deteriorating plastic

[86 Mustang]

How do one repair the deteriorating fiber glass/plastic on the interior of my 86 GT convertible. Areas such as where the seat belt retracts into the back seat at window been damaged. The screw does not have the plastic frame to connect to. Thanks for any info

[negusm]

I've used wonder putty with some success. I am toying with getting a plastic welding kit.

-Mike

[Sellis1012]

If you're talking the crumbling, dry rotted plastic deterioration, you have just one option. You need to replace the panel. Sorry. If you are talking about still pliable, flexible plastic that is gouged, I have had great success with the clear vinyl permatex as a filler. You will need to repaint with the applicable SEM match.

[donutbandit]

Sellis, my '80 Capri is finally showing the ravages of time after being garaged her whole life until the past three years. On my driver's door, the area nearest the window is showing the whitening/scratching/brittle plastic surface. Would this vinyl permatex work on that? Keep in mind it's a high wear area, as my arm likes to rest there.

Also, have yet to find Vaquero interior dye/paint anywhere.

[negusm]

Also, have yet to find Vaquero interior dye/paint anywhere.

Where have you looked?

Easy enough to find it seems...

http://www.metropartsmarket.com/catalog/originalautopaintandvinyldye-c2s2.html

-Mike

[Sellis1012]

Sellis, my '80 Capri is finally showing the ravages of time after being garaged her whole life until the past three years. On my driver's door, the area nearest the window is showing the whitening/scratching/brittle plastic surface. Would this vinyl permatex work on that? Keep in mind it's a high wear area, as my arm likes to rest there.

Also, have yet to find Vaquero interior dye/paint anywhere.

Unfortunately, once you get to the dry rotting stage you are at, if you are going for the original look, the panel needs replaced. You can sand off the dry rot and paint but you will have a smooth surface instead of the factory texture. Most people wouldn't notice though. The permatex is only good on good plastic and really only works for the gouges. Anything bigger and you get the smooth surface issue again.

I use SEM that I find at the local car paint store. Go to a body repair shop and ask them where they get their paint.

[WHTLTHR79RS]

The plastic interior panels ( white ) on my Capri are turning yellow, drying and flaking also. There are some colors that are not affected by this aging process, like black, brown, and some reds. I will need to address this problem when I pull the interior to weld in the subframes. My thought, and i will try this on a junkyard piece first, is to get a cheap airbrush at Harbor freight and lightly spray MEK on the panels, like a painter would paint a car body. The thought here is the MEK will melt and re-bond the surface while still retaining the texture of the panels. I have found a very nice, gentle, shoe shine brush that I will use to wash the panels before spraying them. I need to decide if I want to clean them first and risk loosing the texture, or clean them after the MEK treatment. Then onto repainting. It will be a year before I get to this, but this is what my game plane is...any ideas?

Neil

[negusm]

My thought, and i will try this on a junkyard piece first, is to get a cheap airbrush at Harbor freight and lightly spray MEK on the panels, like a painter would paint a car body. The thought here is the MEK will melt and re-bond the surface while still retaining the texture of the panels.

I hate to tell you, and I'm going to go out on a limb and simply say that this will not work. The flaking and such are from missing oils/material. At a microscopic level there are simply voids now in the top layer of plastic. The only reason you see any texture is that there is a very thin/weak structure remaining. The MEK will break down this down and remove what little surface remains and you will still wind up with no texture.

If the flaking is not bad, you simply need to clean off the flaking, hopefully some texture remains and then resurface it. Resurfacing with paint, etc will probably go very far in preserving the plastic underneath.

Now that I've said that, please by all means prove me wrong!

-Mike

[WHTLTHR79RS]

Thanks Mike, I know what your are referring to, and I have a friend that studied plastics at Cali. We have talked about this, and need to do some more indepth thinking about how to solve the problem. Thats why I mentioned a junkyard piece for test, as I have some.

Neil

[Sellis1012]

The plastic interior panels ( white ) on my Capri are turning yellow, drying and flaking also. There are some colors that are not affected by this aging process, like black, brown, and some reds.
Neil

I am surprised about the reds, but the blacks and browns are proven. My door panels are brown underneath and my rear quarters are black.

http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t115/Sellis1012/2.jpg

[WHTLTHR79RS]

That looks nice, you sure you don't want a couple of babies in the back seat...pooping, barfing, and throwing food stuff all over ??? That's what i went through with Nelson and Nolan...and I still look good.
Neil