Date: Thu, 9 Feb 2006 19:48:23 -0500
Reply-To: Jonce Fancher <streetbugs@WHISPLLC.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Jonce Fancher <streetbugs@WHISPLLC.COM>
Subject: The poop on: Speaking of dashes...is "Armor All" destructive to
vinyl?
In-Reply-To: <040b01c62d9e$2a2d6aa0$647ba8c0@MAIN>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Here is the POOP on All vinyl protectants!!!
Many years ago far far away there was a guy who had a great idea to make money by selling vinyl and plastic protectant. If it makes it shiney and slippery it
has to last longer right? wrong!!! the only thing these protectants do is Remove the plastisizers out of the vinyl/ plastic and make them more brittle. Your best
bet in the long run is to only wipe the dash with a soft terry cloth towel dampened with plain old water. If you must clean or protect it all you need to do is use
a mild soap non - detergent i.e. hand soap, car wash soap etc. No laundry detergent or dish detergent!
All vinyl and plastic will last forever if never touched or exposed to elements. so cover the dash and protect it from the sun. Oils in food and skin will also
degrade the vinyl and plastic also. Next time your at your favorite restaurant and see the seats cracked. tap on the surrounding vinyl mostly it will be brittle
but in places it doesnt get touched or get greasy it will be soft and plyable.
Did you ever notice in the junk yard the cars that never looked like they were ever taken care of had great dashes and the good looking cars had cracked
ones??
The dash in my 85 westi was well taken care of by a PO and was slathered with goop for ever and looks like it was used to cook hot dogs slimey and
cracked all to hell. now take my 84 with only 23k miles that had sat outside and never was washed. little faded but perfect dash.
you decide
c-ya Jonce
also sunshades will help save your dash hehe. c-ya Jonce
On Thu, 9 Feb 2006 09:27:55 -0800, Robert Fisher wrote:
>I was told once that Armor All would accelerate the process of the oils in
>upholstery wicking/evaporating if you applied it and then stopped using it.
>Supposedly if you kept using it you would be ok. I have no way to know if
>any of this is true, but I've heard several anecdotes like yours so who
>knows? I agree that a thick layer of grime is probably the best dash
>protection. : )
>I read in Consumer Reports or someplace like that many years ago that STP
>made the most effective upholstery treatment at that time.
>On another note, I was also told by a DCman while I was in the Navy that
>they were no longer allowed to use WD-40 in their preventive maintenance, in
>that the Navy had done extensive tests and determined that the WD-40 was the
>cause for a number of repeated instances of premature failure of various
>kinds of machinery. Again, I don't have any way of knowing if it's true that
>it is harmful in that way but ever since then I've always thought of that
>whenever I see a can.
>Cya,
>Robert
>----- Original Message -----
>From: <JordanVw@AOL.COM>
>To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
>Sent: Thursday, February 09, 2006 9:02 AM
>Subject: Re: Speaking of dashes...is "Armor All" destructive to vinyl?
>> In a message dated 2/9/06 11:40:57 AM Eastern Standard Time,
>> dshowers@CPDS.NET writes:
>>
>>
>>> Also, has anyone removed the padding bar from the sheet metal of the dash
>>> and replaced it with something else? My "friend" did me a "favor" and
>>> put
>>> armor all on it and it is now crap.
>>>
>>>
>>
>> yes, there is just dead space under there, so if you carefully drilled 2
>> holes with a big hole cutting bit on a drill, then you could maybe slide
>> some PVC
>> pipe inserts down in there to house cups.
>>
>> ps, what did the Armor All do to the dash??
>>
>> i had my dash in my Audi crack after years of armor all use. my mom, who
>> never cleaned her dash, never had a problem, and her Audi sat ungaraged
>> for
>> years in the elements.
>>
>> is armor all destructive to vinyl??
>>
>> ps, i have nice brown or black dashpads if anyone needs them..no cracks..
>> chris
>--
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Jonce Fancher
57 Single Cab
66 Sunroof Bug
66 Variant Squareback
71 Sunroof Bus
75 911S Sunroof
84 Vanagon "Godfried"
85 Vanagon Westi
2003 10 Passenger Sprinter
Fancher's Upholstery Inc. - www.fanchers.com
Not-A-VW Club- http://mywebpages.comcast.net/jaransont3/notavwclub/