Maserati Forum banner
Cancel
Create thread New Garage Forums

Unsticky/plastidip adventure

Jump to Latest
2.1K views 12 replies 6 participants last post by  doonze  
D
#1 ·
Like so many of us, every single surface in my car that has the soft touch coating on it is now a melted sticky mess. The internet is full of conflicting opinions about using plastidip on interiors, and people seem to have wildly different experiences with it.

However, of all the options I've seen I like the tactile feel and look of the plastidip the best. So I'm in the process of removing every piece of trim and using baby wipes and alcohol to remove all the sticky crap then repainting with plastidip.

The alcohol and baby wipe method works pretty well, but it leaves behind plastic that's discolored in places, at least in my experience. It does a good job removing the coating, just doesn't leave a surface that's presentable. So far it hasn't destroyed any of the buttons, And the buttons themselves have a surface underneath it doesn't seem to discolor so I don't have a need to paint them. All I've had to repaint is the trim around the buttons. It's come out beautiful so far.

All I've done at this point is the passenger side door trim, as I had it removed to fix the power window. It's very possible and somewhat easy, if a bit time-consuming, to get all the plastic pieces out of the door and even remove the door handle. While all the work could be done in place, I think it's worth it to remove it to work on.

The big question is the long-term durability of plastidip on these surfaces, and that's my primary reason for creating this thread. I'll report back during my ownership on how it holds up, and if there are any areas that don't hold up well on these cars.

I will say I'm very happy and satisfied with the look and feel so far. How it holds up will be the big question.
 
D
#3 ·
I'll have some. I now have done the passengers door and the rear center console (the thing with the vents and ashtray in it). I got window repair kits from the PO, but didn't realize none of them had the clips, which is what failed in my passenger window. So now I'm waiting on 3 sets of those white clips from ebay. As the only window I have working ATM is the drivers. So, I'll take some pic in the sun soon before I put them back in. Good news is I've got tons of cables and wheel/gears should I ever need them.
 
D
#4 ·
Removed the rear part of the center console yesterday to unsticky the sticky trim parts. I needed to get at the rear vents and the lock/shade buttons, as they were a gooey mess. On every trim I've worked on so far, I had to take it down to the bare plastic. I've figured there are two layers to this "soft touch" crap. Something like a thin primer/base coat, and then the thick rubber layer that melts. On every surface I've done so far (front pass door trim, rear driver door trim, and center rear console buttons) no matter how careful I worked, parts of the base coat would come off as well requiring total removal. The bare plastic looks like crap, but I had thought if I could just remove the top layer the bottom layer would look ok without paint.

For whatever reason the Maserati Gods were smiling on me, and I was able to get the gooey top layer off the vent trim, without removing the base layer. And I was right, it looked perfect without painting. However, I found that base layer, while it looks good, is still somewhat sticky. So, in time, it would have collected dust/hair/crap and become nasty again, not as bad as the ooey gooey top layer gets, but it's not a long-term fix. It got painted as well. I of course lost the "Open/Close" square indicators on the vent trim, but that's ok. If they can't figure it out by open/closing them and feeling for air, then that's an intelligence problem with the back seat passengers. I never remember if open or closed is the solid square or hollow square anyways.

Removing the rear console was the hardest thing I've done on the car yet. I could not find any videos, nor any how-to's. I removed, I bet, 25 screws, and the thing still wouldn't really move. After 2 hours I FINALLY got the astray out, but that's it. Eventually found a post that mentioned the "hidden" screws behind the black mini-storage thingy right under the Maserati script (rear AC controls if you have the Executive GT I think?). The post mentioned using your phones front camera to see them, but I have an inspection mirror and that did the trick. There is NO WAY to see them directly, and they are even hard to feel (as I had tried before finding that post). I still couldn't get it out after removing those, and at hour 3 I was onto the brute force method. Figured out it was "stuck" to the leather piece on top. Pulling really hard didn't do the trick, but finally I got it to let go with some prying. The trick was to not try to unstick it all at once but work on a small area first. Once started it let go pretty easy. Of course, not till after I damaged about 1.5mm of the wood. Sigh... I'm the only person in the world who would see it, but it's like a neon flashing light to my eyes now.

But it's all de-stickied, and plastidiped. Ready to be reinstalled. Looks pretty good, but I didn't realize how far the button trim poked up out of the console trim. I left some base layer on the side thinking it couldn't be seen. Once again, I'm likely the only person who will ever notice, but it stands out to me. The vents look perfect, I think. I didn't clean the vents themselves, as that would have been an insane project. I just plastidiped over them. There is a slight roughness to them if you take a flashlight and look down into them but look fine from where the passengers would sit. And they are not sticky now, so won't collect stuff anymore. The part I really cared about, the trim around the vents, looks great. So much better than hair/dirt/dust covered 2mm deep goo.

Did I mention a PO obviously had a white-haired dog they let ride in the car sometimes? A very sheddy white haired dog? My gooey trim isn't only sticky and melted looking, it's also hairy. I'm still getting it out of some of the carpet. Mainly the hump in the rear. But the only way to get it out of the trim is with time and rubbing alcohol. LOL
 
#6 ·
doonze said:
Removed the rear part of the center console yesterday to unsticky the sticky trim parts. I needed to get at the rear vents and the lock/shade buttons, as they were a gooey mess. On every trim I've worked on so far, I had to take it down to the bare plastic. I've figured there are two layers to this "soft touch" crap. Something like a thin primer/base coat, and then the thick rubber layer that melts. On every surface I've done so far (front pass door trim, rear driver door trim, and center rear console buttons) no matter how careful I worked, parts of the base coat would come off as well requiring total removal. The bare plastic looks like crap, but I had thought if I could just remove the top layer the bottom layer would look ok without paint.

For whatever reason the Maserati Gods were smiling on me, and I was able to get the gooey top layer off the vent trim, without removing the base layer. And I was right, it looked perfect without painting. However, I found that base layer, while it looks good, is still somewhat sticky. So, in time, it would have collected dust/hair/crap and become nasty again, not as bad as the ooey gooey top layer gets, but it's not a long-term fix. It got painted as well. I of course lost the "Open/Close" square indicators on the vent trim, but that's ok. If they can't figure it out by open/closing them and feeling for air, then that's an intelligence problem with the back seat passengers. I never remember if open or closed is the solid square or hollow square anyways.

Removing the rear console was the hardest thing I've done on the car yet. I could not find any videos, nor any how-to's. I removed, I bet, 25 screws, and the thing still wouldn't really move. After 2 hours I FINALLY got the astray out, but that's it. Eventually found a post that mentioned the "hidden" screws behind the black mini-storage thingy right under the Maserati script (rear AC controls if you have the Executive GT I think?). The post mentioned using your phones front camera to see them, but I have an inspection mirror and that did the trick. There is NO WAY to see them directly, and they are even hard to feel (as I had tried before finding that post). I still couldn't get it out after removing those, and at hour 3 I was onto the brute force method. Figured out it was "stuck" to the leather piece on top. Pulling really hard didn't do the trick, but finally I got it to let go with some prying. The trick was to not try to unstick it all at once but work on a small area first. Once started it let go pretty easy. Of course, not till after I damaged about 1.5mm of the wood. Sigh... I'm the only person in the world who would see it, but it's like a neon flashing light to my eyes now.

But it's all de-stickied, and plastidiped. Ready to be reinstalled. Looks pretty good, but I didn't realize how far the button trim poked up out of the console trim. I left some base layer on the side thinking it couldn't be seen. Once again, I'm likely the only person who will ever notice, but it stands out to me. The vents look perfect, I think. I didn't clean the vents themselves, as that would have been an insane project. I just plastidiped over them. There is a slight roughness to them if you take a flashlight and look down into them but look fine from where the passengers would sit. And they are not sticky now, so won't collect stuff anymore. The part I really cared about, the trim around the vents, looks great. So much better than hair/dirt/dust covered 2mm deep goo.

Did I mention a PO obviously had a white-haired dog they let ride in the car sometimes? A very sheddy white haired dog? My gooey trim isn't only sticky and melted looking, it's also hairy. I'm still getting it out of some of the carpet. Mainly the hump in the rear. But the only way to get it out of the trim is with time and rubbing alcohol. LOL
Click to expand...
 
M
#5 ·
doonze said:
Like so many of us, every single surface in my car that has the soft touch coating on it is now a melted sticky mess. The internet is full of conflicting opinions about using plastidip on interiors, and people seem to have wildly different experiences with it.

However, of all the options I've seen I like the tactile feel and look of the plastidip the best. So I'm in the process of removing every piece of trim and using baby wipes and alcohol to remove all the sticky crap then repainting with plastidip.

The alcohol and baby wipe method works pretty well, but it leaves behind plastic that's discolored in places, at least in my experience. It does a good job removing the coating, just doesn't leave a surface that's presentable. So far it hasn't destroyed any of the buttons, And the buttons themselves have a surface underneath it doesn't seem to discolor so I don't have a need to paint them. All I've had to repaint is the trim around the buttons. It's come out beautiful so far.

All I've done at this point is the passenger side door trim, as I had it removed to fix the power window. It's very possible and somewhat easy, if a bit time-consuming, to get all the plastic pieces out of the door and even remove the door handle. While all the work could be done in place, I think it's worth it to remove it to work on.

The big question is the long-term durability of plastidip on these surfaces, and that's my primary reason for creating this thread. I'll report back during my ownership on how it holds up, and if there are any areas that don't hold up well on these cars.

I will say I'm very happy and satisfied with the look and feel so far. How it holds up will be the big question.
Click to expand...


PICTURES!!!!! :)
 
Save
Reply Quote Like Like
#8 ·
I degoo the NITs on these all the time. Especially bad are the buttons. In cars coming from hot areas, very difficult because the graphics want to come off with the soft touch and the paint too. A damp cloth, NOT SOAKED with isopropyl 70 (not 91 or 99) and alot of patience. Idea is to clean with damp side of rag and dry immediately with drier side of rag. Windex also works, same principle and lots of patience
 
#9 ·
BTW, NEVER SOAK ANY ELECTRONICS WITH WINDEX OR ANYTHING ELSE when cleaning. We just had an NIT come in that was destroyed because a detailer had probably wet the front of the display with way too much of something. Result was a completely corroded board behind the display that almost destroyed the entire NIT. When cleaning, dampen your rag, don't spray!!!
 
H
#11 ·
I watched a Utube video on cleaning and see that some buttons on my car need to be painted. Next step after that is "Dry Transfer" fonts/graphics to replace damaged graphics... From what I've read that's how movies and concept prototypes get a finished look but to make it last the folks that make those products suggest you clear coat to ensure it wears well. I plan to use a mat clearcoat. The car I have (QP Executive GT) has a few of the buttons on the rear AC control panel looking white with the black nearly gone so will need restoration rather than just cleaning.
 
D
#12 ·
So far I haven't had a problem with any buttons. Knock on wood. Just cleaning them with 70% alcohol got the sticky off without pulling off the graphics themselves. But I've only done the rear driver side and front passenger side window switch, and the rear sunshade and lock/unlock buttons so far. The car goes to the body shop Monday, then off to the Mechanic for a week to have some additional work done. Once I get that stuff out of the way I'm going to work on getting the rest of the surfaces unsticked.

I'll try to get some pics today of the work I've done so far, per request.
 
D
#13 ·
Per request:

After, front passenger side door.
Image


I didn't take a before pic, but it looked just like the drivers side. BIG improvement!
Image


Here is the rear console I did:
Image


And here is the driver's side rear I started to clean before I realized it was damaging the plastic. It was this piece that showed me to do it right I'd have to remove the pieces, and recoat them. I stopped once I realized.
Image



Disregard the dog hair in the pic of the rear console. LOL It's the one place (the middle hump) I hadn't de-haired yet. :rolleyes:
 
Maserati Forum
posts
447K
members
45K
Since
2003
We’re a forum to discuss the Maserati Coupé, Spyder, GranTurismo, Ghibli, Quattroporte and more!
Full Forum Listing
Explore Our Forums
GranTurismo Coupe, Spyder, GS QP5 2003-2012 Modern Maserati New Member Introductions