Re: Dash Care -Reply

[Gross Scruggs <GScruggs@wposmtp.nps.navy.mil>]

I agree with the 'no vaseline' sentiment re dash care.  Reason is that rubber
and plastic are both long chain polymers.  Their flexibility is due to the
characteristic that they don't 'cross link' yet stay in long, flexible molecular
chains.  When unattached molecules happen by, depending on what kind they are,
they can give up molecules which provide that undesired cross-linking and render
the rubber/plastic hard, inflexible and soon-- cracked.  Molecules floating
around in the air naturally find a home in our plastic/rubber and cause this
cross-link.  Perhaps the worst substance for accelerating this tendancy is any
petroleum based product.  They contain an abundance of sulphur which readily
abandons its home for our dash and tires.  Any chemists out there feel free to
elaborate and correct my story.

The answer is those silicon-suspension applicants: Armor All, Son of a Gun and
such.  Don't like the sheen it leaves on your dash - use the low gloss variant. 
The silicone present in these products 'fills' the space where the sulplur
molecule would go, but it doesn't bond there it only rests.  That stuff really
works.  Read an article by the guy responsible for maintenance at Harrah's, and
although he didn't say which brand, said they bought that stuff by the case. 
Good for floor mats, too, he said, but they don't drive their cars.  

I've been using ArmorAll since 1974, when you could only get it mail-order. 
Bought a '74 Fiat TwinCam Sedan while living in Key West, dark blue, tan plastic
interior, no tinted glass, no air conditioning.  Three years there then six in
Daytona Beach.  This car spent it's life in some serious sun conditons.  When I
sold it a 96kmi, to a friend, the interior looked new except for a dime sized
spot on the back of the back seat which was beginning to discolor and get hard. 
Friend of mine with a '76 Fiat Coupe, no ArmorAll, his interior looked as if a
grenade had had gone off in it, stuffing everywhere, cracked giblets of plastic
all over.  Just sold my '87 Toyota Camry, DC Beltway commuter, 153kmi, to a
friend.  Interior plastic and fabric were perfect.  I've used several of the
silicon suspensions, now use only the low-gloss versions, and have had good luck
with all of them on plastic, rubber, and fabrics.  

I am not as comfortable with silicon on leather, however.  Leather, a 'natural'
product has to be treated a bit differently.  For leather I use Lexol, have for
years, and find it a very good product.  

Regards,  Gross Scruggs
'87 5kTQ