underwent the same “stress” as the rubber-plastic in the interior. JL Audio is an elite brand and I had the sub for 4.5 years. The speaker was blown, but what was interesting is, when I pressed the speaker cone foam surrounds, they crumbled like damp cornbread with a very light touch. I have to believe this is not normal for a 4.5 year old JL audio sub. I wonder if this melting issue has nothing to do with UV nor cleaning chemicals (Which the subwoofer was never exposed to). Maybe it has more to do with something universal like exhaust gases that filter into the cabin? Ie. maybe people who experience the worst problems either have more leakage or maybe after a drive, they have their windows rolled up and the engine running for a bit before shutting off. I would tend to believe an explanation like that more now after seeing the subwoofer.
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Great write up. I was told by JL a few years back that the detonation of the foam was due to 3 things UV, humidity and lack of use (sitting).

 

I'm not so sure I'll be replacing any more rubberized pieces as their failure rate is awfully high. As they "tar" I'll be wiping them down. My passenger door is like tar too, so I'll be giving it the treatment. I already wiped down the pull handle stays and I believe they look better anyway. Anyone wanting to buy these cars from us at some point will certainly understand and probably appreciate the effort. Knowing what I know now, I wouldn't care if the entire car had been "tar-less" when I bought it.

 

I had a pair of Infinity home speakers with the same problem. Always been inside, climate
controlled. Though did go through long periods of non-use after the kids were born.
I had a local speaker repair specialist rebuild the foam surrounds for low dollars.
Been good for many years since.


Lou

 

One question.
Doesnt that isopropyl alcohol erases the lettering on the buttons ?
I dying to try this on my spyder 2004 but im wondering if those markings letters symbols etc go away ...
Joao

 

I was thinking this too. Aren't the letters/symbols printed on top of the rubber coating?

 

I think it does remove the lettering, and the surface texture ends up being harder than it was originally, but if you're dealing with the "tar" level of stickiness, it's really the OP's technique or buying new ones.

 

You don't think that stickynomore and stickyrx are an option too?

(its what many, many owners do)

 

The graphics will be removed on some parts that have silk screened graphics on top of the coating. The ones that have factory laser etching will stay if the soft touch is a clear. If it's a black soft touch, bye - bye graphics.

See this thread as it has a lot of technical details:

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/technical-q/520454-understanding-ferraris-sticky-interiors-technical-guide.html

We are the only refinishing company that can restore these parts to a factory correct outcome with laser etched graphics that will be permanent

 

I highly recommend Talc Powder. The flat areas are very easy for obvious reasons. Application to the vertical areas, especially on the doors took some serious ingenuity. Personally I cut up an old medium thickness and finely knitted sweater and sewed it into a small pouch. I put the talc into the pouch and squeeze closed the open end, then shook it up a bit until the powder was coming out the bottom. It may not have been great, but it did the trick. Pull your prancing horse into the garage, open the doors and leave them open. Apply the powder liberally to all areas affected. Leave it for 24 hours, check it a couple times and reapply if there are areas where it seems to have thinned out a bit. Use a dirt devil or some sort of vacuum to clean up the mess and then use a lightly dampened soft sponge to clean up what is left and wipe down with a microfiber cloth.

P.s. I have also heard using an old wedding veil (cut up and using 3 layers and holding it like a pouch (lol) as well as a makeup powder brush work fairly well for application.

P.s.s Use Natural unscented Talcum Powder such as Trident Wetsuit Eze Powder or Fromunda's natural version.

If it is particularly bad, you may have to do one reapplication. Still not working? Try the liquid from an old CD (Compact Disc) cleaning kit (the cheap ones with alcohol in them) or Eye glasses cleaner. They are essentially watered down alcohol. Using 70% Isopropyl is just silly. Try to get it in the 10-30% range. I have not tried it, but maybe mixing it with water at a 2.5:1 water to alcohol ratio.

Enjoy not having a sticky and frustrating vehicle.

 

How do you think your ideas will work on these parts?




Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Talc powder?
Really?
Post pix please.

 

Scott, what we have here is a classic troll. Joined today, digs up and old thread for 1st post. Most certainly a troll

 

Ok. I retread Nic's post. I took the bait. hook, line, and sinker.

 

Just use rubbing alcohol, it works. Most if not all of this re lasering is rubbish. Its just redoing something thats already there

 

LOL, yeah - it's all rubbish

How would you handle this without a laser? Oh, no, we don't use decals


Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Quite amazing to read all this here Dave. Talc Powder, rubbing alcohol …..

In the TR and 458 part is everybody convinced by now that these methods only will ruin the interiour …

And in the end, it may cost triple from what it would have cost if they had send you these parts directly ...

Keep up the good work !

 

What I've never ascertained, despite reading so many excellent threads on this subject (usually with expert input by Dave) is whether Ferraris are particularly prone to this ailment. All my Ferraris have had stickies to a greater or lesser extent, with no difference between those which are used a lot like my 575 and 430 Spider and those which were used less. I'd love to know the answers to two questions:

- Are Ferraris worse than any other car for stickies, and if so why?

- What causes stickies? UV/no UV, usage/no usage, cleaning with certain products/not cleaning...

And there's the biggest question: does many manufacturer not have stickies? I've never had stickies on my AMGs, for example, but that might just be luck.

 

Hi Darius,

Allow me to try and answer your questions:

No, Ferrari is not worst. It's not a Ferrari issue (aside from Ferrari specifying to sub contractors to use soft touch coatings). The issue is soft touch coatings - they don't last (regardless of manufacture it seems)

UV, heat, humidity, chemicals, and time. See the Rotel home theater remote of mine. I bought the system 18 or so years ago and put the remote in a drawer out of sun in a climate control house as I got a programmable remote. Approx 3 years later I needed to get that remote for a special function - it was sticky and I had no idea why, I now know.

Many manufactures have the sticky problem if they used soft touch coatings. Porsche, Mercedes, Audi, Lambo, Alfa, Ferrari, Maserati, etc. Currently Land Rover, Porsche, Audi, McLaren all use hard touch coatings similar to ours. In fact, I'd give ours a run for the money against any of those.

So, your next question will be - "why is Ferrari using these coatings?"

My best guess: 1) when new, they are very nice and self healing from mar. 2) They are thick, self leveling and hide flaws in the base injection molded parts that a hard touch coating will not hide.

Hope that help


Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Just did my ashtray with 70% isopropyl alcohol. It loosens the gunk pretty well. I used some simple green degreaser to finish it off after alcohol wasn't doing as much. Came out fine. Rinsed with water after. I noticed only the really sticky broken down coating comes off easily. Some parts that aren't that sticky yet won't come off easy. I will be tackling next piece soon.
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

fwiw, I did rubbing alchohol on my steering column cover and dash top corner air vents with great success. There are no graphics on them so no big deal. I’ve used Sticky No More in the past and the results were fantastic as well. If I have to redo parts that need graphics, I’ll ship them off to get done. Not many of those in a CS though.

 

Sure there are

Here are just a few

We've been updating our photos so I don't have am HVAC panel or vent ring pictures handy.


Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Those round knobs are the easiest to do. No relasering needed, just a waste of money. Just use rubbing alcohol and the goo comes off. No crummy decals are needed. Same with steering covers and astray

 

I have had Dave do several parts and his work is FAR better than what can be achieved with rubbing alcohol. I get that some of you want to do this on the cheap, have at it. The difference shows as cars age and the cream rises to the top. To me it is about quality of work, not absolute cost.

 

Really? Please tell me how these would be done without fully refinishing and laser etching?


Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login