I know this subject has received a lot of attention but ... I spent ages doing the Methyl Ethyl Ketone (MET) trick followed by wet/dry paper, followed by paint spray. FORGET IT ALL ...... Someone some time ago said try Oven Cleaner .... bless you my son/daughter!!! I tried it .. cheap can 97 c out of Walmart. Worked BRILLIANTLY. Not only did it get the goo off, but it retained the black plastic color... i.e. no painting. I had the tricky 355 side air vents to do and was not relishing all the MET work etc. Sprayed on the oven cleaner .. left it for 1/2 hour. Washed the stuff off and did a repeat. Finished the piece with a light scrub with a brush. Works very very well and takes a fraction of the time with the MET. Regards, Pete
You can also use Goof Off 2 with Qtips if you don't want to take the parts out of the car to spray them with oven cleaner. IT worked really well for me and took very little time (about three hours for all A/C vents, center console, and the triangle pieces that hold the side mirros. BT
Just saw a big red flag here... MEK is VERY nasty stuff, and should never be used for anything other than as a catalyst for polyester resin (ie fibreglass). check out http://www.nsc.org/library/chemical/Methyl_E.htm Be careful out there... Dave
Don't think MEK (used as cleaning agent) is to be confused with MEKP (used as resin hardener). Both are nasty, but MEKP is the real bad a$$.
Maybe I got it confused across international boundaries. I have always known the polyester catalyst as MEK. Damned Aussies
HEY - ill take the props for the oven cleaner, it was my "invention" ....im glad it worked for you! i work with mek all the time- its a high flash point solvent, methyl ethyl ketone. no to be confused with its variant methyl ethyl ketone PEROXIDE! the mek is the vehicle to transfer the peroxide, a catalyst for resin chemical reaction. it will chemical burn the hell out of you if you get it on you. please stay away from it. stay w the oven cleaner...!
im based in new zealand and have a problem (which i assume is the one you are refering to) with the air vents going all sticky as if they had partially melted? the other point i wished to clarify is the active ingredient in oven cleaner over there. here all the oven cleaners are pretty bloody caustic, and you need to use rubber gloves. is that the same there. if not i dont want to go spraying the syuff on the vents and melt them. cheers
Has anyone ever been able to determine what Ferrari was originally thinking when they applied whatever that stuff is int he first place? If it is just black plastic underneath it anyway, what was the point?
Probably a cheap way to make hard thin plastic seem a bit more expensive when the magazine hack hits it with his fingernail. Why they continued to use it after it was proved to be no good though...
Sodium Hydroxide is the main constituent of oven cleaners ... caustic and nasty if it gets on your skin. Didn't harm any of the hard plastic bits I did, and did an excellent job of the air vents. Use some rubber gloves ... spray the stuff on .. leave it for ~ 1 hr ... rinse in water and repeat. I used a stiff brush ... nylon .. to clean the last bits off.
I think I read once that it was to reduce glare. Ofcourse it goes to goo if you use any silicone based cleaner .. Armorol etc. In the hand book .. that I never read .. it says clean plastic bits with soapy water. Mea culpa mea culpa .... dah de dah de dah
