Does Anything Really Help

[venus]

With protecting and refurbishing dashboards, consoles, plastic in the interior. I’ve been using Griots product on my Z, Ferrari, RX-7 & Miata. Seems less greasy than the standard Armor All stuff. But does anything really PROTECT?

[FastWoman]

Two things happen to plastics. First, the plasticizers (oily substances that keep the plastics flexible) slowly evaporate and leach out of the material, making it brittle. Second, UV light and oxygen slowly oxidize the plastics, weakening them, breaking polymer chains, and turning them essentially into powder. Keeping the plastics out of the heat will slow the loss of plasticizers. Keeping oils on them (e.g. Armorall) will help replace lost plasticizers and will form a bit of a barrier to oxygen. Keeping them out of the sun will minimize UV exposure. As far as I know, that's about all you can do.

Let me know if you need extra garage space. I might have room for that Ferrari somewhere.

Edited May 1, 2011 by FastWoman

[5thhorsemann]

I read somewhere years ago, can't recall where, that plastics, and vinyl in particular can become "addicted" to products like Armorall, and can prematurely fail if regular usage stops.

I use Mothers Back to Black which is more suited to seal the dash and seats, rather than adding incompatable oils to the old plastic parts. And I also keep from parking in the direct sunlight as much as I can. No cracks anywhere.

I don't know if that is best, or just some bad habbit I picked up due to misinformation, and I'm just lucky.