How to restore interior plastic

How would you go about restoring plasting interior pieces such as the 71-74 console and other little things? Would armor-all do it?

I've seen some plastic that you can tell is dried out and can possible break if worked at all. Good example is the grill on my roadrunner. I can tell the plastic is kinda dried and brittle. I had the idea of soaking it in oil to try and "rehydrate" the plastic but not sure if my logic is right.

Once plastic has degraded and the plasticizers have "left the building" there is no way to revive it, it's dead. Anything else you coat over it such as paint or topical coatings will just be a bandaid over the problem.



I can restore your grille, so can you but it's allot of time consuming detail work, you may have a pretty steep learning curve to deal with it yourself.

In the case of the console you are lucky, VERY nice reproductions now exist from www.tonysparts.com, tell him I sent you.

In the case of seat backs, www.beaparts.com will have them soon.

To recover dash pad I'd reccomend "Just Dashes"

Anything else just ask, there's either a parts restorer or a reproduction parts manufacturer who can address most of your needs, but it's not going to be one stop shopping, be prepared to spend some time on the phone....And get your wallet out, most of it's pretty spendy.

There is nothing wrong with the console or seat backs. There just dirty and slightly faded. Those parts are rigid as can be. I just wanted to know how to bring back that "new" look. Maybe its just dirty cause I haven't tried cleaning it yet with anything. Luckily the car came with factory window tint all around. The main interior pieces that need to get replaced are the plastic pillar covers that go along the front windshield (A pillars?). How would you restore the grill?

If the material on the interior parts has not gotten brittle or degraded you can bring back the shine with topical coatings. However if the plastic is degraded on the surface, it's as I described above. Color fade on ABS or Polypropylene plastic is typically a sign of degradation, a quick test is to drag your nails across it with a fair amount of presure, if it leaves a whitish or chalk mark, you have degraded plastic. You can also paint (often call "Dye" but it's just paint) the plastic with products like SEMS interior vinyl paint to give it a shiney new look, but no paint on earth will give you the factory appearance and natural lustre of freshly molded plastic, it has a look all of it's own.

Grilles are made of ABS plastic, it's restorable in most cases by replacing brittle areas with new pieces, or shoring them up with fillers and other repair materials to shore them up before new paint is applied.

You might be surprised how much you can improve interior parts with a thorough cleaning (soap and water, or interior cleaner). After that try some Armour All or similar. May not be concourse but will improve the old interior quite a bit. I have made some pretty aged parts look near new again with just some time and elbow grease.

Scott, correct me if I'm wrong. I believe the seat backs and the 71-74 console are made of two different types of plastic material.

I have a 73 Challenger which sat in a garage for 15 years. I don't have the hard seat backs on mine, but from the ones I've seen, I think they are the same material as E-body door panels, but different from my console, which is a harder plastic.

Fortunately, my console and interior panels are all black. The console, being a very hard material, cleaned up real nice with some soap and water, and a soft bristle brush.

The door panels, since they are softer and more porous, took multiple scrubbings to eventually get them clean.

Both the console and panels then got a few coats of Armor-All. I've owned this car for 35 years, and have used nothing but Armol-All on the interior and vinyl roof. Armor-All gets a bad rap from a lot of people, but I swear by it.

The vinyl roof wouldn't have needed replacing, except I had a little rust bubbling from underneath. The door panels and console look great, and guess what?

I have my original, uncracked E-body dash pad in my car, and it has seen nothing but Armor-All in 35 years. When's the last time you saw an original uncracked E-body pad? Darn few of them around.

My interior is all black as well. The dash pad is gonna need a restoration which I know I can't do myself. The seat backs and console probably just need some cleaning. My woodgrain insert on my console is cherry too so I don't have to mess with that at all.

Speaking in general terms (they varied year to year and model to model in many cases) you are correct. Consoles are typically made of ABS or Polyethylene, and seat backs and some door panels (E-body, etc.) are made of a Polyethylene or Polypropylene. ABS, being a styrene alloy, takes paint very well because it is sensitive to solvents that will melt into it. Vinyl (PVC based plastic) also accepts paint very well so it's no trouble to recolor it either. PP/PE materials are not affected by most solvents therefore most paints, glues, etc. do not etch into them for a good bite usually resulting is a painted part looking great.....Until it starts peeling and flaking off.

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Armor-All gets a bad rap from a lot of people, but I swear by it.

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I agree. A lot of people spend big money on this new, high tech stuff for vinyl and plastic. Armor-All is still a better choice in most cases.