Sticky Plastics/Switches - The Cure

[ZeroH]

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 !!

[ZeroH]

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

Edited by ZeroH on Wednesday 3rd March 09:41

[ZeroH]

tuscaneer said:

don't forget the cotton wool buds at 79p too!

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

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

[ZeroH]

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]

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 !

[ZeroH]

Durzel said:

What causes this to happen?

Also +1 on £350 sounding like a reasonable price given the amount of labour (and care) involved. The end result in the OP looks really good!

Thanks v much !

Ferrari coat a lot of their switches with a rubber coating which when new has a really nice texture to the touch. Nice aesthetic also.... but over time, especially in hotter climates, the coating kind of melts and just gets sticky.

Its taken almost 15yrs for my cars bits to get to the point of really needing a refurb and the treatment Roland gave them provides the OE texture but actually uses a harder wearing coating so should last for longer.