That gooey sticky interior plastic

125053 Views 63 Replies 36 Participants Last post by Buggycarokina, 11 d ago

tampabaymarkey

Discussion Starter · Aug 2, 2011

Greetings from hot sunny Florida. My name is Mark, and I have just posted my 1st thread as a new Beetle owner in a different area of this site. I wanted to take a moment to tell you about a problem that I resolved this weekend. I just traded a vintage car for a New Beetle. I was a but apprehensive, as the interior of the car seemed destroyed by the Florida heat, or so I thought. I was not sure what the problem was, so i just attemped to clean it with "The Purple Power" cleaner available at Auto Zone. I have used this many times for different reasons. This stuff will take the crome off a trailer hitch!!! It cleaned all the black grime out of the gooey, stickey plastic interior, but every single piece of interior plastic still had that weird feeling of 3M rubber cement-like texture. After reading this forum, I tried a remedy that worked MIRACLES!!! Rubbing alcohol and the green scrungie pads from Walmart. The interior of my NB is sanatized better than the local hospital operating room now, from all the alcohol. It took a few days, but well worth the efforts. Thank you to everyone who posted their efforts and suggestions. I would not have thought alcohol would work. Alcohol belongs on ice in my cocktail glass, not on the interior of my car! (wink)

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scarabY2k

· #21 · Jan 1, 2013

Weirdo1949 said:
So the sticky grey and blak interior can be fixed with rubbing alcohol? Does it come back over time?
The dealership said its a know issue with beetles between certain years. The material the manufacturer used breaks down over time and becomes sticky. They havent done a recall and there's never been a class action lawsuit, which is still amazing to my they haven't done anything about it

Good question. I'm wondering the same. Does the sticky stuff resurface? If not, you've found the miracle cure.

caramell

· #22 · Jan 31, 2013

2

bme said:
Everything I have seen shows this is a "service" you pay for and the website does not even sell a product. It sounds like they want you to send your parts in to be cleaned.

This makes it totally useless to the average orger. Most people on here want to do things themselves which was the intent of the original post.

If they were selling a product I would probably give it a shot.

Sent from my iPhone using AutoGuide.com App

How to send your parts ?. I am living in Singapore. I did R & D on the sticky melting problem and fully understand how to treat the surface, Cars that were treated are BMW, Benz, volkswagen, geely, Toyota, Ferrari and etc. The worst condition is Ferrari totally melted. If anyone needs help I do sell the solution in small bottles and will guide you along, how to do the treatment. Actually the melting condition comes in different level of melting and the treatment process will be different also. Toyota RAV4 dashboard attached

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caramell

· #23 · Jan 31, 2013

look out for the youtude under Treatment for sticky melting solution

caramell

· #24 · Nov 16, 2013

2

something to share on the latest update on car that had treated their sticky interior

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007

· #25 · Nov 16, 2013

Weirdo1949 said:
They havent done a recall and there's never been a class action lawsuit, which is still amazing to my they haven't done anything about it

why is everyone always trying to get someones money? lol

i can see scratches in the shiny black area behind the handle. if im doing that much work im using 3M adhesive remover and red/green pad and taking it to bare plastic and painting it. those pictures look horrible for a final outcome and for a show car thats not acceptable.

-jd

PRM502STREET

· #26 · Nov 16, 2013

I saw the scratches too! And thought to myself, something along the lines of polishing a turd. The best, and only way is to strip it down to bare plastic. And either leave that,or paint it to your color preference.

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Pushing Fifty

· #27 · Nov 24, 2013 (Edited)

This thread is indirectly related to one I started over in the NB Experience about whether or not today's cars (not just NBs) will have a chance of becoming future classics or just be thrown away. Many that embrace the "disposable car" theory say that, besides the electronics that allegedly won't be supported by the aftermarket, the plastics themselves will break down as seen in this thread. Indeed, my 2000 is already doing this. The question is: will there be GOOD shops out there that will strip this crap down to bare plastic and repaint it for individuals like me, people who would rather pay the pros than make the damage worse? And, just out of curiosity, do the 21st Century Beetles of 2012 and up have this same interior material?

calicouk01

· #28 · Dec 4, 2013

This should be a recallable issue

Pushing Fifty said:
This thread is indirectly related to one I started over in the NB Experience about whether or not today's cars (not just NBs) will have a chance of becoming future classics or just be thrown away. Many that embrace the "disposable car" theory say that, besides the electronics that allegedly won't be supported by the aftermarket, the plastics themselves will break down as seen in this thread. Indeed, my 2000 is already doing this. The question is: will there be GOOD shops out there that will strip this crap down to bare plastic and repaint it for individuals like me, people who would rather pay the pros than make the damage worse? And, just out of curiosity, do the 21st Century Beetles of 2012 and up have this same interior material?

Its disgusting! a 2003 you can actually dig your finger nail into the plastic around the stereo and dash and scrape sticky tar off your dash.

I was going to buy new panels if they where cost effective but there not.

This stuff is cheap ****, thrown together in Mexico the plastics are the most despicable thing that ive ever seen in any auto ever, even worse than Dodge and that's saying something there. VW at the dealerships should be selling these replacement interiors at a reasonable price so that people don't have to drive around in sticky eye sores.

Not happy with it at all.

PRM502STREET

· #29 · Dec 4, 2013

Clean it...

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PRM502STREET

· #30 · Dec 19, 2013

Albert'sLove said:
So, after hours of cleaning my doors and trims I decided my time was worth more. Went to a auto trimmer and got some quotes to cover the doors. Haven't quite finished it (still have to get some chrome interior door handle covers to set it off) but... judge for yourself....

Old door trims at the top, new ones underneath, the day after.

This type of results requires effort. A nice clean interior is well worth any effort put forth!

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Pushing Fifty

· #31 · Dec 23, 2013

I do plan to completely refurbish the interior of all my water-cooled Beetles, regardless of price. My teen daughter is driving the 2000, and so doing this now would be sort of like getting set up for a picnic when there's a 90% chance of rain. I'll wait until she's done driving it........

G

· #32 · Jan 13, 2014

sticky plastic

Well, I have now spent the day trying to clean off the stickiness, and I can report that indeed the alcohol will remove the sticky coating. Sadly, whats underneath the sticky coating is not always pretty.

My results:

The ends of the dash (normally hidden by the door when the doors are closed). All the stickiness is gone, but in place of it is an extremely dull surface the looks white in strong light. I had to put Armor-All on it to make it stay dark. (I normally do not care for the look of Armor-all).

Front dash area, the half closest to the driver and passenger: The textured area did not need anything as it was not sticky to begin with. the Center and the surround for he instrument cluster both required a lot of work but came out a really dull flat black. This includes all the area around the radio and interior air controls - vast amount of stickiness there. Lots of rags and lots of alcohol.

Front dash area, the half closest to the windshield: haven't gotten to that yet.

black surround to the door locks - came out ok.

light covered plastic (in my case) on door handles. Removed all the texture, and the resulting color is not an exact match, but much improvement over the sticky mess. You can try to only remove the top layer, but it will just come back. You have to remove all of the soft plastic that is coated onto the harder plastic below.

Between the steering wheel and the dash: There is some softer plastic here that in my case had a white tint after the stickiness was wiped off. Again Armor-all darkens it back to a more or less black.

Lots of work still to go, it took forever just to get the above areas. The dash ends (up against the door when closed) were as sticky as any other, and since that area would normally not see much sunlight at all, the failure of the plastic must be time (mine is a 2000 new beetle) or temperature, not sunlight. I went out tonight and bought a bigger bottle of alcohol, so I am ready for tomorrow.

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Pushing Fifty

· #33 · Apr 24, 2014

Ok, I know this is an old thread that very well may be buried in the vaults of obscurity, but is there ANYONE out there that can tell me if later NBs, such as the 06-10 generation, or a part of this production run, did away with that coating? My 2010 doesn't seem to have it, but it's still so new-looking I can't really tell.

I'm even trying to ask VW this question, and they haven't got back to me yet.

Pushing Fifty

· #34 · Apr 27, 2014

Well, I got the official word from a VW product specialist:

The rubberized plastic coating used on NBs from 1998-2010 is all the same. I was really hoping that this was changed in the '06 reskin, but it wasn't.

You guys down south have trouble with the heat of the sun breaking it down to a gooey texture over time while those of us in the frigid north deal with scratches. So....it looks like the only options for keeping the interiors of these cars looking new is stripping the stuff off and refinishing, buying a whole new dash, or having it covered.

cha2ga

· #35 · Apr 28, 2014

Just sand it an paint it. I removed and sanded all of mine in less Than a day. Painted them with krylon fusion spray paint for plastic. Even did a clear coat on the center dash because I painted it yellow. I also painted the speedometer surround, grab handle ends, vase base, etc., yellow. The two large outer top dash panels I did in FLAT black so the is no glare.
Sand with water and 200-300-600 grits.

Pushing Fifty

· #36 · Apr 28, 2014

I'd be afraid to try that myself, but a shop could probably do it for me. I don't know how to take a dash apart, and I suck at painting.

OmahaTDI

· #37 · Apr 29, 2014

cha2ga said:
Just sand it an paint it. I removed and sanded all of mine in less Than a day. Painted them with krylon fusion spray paint for plastic. Even did a clear coat on the center dash because I painted it yellow. I also painted the speedometer surround, grab handle ends, vase base, etc., yellow. The two large outer top dash panels I did in FLAT black so the is no glare.
Sand with water and 200-300-600 grits.

Pics

roccaas

· #38 · May 31, 2014

The ONLY cure

Leperosy medicine-I kid, and I understand this is not a subject for laughter, but the tan and black goo peeling off the softer parts of my interior remind me of my medical mission years ago where I saw cases of leperosy.

Please VW, build us some durable, firm, non sloughing plastic parts!.

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Pushing Fifty

· #39 · May 31, 2014

I don't know about other VW models, but they did do away with that rubbery coating on the 2012+ Beetles. I have seen some older NBs that have escaped this fate, so I'm thinking a lot has to do with upkeep in cleaning the dashes and using the right stuff to clean them with. Right now, on my 2010, which hasn't suffered this fate (at least not yet), I've taken the advice of a couple of other Orgers and use just soap, water, and a soft cloth. So far, so good.

glassbuggy

· #40 · May 31, 2014 (Edited)

I'll tell you what works on the grey panels, What I do is spray the part with oven cleaner and give it twenty min then use the pressure washer(comes off like sunburn peel). Remember - the plastic is brittle so care needs to be taken. I'm going to get a small brass scratch brush to try on the stubborn spot or two. The black panels are much more resistant to the oven cleaner, I did have luck with acetone and a plastic razor thin scraper on the switch plate under the alien head. The alien head is being stubborn as my scraper dulled out and I am looking for more. The stuff scrapes off while it is wet, however acetone dries quick and the coating hardens right back up. I was using a scotch pad (like for dishes) to hold the 'tone and wipe . I wouldnt soak anything with the stuff . All these chemicals leave a greasy residue and I am going to try alcohol and/or wax/tar remover before the paint. The oven cleaner will discolor the plastic. Go to a auto body supply store and get SEM paint for plastic, ''Presidio'' Is EXACTLY the color of the grey interior parts. This is my two cents , I'm still experimenting - Bart p.s. I took the vents out of the alien head by using a drill, I'll refasten them after paint.

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