Had been searching my brain trying to remember this product !
Google finally came to the rescue today (DOH)

WIPE NEW

With all the exterior black plasticy / rubbery bits on our cars this should be the magic solution
we all need to use to make them shine again.

Available off ebay if you're lazy or from Autobarn, Auto 1 & PEP's


Go onto youtube if you don't believe it but daaaaayum it's good

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Speed is subjective to only how far you keep your right foot down..

Hi MadazInBris,

this doesn't have the same effect as the old "ArmorAll" (i.e. seemingly dissolve the top layer of plastic to put a sheen on it) does it?

ArmorAll ended up being somewhat terrible stuff, apart from some people seemingly being allergic to it (or the perfume) the short-term appearance improvement was overruled by the lasting damage...it also tended to remove black paint from painted trim and cloud clear lensing (e.g. instrument cluster) even with overspray/drifting mist, if I remember rightly. It could also dull/weaken/blur the "grain" pattern of the plastic, especially after several applications.

Anyway I hope it's better than that and stays so!

Cheers,

Patrick

You just dredged up long forgotten memories (the 80's) of Armoral & YES you are correct !

In no way shape or form would I use this product on interior plastics (ie vinyl) but it seems to be pretty damn good on exterior plastics & oddly enough on clear plastic headlights.

Possibly due to its polymer chemical base that's a long way from 80's technology.
Will be treating all the black rubber outer trims shortly & hoping so, lol

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Speed is subjective to only how far you keep your right foot down..

I just looked up the SDS for Wipe All, it lists two main chemicals:

CAS 98-56-6 Benzene, 1 -chloro-4-(trifluoromethyl)
which means 1-chloro-4-(trifluoromethyl)benzene

CAS 540-88-5 tert-Butyl acetate

Anything which mentions benzene should be regarded with suspicion to human health, anything with chloro-, fluro- etc. not only to health but the environment, ozone layer, etc. as well.

Now whilst the -benzene chemical doesn't seem to be directly carcinogenic it DOES have effects. You should use gloves with it, I assume preferably rubber-based ones (they quote neoprene). I suspect plastic ones (like nitrile- the (generally) blue examination gloves) aren't up to it given the product is designed to affect plastic...

One video I viewed showed the fumes, even outside, are strong.

So also use a well ventilated area, proper clothing, eye protection, appropriate gloves, long clothing, etc.

Patrick

Regarding benzene that few know about cars, is that running modern petrol in an old leaded car
OR by removing your catalytic converter then produces a crap ton of benzene from the exhaust
that in my opinion is actually worse than the original leaded petrol ever was

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Speed is subjective to only how far you keep your right foot down..

Just rang the Australian suppliers of this & got the thumbs up regarding natural rubber,
neoprene style moldings, vinyl dashes & trims etc as it is SAFE to use on all of these.

From http://www.wipenewpro.com/wipe-new-original/

Restores and protects from oxidation, fading and sun damage
Provides UV Protection
No Silicone, No Oils, No Mess
Use on dashboards, door panels, leather and vinyl seats and trim
Also use on plastic and rubber bumpers, trim, mirror housings, roof racks, grilles, cowls and more
Non-greasy, no-slip formula is safe to use on steering wheels, running boards and more

Thanks MadazInBris,

the one thing I've been worried about is the exposed rubber seals in the Harsh Aussie climate (UV) for the frameless windows.

Patrick

Same here as I'd been battling the MX-6's ones for the past 3 years.

If used on INTERIOR parts though the vehicle needs to sit OPEN for probably 48hrs as
WIPE NEW stinks like a total beearch & needs to air a LOT !

Degreasing / wiping parts with alcohol etc will give the best adherence results too

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Speed is subjective to only how far you keep your right foot down..

Went out today & bought some ($39.99 AUD) from Autobarn,
Now to strip off all the protectorant I only applied 2 Sundays ago

Pics to come of before & after BUT there actually wont be a huge difference on my trims
as the car's always been garaged & they still are 99.9 % shiny & perfect.
Just want to keep them that way !!

Will be doing the ROLA roof racks 1st as they really do need a shine up


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Speed is subjective to only how far you keep your right foot down..

The problem is all my gear's in pretty good nick here lol.
I can visually see a good difference but don't know if it'll be picked up by camera ?
Guess you'll have to take my word on it !

Before




After..


Before is the mount on the left - After on the right


mmmmmm.... SHINY

And as I said all my exterior bits are perfect but let's make them even better


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Speed is subjective to only how far you keep your right foot down..

Okay after a bit more thought I applied a 2nd coat
Should've applied it heavier 1st time !!




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Speed is subjective to only how far you keep your right foot down..

Personally I have used the Auto Glyms trim restorer. I have also heard rumours of using peanut butter (yes you read that right) to bring trims back to black.

I also protect my plastics after with 303 Aerospace which has worked really well for me

How long do you find the autoglym stuff lasts?

Well I used it on some really bad faded bumpers on one of my old shitty dailies and it seemed to last quite a while. Didn't have to do it again in the time I had the car so that was about 3 or 4 months I had the car.

So I acquired these Rola roof racks for the princely sum of $20. These items are the same as Madazinbris' above, just a bit older and in need of some more care.


Structurally robust, after 21 years they’re in need of a little TLC to the finish.

Both an item restoration and a plastic cleaning experiment for me, it’s a win-win-win-win:
- an experiment to learn
- the racks only cost $20 so I can’t lose much
- they’re not actually part of the car so I won’t harm it inadvertently
- and I’m unlikely to hurt the racks structurally anyway.

I’d done a little internet research, and ended up with the following products, mostly ‘cos with sales on the Meguiar’s stuff was all sold out! The products are a plastic/vinyl cleaner/prep and a non-blackening plastic/vinyl protectant. It’s also not that horribly greasy/oily silicone type stuff and both products seem to have little if any of the volatile organic/petrochemical solvents.


My cleaning/prep products were: 3 buckets, several rags, couple of brushes, the plastic cleaner and protectant, some car wash and for the painted metal Meguiar’s Paint cleaner wax (not shown).

Bowden’s own comes from the Bowden family- a major car collector in Oz. Have a look at bowdensown.com.au if you’re interested.

Unfortunately to transport the racks I had taped them together with packing tape, which had deposited its gum on the surface. So there was liberal use of eucalyptus oil, ethanol and fingernails for some time to clean that off beforehand.

The products worked well. Cleaning and protecting was easy, just took a little time and 35C helps with the drying time! First, of course, was disassembly which is very easy. As all parts are aluminium, stainless or plastic there has been no corrosion. I did one bar first for comparison then completed the other.
- Clean the plastic parts with carwash first (ingrained dirt, etc), rinsed & dry.
- Cleaned the plastic parts down with plastic cleaner & rag, rinse & dry.
- Apply protectant to plastic parts, wipe off excess & allow to dry.
- Apply second coat of protectant, wipe off excess & allow to dry.

The painted surfaces were quite faded but the paint was intact- image below of half polished (upper), half not (lower) bar.
- Wash down with carwash, rinse & dry
- Polish with paint cleaner wax & buff off twice


Now whilst the plastic protector has not blackened the parts, the difference is still quite large. They (almost) look new. For both technique and comparison purposes I did one rack at a time, so here are the before-and-after comparison photos with one rack done:





I finished after dark so it was too late to mount them (or take photos) so that can wait ‘til next time!

Patrick

I was able to get back up to the car, so finally an update!

I treated the rest of the trim around the car with the same products, namely the door handles, window surrounds, drip/roof rail lines, boot lid rubber strip trim. Haven't done the window scuttle (yet) or the mirrors, the mirrors are a glossy hard plastic and probably not suitable- nor do they appear to need it.

Product pic again for ref...


The "Sublime Clean" cleans and preps the plastic for the "Vinyl Revival." "Sublime Clean" is quite good at getting rid of any wax/polish overprint on trim from careless polishers like me.

The products are pleasant and effective to use, non-siliconey, non-greasy and don't seem to be full of harsh/noxious chemicals but nevertheless I wear gloves. You don't need to use much, either! If you can find them I'd suggest they're worth a go- dunno about EU/UK as they're Australian-based products.

Unfortunately I don't have a close-up of the results (my oversight) but you can refer to the post above for the effect on the roof racks. So mounting the roof racks and giving the tyres a quick squirt of tyre sheen and the the car looks quite good...apart from the 20+ y. o. mag paint which is quite obviously suffering now!


As for the interior, that's a slightly different story worthy of another post...see below!

Cheers,

Patrick

Having finished off (well, almost) the exterior trim above I got to work on the interior trim.

'Cos I like to support my local manufacturing (of which there is near-as-none left) I added to my trim refresh products, basically another bottle "Vinyl Care" from the same Aussie manufacturer which is designed for the interior rather than exterior trim:


The process is similar to the exterior, clean with the "Sublime Clean" and then use the "Vinyl Care." The areas I treated were the dashboard top, cluster, vent and centre console surrounds, steering wheel, door handles, levers, door trims (plastic not fabric), some switches (e.g. electric windows) and plastic sill plates. I was careful with the switchgear lest the product remove the switchgear labels- an issue I have had previously with other products. I used the steering wheel as the "litmus test" for ny residues.

The "Vinyl Care" again claims to be non-silicone, non-greasy and won't harm most anything. I'm pleased to report that is the case- no residue seemingly on anything, no harm to the switchgear or surfaces nor seemingly any nasty impregnation or dissolution of the surface. The results are also (mostly) very good, see photos below. BUT (rant on)...the smell- not fragrance!. It's that sickly-sweet nauseating bubble-gum smell we all remember from our childhood that vaguely reminds you of spew. Memories com flooding back...

Sticky-yukky bubblegum under the desk? Yep.

That awful feeling squishy feeling and you realise you've just stepped on semi-liquid bubble gum on hot tar and now you need to spend minutes cleaning it off? You got it.

That slightly nauseating feeling in your stomach that half reminds you of spewing after eating too many lollies at a birthday party (Slightly??? Did I say slightly???!!). UUUUGGGHHH!

You'd almost not buy the product again because of the bad smell memories, in spite of the results. Luckily it doesn't linger in/on the trim. GET RID OF THE PONG, BOWDEN'S!!! (And that's not just done to prove I'm not some corporate lackey)

(rant off)
Ahem...Where was I? Oh yes, the results...

Well I didn't take a photo of the dashboard top because, well, there wasn't much difference to it at all. It remained a dull rather aged&dry looking matte grey. I suspect it may have been the victim of some previous application of an inferior product.

Now the rest of it went well. In fact, better than I expected. In particular, this product works very well on "hard" plastics. The black plastic centre-console and cluster surrounds were the best, followed by handles, switchgear, scuff plates, interior mouldings and door trim.

Here's a before&after (half/half) example of the cluster surround. Note the product needs to be applied in cool/shady conditions (i.e. not with the dash baking in the sun...not unreasonable really)
so the photo was taken inside and is slightly difficult to see, I've enhanced the brightness/contrast and I think you get the idea. Treated left, untreated right.


Only when you get the car out in the sunlight does the effectiveness become really apparent. Even without a before&after photo comparison you can see the effect.


The slight mottling on the steering wheel is probably due to my non-even application in the semi-dark, perhaps a flash effect coupled with plastic patterning...and the fact the horn is extremely touchy and went off all the time whilst restoring!


Dash really looks nice now, black parts almost look new.

Cheers,

Patrick

nice work mate and some good information for people looking at different cleaning solutions! Top work!

I have one question though - WHAT THE HELL ARE THOSE SEAT COVERS?

^^ Lambs..

Cheers!

Ahh yes, well, ahem... !
They're lambswool covers, leftover from when my Dad owned it. Given it's stored at his place I thought I'd leave them on.

Besides, they're comfortable and protect the seat fabric. (Aaargh! Did I really say that??? Old age setting in!!! )

Really, you can't complain now as they've been there almost 2 years since some of my first pics!

Now if only I can get some lambswool-covered Recaros...

Patrick

I guessed it right! YES!

I use 303 product. It won't make plastics/rubbers really dark but it offers UV protection.