RE: back to black

["Sheffield Corey" <SHEF@omdc.gso.uri.edu>]

Jeremy@Auburn says:
>My personal opinion on Armor All is that it doesn't protect at all unless
>you re-apply it every two weeks.  Every dash I've ever seen that was once
>Alled and then not consistently Alled thereafer was dry and severely
>cracked.  I've never used the product on my dash, and after 10 years it's
>in great shape (albeit a little dirty).

Thanx Jeremy,

        I appreciate your help in curing my dash/rear spoiler dilemma. I'm a
little leary of using a paint type product on my rubber spoiler. My past
experience is that nothing will ever stick to a plastic/rubber surface that has
been ArmorAll'd or equivalent product treated. The spoiler is probably some
form of urethane foam, but it has soaked up a scarey amount of protectant
products. On the ArmorAll front: in my collection of rolling "goodies" I've got
a '72 Mercury Montego MX Brougham w/ dark green vinyl roof. I got the car from
my great aunt's estate in 1980 and keep it for it's class IV trailer hitch.
Once a year I ArmorAll that vinyl roof and there ain't a crack in it. The car
sits in the sun all year; the paint is practically nonexistent, but the vinyl
roof and dash are fine. Unfortunately, because it is always garaged or covered
I have not been as careful with my '66 Vette and now have a small crack starting
just in front of the "handhold" on the passenger side dash. I DO NOT recommend
it for seats though, makes 'em REAL slippery. Made the mistake of using
ArmorAll on the "monoposto" seat of my '77 BMW R100RS, because the bike would
sit out in the sun all summer; all "butt grip" was lost and never came back!!!
I'm fairly certain the Audi dashes are made of the same "stuff" the VW dashes
are and I've seen some real "ugly" VW dashes; I am just trying to keep my
Audi's from gettin' that way. Yellowy/orange foam peeking out through cracked
black vinyl....ooowww! very ugly!!

        But thanx again for your suggestions, Jeremy. Maybe one of our chemist
friends has some thoughts on this?

                                                        Happy motoring,

                                                                        Shef