Cleaning rubber junk off door panels

[SUPER M]

this is what i use to take the rubber gook from the panels in my car .....





Isopropyl alcohol and a brass bristle brush.





dip the brush in the alcohol and scrub away it wont hurt the plastic panel ( but the alcohol will dry it out a little ) But if you are going to paint the panels anyway...






This is the rubber coating coming off..Now all you have to do is wash it off with a hose and reapply if you need to.





Here is one side cleaned and the other side not touched ...





All cleaned up and ready for paint







I hope this helps it took me a long time to figure this out.

Thanks SUPER M

[daisyyy]

Originally Posted by MichelleRoze

what I found that works great, is nail polish remover pads from Walmart. They are little felt pads, that serve as a rough surface that will wipe that rubber junk right off. I painted the area around the door handle and window switches, and it came off so easy! So that's another option.

How did the nail polish remover go on the plastic? Did you need to scrub a lot? I used the magic eraser this afternoon and it took me over an hour just to do the door handles and the bar above the glove box. I'm assuming you used them without pulling apart your beetle?

[4SEVEN3]

Bump to the top.

So the grey trim has this crap on it too? Im thinking of painting a few things....I guess its time to head to Target for some supplies!

[twiget]

I ended up scraping the top layer off using a scrub brush and Awesome. You pick it up at Dollar Tree. It still had a little of the soft touch coating left so I used a wet dryer sheet and it came right off with no damage to the panels. It is very time consuming but looks good.

[beetlemama85]

Wouldn't alcohol hurt the paint job! That sounds scary.
I would look in to volkswagen repair columbus ohio at my dealership.
But the Mr. Clean Magic eraser sounds smart too!

[SUPER M]

Originally Posted by beetlemama85

Wouldn't alcohol hurt the paint job! That sounds scary.
I would look in to volkswagen repair columbus ohio at my dealership.
But the Mr. Clean Magic eraser sounds smart too!

WE are trying to remove the paint/rubber gunk to repaint the trim/door panels. not just clean them....

[StoonTDi]

I acquired a Florida New Beetle Convertible of 03 vintage that has the junk gunk sticky taffy-like armorall crap that is a quick fix for the auction detailer but hell for the buyer. It reminds me of fly paper. It's gross stuff. I wish these Bush League detailers would stop using it on the dash. It's designed for long lasting shine on tires, not dashboards.
I've tried an assortment of soaps, alcohals, now I'm going to dilute acetone. Acetone is very tricky to work with. If the the dilute for acetone is water, which I am going to find out after this posting and read about it on yahoo ask, then it will be a good day.

[HarlequinPixie]

totally found something that kicks ass at getting the rubber crap off. ran across a post about it on vortex, and thought I'd give it a try. haven't seen anyone mention it over here, so....



comes from Dollar General, and a bottle like that is 1$ (larger refill jug is 3$).. and it is, like the name says.. AWESOME.

spritz some on, let it sit for a minute if you like, and then scrub with a non-scratch pad or sponge or something, and voila!

color me impressed! i just used it on the tan part below the steering wheel and had it totally degunked in under 10 minutes. there's also a black piece on the back of it that got soft-touch overspray on it, and it was an obvious place to see how easy it came off.

[Albert'sLove]

Hi there! I have posted these pictures and info in another post, but i feel information - particularly with this sticky situation, is useful.

After hours of scrubbing away my valuable time and getting no where fast (I was using rubbing alcohol) I decided there had to be an easier way.

Made a few enquiries to various auto trimmers and got the sticky mess on my door panels covered! Now they have a custom finish that enhances the appearance - not to mention stops embarrassment when my children open the doors wide to get out!

The guy i found did exactly what I wanted, offered solutions and understood that I wanted it to look "factory". See for yourself... first photo is BEFORE second photo is AFTER.

I am going to tackle the rest of the "goo" on the centre console and controls soon - now i know how thanks to the Org!
Btw - I am in Australia and none of the products mentioned above are available. Ozzies! try using ISOCOL rubbing alcohol. It worked, slowly, but it worked!

[300exoh]

Originally Posted by HarlequinPixie

totally found something that kicks ass at getting the rubber crap off. ran across a post about it on vortex, and thought I'd give it a try. haven't seen anyone mention it over here, so....

Attachment 91733

comes from Dollar General, and a bottle like that is 1$ (larger refill jug is 3$).. and it is, like the name says.. AWESOME.

spritz some on, let it sit for a minute if you like, and then scrub with a non-scratch pad or sponge or something, and voila!

color me impressed! i just used it on the tan part below the steering wheel and had it totally degunked in under 10 minutes. there's also a black piece on the back of it that got soft-touch overspray on it, and it was an obvious place to see how easy it came off.

Tried this stuff today myself...work pretty well but I did have a hard time in a few areas where the rubberized coating was a bit thicker. I used a kitchen sponge with a mild abrasive scratch pad on one side and it worked quite well with the "Awesome". Still took quite a lot of elbow grease and it still seems to have left behind a very thin layer of a dull almost primer like surface instead of shiny black plastic like I was hoping for. It would work very well if you are planning to paint the parts afterwards but personally I just wanted plain ol' black plastic. The Awesome did work better than the nail polish remover IMO. I'm going to go over the parts again with rubbing alcohol to see if it takes the rest off and then I may put some armor all type stuff on afterwards. Not a fan of armor all/similar products but...I guess if it makes them look more the way I want.

Just as a side note the Awesome made the 2 vents in the center radio piece kind of turn greyish white so use caution with this stuff

[catnippedkitty]

I use Magic Erasers and they work wonders without using chemicals in 2000 Beetle. Hmmmm... I usually use water only but may use nail polish remover for the tough stains.

[aplseed]

So is this a factory rubber coating on the dash parts? I wonder because I have a small scuff above passenger vent, doesnt seem to be deep, I wonder if I cleaned the entire center section with remover if it would take it all away and id loose the scuff? it does seem to have a sticky feel when you touch the dash.

[300exoh]

Originally Posted by aplseed

So is this a factory rubber coating on the dash parts? I wonder because I have a small scuff above passenger vent, doesnt seem to be deep, I wonder if I cleaned the entire center section with remover if it would take it all away and id loose the scuff? it does seem to have a sticky feel when you touch the dash.

I had scratches all over the dash on mine and when I removed the rubberized coating 90% of the scratches were in the coating itself. Only a few deep ones remain and it looks almost new.

[hip001]

i finally got sick of that nasty tacky door panel! I asked a headliner shop and they said try Lacquer Thinner. I did and it worked but still had some effort involved. some of the thicker spots i used a plastic pan scraper to scrape off the bulk of it then rags soaked with lacquer thinner cut into small pieces because it turned black quickly as the gook was removing. A little polish using cleaner wax finished it off nicely.

Took care of two problems with light grey dash cover. 1)heat in summer soaking into the black 2)the nasty sticky look

Think i'll try some "Awesome" or "Magic Eraser" on the other areas to see if it works better.