Sticky Plastics/Switches - The Cure

Sticky Plastics/Switches - The Cure

Author
Discussion

ZeroH

Original Poster:

2,904 posts

188 months

Tuesday 2nd March 2021
quotequote all
Whilst my car is being looked after by AV Eng. I wanted the door panel trim, which was horribly sticky and unpleasant to touch (especially on the pax side where you hold the grab handle), to be sorted... as shown:







Aldous recommended Roland @ Sticky Plastics... and kindly took apart all the trim and sent it off to him to be sorted.
I know theres various ways of treating this issue, but Rolands way is the full monte version.... basically involves stripping the parts down to their bare material, priming it, repainting it, laser etching back on the symbols / text, and then the final phase to add the soft touch coating.

To say the result is as good as new is no exaggeration - Roland sent me pics throughout the process and even video of the laser treatment. Aldous has reinstalled the parts and its just pristine.

Hopefully anyone with similar issues (basically every ferrari and maserati owner !!) can rest easy - help is out there !!
















Spleen

5,453 posts

120 months

Tuesday 2nd March 2021
quotequote all
I can also vouch for the Mk1 fingernail as I discovered this weekend.

rolleyes

Nice job on yours though and thanks for the recommendation!

blueg33

35,574 posts

223 months

Tuesday 2nd March 2021
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Fortunately I don’t have sticky switches, I think they have been done. But it would be interesting to have an idea of cost, of is that too vulgar?

tuscaneer

7,738 posts

224 months

Wednesday 3rd March 2021
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it can be done yourself for the cost of a bottle of nail polish remover and cotton wool buds.... it was my electric window switches that were irritating me... took 10 minutes...as good as new

psi310398

9,036 posts

202 months

Wednesday 3rd March 2021
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Or this Dunlop lemon oil for guitars is another cheap DIY approach:

https://www.guitar-galleries.co.uk/products/jim-du...

p4cks

6,885 posts

198 months

Wednesday 3rd March 2021
quotequote all
blueg33 said:
Fortunately I don’t have sticky switches, I think they have been done. But it would be interesting to have an idea of cost, of is that too vulgar?
I'd also be interested in the cost, as I've a car with similar sticky plastics

Bispal

1,603 posts

150 months

Wednesday 3rd March 2021
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I used Goo Gone and a soft toothbrush on my F355. Worked a treat, each item took 15 minutes and total cost was £7.99 from Amazon....





ZeroH

Original Poster:

2,904 posts

188 months

Wednesday 3rd March 2021
quotequote all
I think how you can address the issue very much depends on the part.

Some parts will clean down to bare plastic and the using any cleaner will remove the soft touch coating which goes sticky. Depending on how the symbol/text is applied at the factory, you may or may not lose them. Obviously with this DIY approach you don't get the soft touch feel anymore. I think its different again with metal parts which are painted black before any clearcoat.

Pays your money, takes your choice - I wanted the job done professionally and to factory standard... cost for those asking was just £350 albeit that included an offer. I know of other indy's charging £800 for the same.... so between £3.50 for nail varnish and £800 theres quite the choice here laugh


Edited by ZeroH on Wednesday 3rd March 09:41

SFO

5,162 posts

182 months

Wednesday 3rd March 2021
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Same issue in my Mum's VW Beetle. I used baby wipes to scrub and scrub. All cleaned.

tuscaneer

7,738 posts

224 months

Wednesday 3rd March 2021
quotequote all
ZeroH said:
I think how you can address the issue very much depends on the part.

Some parts will clean down to bare plastic and the using any cleaner will remove the soft touch coating which goes sticky. Depending on how the symbol/text is applied at the factory, you may or may not lose them. Obviously with this DIY approach you don't get the soft touch feel anymore. I think its different again with metal parts which are painted black before any clearcoat.

Pays your money, takes your choice - I wanted the job done professionally and to factory standard... cost for those asking was just £350 albeit that included an offer. I know of other indy's charging £800 for the same.... so between £3.50 for nail varnish and £800 theres quite the choice here laugh


Edited by ZeroH on Wednesday 3rd March 09:41
don't forget the cotton wool buds at 79p too! biggrin

incidentally, your interior colour scheme matches mine exactly!... can't be many with that leather/carpet colour combo... and i see you also have a proper gearbox as well wink

ZeroH

Original Poster:

2,904 posts

188 months

Wednesday 3rd March 2021
quotequote all
tuscaneer said:
don't forget the cotton wool buds at 79p too! biggrin

incidentally, your interior colour scheme matches mine exactly!... can't be many with that leather/carpet colour combo... and i see you also have a proper gearbox as well wink
RC + beige with red stitching and bordeaux carpets - agree its such a great colour combo !

I guess only difference between us then is that I have the sunshine version cool


tuscaneer

7,738 posts

224 months

Wednesday 3rd March 2021
quotequote all
ZeroH said:
RC + beige with red stitching and bordeaux carpets - agree its such a great colour combo !

I guess only difference between us then is that I have the sunshine version cool

never driven one with no lid before... i can imagine the engine at full throttle sounds even better...

Bispal

1,603 posts

150 months

Wednesday 3rd March 2021
quotequote all
ZeroH said:
I think how you can address the issue very much depends on the part.

Some parts will clean down to bare plastic and the using any cleaner will remove the soft touch coating which goes sticky. Depending on how the symbol/text is applied at the factory, you may or may not lose them. Obviously with this DIY approach you don't get the soft touch feel anymore. I think its different again with metal parts which are painted black before any clearcoat.

Pays your money, takes your choice - I wanted the job done professionally and to factory standard... cost for those asking was just £350 albeit that included an offer. I know of other indy's charging £800 for the same.... so between £3.50 for nail varnish and £800 theres quite the choice here laugh


Edited by ZeroH on Wednesday 3rd March 09:41
That's a good price, I would have paid that but was quoted thousands! So did it myself. The reason I sold my F355 was because of constant rip-off pricing from specialists, I got fed up of having my pants pulled down and spanked! And there was no option if you can't spanner yourself (obviously I can use a toothbrush). But £350 very reasonable, well done! I hope the new soft coating doesn't go sticky again?



Bebs

2,913 posts

280 months

Wednesday 3rd March 2021
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I was about to start a sticky plastics thread when I spotted this one.
Funnily enough, Aldous @ AV just removed the entire collection of switchgear etc from my car and Roland went to work on it yesterday.


ZeroH

Original Poster:

2,904 posts

188 months

Wednesday 3rd March 2021
quotequote all
Bispal said:
That's a good price, I would have paid that but was quoted thousands! So did it myself. The reason I sold my F355 was because of constant rip-off pricing from specialists, I got fed up of having my pants pulled down and spanked! And there was no option if you can't spanner yourself (obviously I can use a toothbrush). But £350 very reasonable, well done! I hope the new soft coating doesn't go sticky again?
Yes some places take the piss on pricing just because they can.

From my experience of using Aldous for the past 5 years, I implicitly trust that AV Eng. have both my wallet and my cars best interests at heart, and thats worth its weight in gold !

Finding specialists with integrity who are also enthusiasts themselves, makes the prospect of owning these cars without warranty so much more palatable.

ZeroH

Original Poster:

2,904 posts

188 months

Wednesday 3rd March 2021
quotequote all
Bebs said:
I was about to start a sticky plastics thread when I spotted this one.
Funnily enough, Aldous @ AV just removed the entire collection of switchgear etc from my car and Roland went to work on it yesterday.

Wow... my sticky plastics got nothing on your sticky plastics !! They look pretty nasty !

blueg33

35,574 posts

223 months

Wednesday 3rd March 2021
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Even the Becker radios manage to have sticky knobs.....ooh errr

robsco

7,822 posts

175 months

Wednesday 3rd March 2021
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To those reading about people recommending baby wipes and elbow grease. Yes the finish comes off eventually but the switches below are light primer grey, not black. I tried it on some of my Quattroporte switches. Therefore you’ll be left with a mismatch of colours, unless you remove the coating from every switch.

PS - to the OP, is it me or are there still scratches visible at the bottom of your door trim bins in the photo?

Roland_StickyPlastics

1 posts

36 months

Thursday 4th March 2021
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Hi, no scratches, what you can see is the leather insert. These can be recovered easy enough smile I see no adverting allowed so will leave it at that.

Spleen

5,453 posts

120 months

Thursday 4th March 2021
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I'm going to have another go this weekend, my reverse button is particularly horrible.