[ocamilo]

So the car I just picked up has fallen victim to the common problem of the interior plastic getting sticky and easily scratched. My buddy complains about this same problem with his Porsche (although it's not the case in the Porsche I own). I don't know what its due to, but I'm assuming they used too soft of a plastic that causes it to get this way over time.

Anyhow, I'm going to get it redone. My local shop said they can paint it in a matte finish to match the navy blue leather trim inside. Perfect, but I want something a bit more tasteful for the center dash piece around the NAV screen.

I've spoken to Also Corp (www.alsacorp.com) about their different interior wood kits. To me putting a stick on wood dash kit is way to trashy for these cars although I do think a nice wood accent would look nice inside (I'm not one for carbon fiber). I was considering doing just the center piece in a wood film. They can form fit the wood to the center dash piece, but thats about 10x the cost from just getting a roll of sticky sided wood and having it custom cut and fit to the center piece. The roll out woodgrain is almost the same thing as the stick on dash kit though and I worry that this will look too cheap. So I'm stuck at a dilemma....should I just paint the center piece navy blue to match the rest or should I take a shot with the woodgrain?

I'm also going to re-do all the buttons in the car. The buttons on the center piece are scratched, and some of the numbers on the phonepad are scratched enough that they cant be read. I'm going to have all the paint sanded off of them and then repainted, except for the tops. I'm then going to stencil new numbers/icons, paint them silver, then remove the stencils so they can still be backlit.

I was wondering if anyone has performed anything like this on their cars? I know the sticky dash is a common problem on the '02 Spyders so I'm wondering how others fixed theirs...

 

[MaseratiBoy]

I believe people said you can fix the sticky black crap by using "back to black"


Zaino's black trim thing works wonders though.

 

[Easy Does It]

goo on black

i heard (could be wrong of course) that using certain products on the "black" like armorall etc... causes the coating to break down over time... this in my mind is why some cars are affected by problem, and some are not...

so.. easy on those products, or pick the most mild ones ?

 

[Vincenzo]

I can't vouch for these guys but, it looks like they can somehow create any surface effect desired. I noted a few carbon custom pieces for masers too....

http://www.distinctiveautoconcepts.com/index.html

 

[jakermc]

The wood grain stick on laminates would be tacky IMO.

The sticky stuff can be removed with Easy Off oven cleaner, Goo Gone, and similar products. The two I mentioned are known to have the best results in the Ferrari circle and its what I used when I did my 355.

With the sticky stuff removed you are left with flat black plastic underneath. From there you can either leave it alone or spray paint it black to try and get a more uniform color. I painted my steering column but left some smaller switch gear alone. All I used was flat black spray paint I bought at Home Depot that was designed for plastic.

Simple job and maintains the factory look.

 

[M!]

wow. the interior sounds really worn down. do u mind showing us a picture of it?

 

[sechack]

I am thinking I am going to strip my power window switches with easy-off or Goo-gone. But it seems they are white plastic underneath, so I guess I will be painting them black again.

 

[sechack]

You can see my power window switches here.

I just took off my steering column surround to strip with Goo-gone. That did not work on the non-gooey paint. I will have to try Easy Off to try to strip it completely.

 

[cardiffGiant]

Very interested to hear how re-habbing the buttons like the radio and power window switches goes with anyone here. I have the same problems, and also have scratches and some gummy-ness on the door lock rockers and trim cup behind the interior handle. And the side mirror regulator in the center console is the worst of the lot.

 

[Ramp]

Very interested to hear how re-habbing the buttons like the radio and power window switches goes with anyone here. I have the same problems, and also have scratches and some gummy-ness on the door lock rockers and trim cup behind the interior handle. And the side mirror regulator in the center console is the worst of the lot.

I've been slowly doing this.

Ashtray lid. Easy off. Let soak and rub really hard. Clean up with Back to Black. It's black soft metal underneath - came out brand new.

Next was the steering column. Got all the goo off but the black plastic was scratched up. You could paint it. I decided to spend the $100 and put on a brand new one.

Next was the front a/c vents (the 2 outer ones) they are sticky and the chrome ring was coming off. Removed the goo with easy off and goobegone and lots of elbow grease. The black plastic underneath was "ok" but not great. I painted with textured black paint. Came out like new. I painted the chrome rings black so they just blend in.

Next on the list will be the Mirror switch and door handles. I think thats all that's left.

The switches that had small areas of white coming through I dabbed with a sharpie - not perfect but not terrible. Back to Black helps reduce, but not eliminate the stickiness.

FWIW

 

[QP-516]

It's impossible to prevent scratches, for the sticky problem my experience is to apply some Armor-All on those plastic parts. Have to do it before it's getting sticky, it's not greasy but will have to accept the glossy look on the plastic surface. That's my 2 cents for doing some prevention job.

 

[cardiffGiant]

I've been slowly doing this.

Ashtray lid. Easy off. Let soak and rub really hard. Clean up with Back to Black. It's black soft metal underneath - came out brand new.

Next was the steering column. Got all the goo off but the black plastic was scratched up. You could paint it. I decided to spend the $100 and put on a brand new one.

Next was the front a/c vents (the 2 outer ones) they are sticky and the chrome ring was coming off. Removed the goo with easy off and goobegone and lots of elbow grease. The black plastic underneath was "ok" but not great. I painted with textured black paint. Came out like new. I painted the chrome rings black so they just blend in.

Next on the list will be the Mirror switch and door handles. I think thats all that's left.

The switches that had small areas of white coming through I dabbed with a sharpie - not perfect but not terrible. Back to Black helps reduce, but not eliminate the stickiness.

FWIW

How do the vents come out, do they pull out with a tug? The black is fine on mine, but the chrome rings are all starting to flake a little. I would like to find some way to keep those chrome I think.

 

[Ramp]

How do the vents come out, do they pull out with a tug? The black is fine on mine, but the chrome rings are all starting to flake a little. I would like to find some way to keep those chrome I think.

The vents pull straight out - just pull hard. Now, the inner circle that the chrome ring is on has little tabs on the inside. Put in a small flathead and pry gently - 3 of them and wiggle it out. 1 minute. All out.

I tried chrome paint but it came out silver. I am thinking of trying glossy red for some offset. Its just a cheap plastic part so I'm not worried about damaging it. I just removed the paint.

 

[ingarage]

Lords the problem of the dashboard sticky has plagued me too for some time.
I asked the cost of a new dashboard UNBEARABLE!
I asked the owner of a car wash the cost to solve the problem 300 EURO!
I thought the use of a degreaser and put so pasienza to remove all that sticky substance from the dashboard to bring my car to the state of a car of the early eighties!

I found this product STARDUST!

STICKY DASHBOARD CAR CLEANER SPRAY RENEW INSTRUMENT PANEL - RINNOVA CRUSCOTTO | eBay

Today my car and as I had bought with half an hour of work.

sincerely :cheers:

 

[nvpatelmd]

I resolve the "sticky" issue by rubbing the buildup off with rubbing alcohol and then cleaning it with goo gone. Then I rinsed them off with water and let dry. I ended up ceramic (SiO2) coating them with I hope will prevent this in the future.