My Nissan's got this stuff surrounding the outside of the door handles and door mirrors. It's a hard plastic, seemingly covered in tiny dimples. If I get any polish on it, it goes a white, cloudy colour that doesn't want to come off.
Any suggestions to anything to clean it that I'd find in the average garage/kitchen, that won't dissolve it?
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Autoglym bumper care. Well, it's found in my garage at least.
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I always found WD40 would smarten black trim up.
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I've heard that too but, being paraffin based, I'm not sure it does the plastic any favours long term.
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>> Autoglym bumper care. Well, it's found in my garage at least.
For door handles you may find the less thick Autoglym Vinyl and Rubber Care does the job. I use both depending on whether getting the thicker Bumper Care gel in the nooks and crannies is a problem.
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Toothbrush (but not your own :-) ) for nooks and crannies.
Autoglym bumper care put on with a toothbrush and scrubbed lightly will bring the plastic up pristine.
I've heard peanut butter will also do the business.
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Hot soapy water and a tooth brush will remove polish. Covering it up with a dressing is only a temporary solution.
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>> Hot soapy water and a tooth brush will remove polish. Covering it up with a
>> dressing is only a temporary solution.
Cheers Stu, that did the trick.
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Gosh, just aswell what with it being my job an all, id have looked silly if it didnt :-)
Quite often people think theres a magic solution to these kinds of things, in reality its usually just common sense ( and with polish, instructions on how to remove excess is often found on the bottle! ).
So often people ask me if I have some special chemical for doing this or that - Sure I say, then use one of a handful of things that are far from special - the stuff I use as pre-wash is also very effective at cleaning leather in diluted form, but nobody wants to know stuff like that, which is why Autoglym and the like have a wide range of products which are often the same stuff in different packaging... they do not wish you to know that Tesco washing up liquid is great for cleaning the inside of a car, not to mention about 50 times cheaper :-)
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>>stuff I use as pre-wash is also very effective at cleaning leather in diluted form, but nobody wants to know stuff like that...>>
Stu, always read your tips with great interest, so if I may piggy-back on this thread to ask you: have an A3 with blue leather interior, 6 years old, upholstery in great nick but would like to clean it then seal/finish it off. Advice please?
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What you have to understand about leather is that it is effectively animal skin which isnt so different to human skin in many ways.
The dirt on leather is nearly always greasey type from sweat etc, now in the case of blue leather, that is VERY sensitive to chemicals for some reason and use the wrong stuff and it can bleach it, leaving run marks etc.
What I would do if I was presented with blue leather, is get hold of a baby shampoo, decent one, and try with that first with a nail brush gently all over, using kitchen roll to soak up the dirt. This is a great first step because use something too harsh and it can get complicated - if its in great condition this should be all thats needed. Otherwise I use diluted Autosmart G101 10%/90% water, but never leave it long enough to run.
Finishing the leather is where the skin bit comes in. I use Autoglym leather cream, mainly because people like to see a brand name with leather stuff, no idea why, but in actual fact, a good moisturiser performs the same task and I use this to great effect on my mums Hyundai leather which has remained very supple with a twice yearly application, her car now being 6 years old like yours.
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stu, have you ever tried Aqueous Cream on leather? It's available very cheaply in large tubs in Superdrug, half a kilo is about 1.99. My Mrs swears by it as a skin moisturiser.
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Not yet, I try things people suggest though as Im always trying to get better results for people. Will look it up.
Ive got a customer with a 7 year old Jag XKR asking me to get some super-dooper leather stuff in for him because he doesnt want the seats to wear - I told him that they will wear out unless he parks the thing in a garage and walks away, you cant stop wear, only slow it down. Jag leather seats are also prone to cracking very early, they all do it but keeping it supple helps alot.
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if the leather is too far worn we got my dads xjr seats refinished ie painted like new with perfect colour match all five seats were £150 and took about 1.5hrs. looks like new
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many thanks Stu - use the shampoo neat?
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Id experiment starting with a 20% mix with water, increase it if its not got enough pep.
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>> I've heard peanut butter will also do the business.
Yep. Apparently good stuff as long as its not the nutty variety.
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I wondered what it was for; it certainly ain't for eating.
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Cleaning satin black plastic trim - FotheringtonTomas
