So I noticed my driver door soft touch vinyl was discolored and it was a very thin layer peeling off in spots. I tried touching it up With black dye but just made it worse and finally bought a new door panel. Then today wiping the inside with damp micro fiber there was a small spot on passenger side also peeling off. After I wiped it the water made it flake off even more. I never used any harsh chemicals just mothers var, 303 protectant and McKee’s interior protectant over the last 4 years. It’s a tinted transparent film that’s is peeling off leaving a matte black. So far dash and back doors are ok. So I decided to scrub the old driver panel I removed and it peeled off all the soft vinyl. The hard plastic nothing peeled off. The panel actually looks fine now after scrubbing off the flaky stuff and makes me wonder if this is a build up of dash protectant over 4 years since when I wipe with a warm damp microfiber it turn milky except the section that peeled off. So I decided to scrub the entire passenger panel and as soon as it turned milky it just peeled off super easy. It is black underneath where it peeled off and looks nice and matte finish like it did new. Could this be possible the vinyl protectant built up or did I just peel off a layer of vinyl. It was a super thin layer and was black tinted but I have never had anything like this happen before it occurred on the soft padded vinyl on both front doors
Do dash protectant build up on vinyl over years
- Thread starter Payton34
- Start date
Eldorado2k
Well-known member
- Nov 9, 2015
- 14,486
- 596
TBO I think I began noticing a similar problem at the very beginning stages on the soft vinyl areas of the door panels inside our Kia that at the time was only a couple years old.. I had never really been a fan of “protectants” until I decided to try 1 out for the 1st time in a long time. I was initially pleased with the final look and also the new car scent it would leave behind.. But after some time I started to notice the vinyl would seem dryer once the protectant wore off after about a week or so and I was convinced the vinyl was slowly degrading. My conclusion? I blame it on the product containing petroleum distillates.
I’m no chemist, and I could be mistaken, but all I know is once I quit using protectant and replaced it with my usual interior products of choice [i.e. leather conditioner, interior dressing, interior detailer] the fading has halted and the vinyl looks the way it should and it’s no longer dried out at any point, even in between applications.
I’m no chemist, and I could be mistaken, but all I know is once I quit using protectant and replaced it with my usual interior products of choice [i.e. leather conditioner, interior dressing, interior detailer] the fading has halted and the vinyl looks the way it should and it’s no longer dried out at any point, even in between applications.
- Thread starter
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Is there a safe cleaner that will dissolve and remove all protestants on soft or hard plastic and vinyl? I really want to get my dash and hard plastic lower panels of my doors back to the factory matte finish. I have tried 303, Mothers VLR and Mckees and even though they are supposed to be a matte finish they do add some sheen and I prefer the stock matte finish. I think I will skip protectants from now on.
Eldorado2k
Well-known member
- Nov 9, 2015
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- 596
Yes, this Meguiars Leather & Vinyl Cleaner is a very effective and proper cleaner for routine maintenance. It will not leave any kind of sheen or gloss whatsoever, the results will be simply clean crisp factory leather & vinyl.
Meguiars Gold Class Leather & Vinyl Cleaner, leather seat cleaner, car leather cleaner
If you want to buy in bulk, Meguiars D181 Leather Cleaner works similar and is my preferred product to wipedown all interior surfaces that are covered in leather & vinyl and also any non clear plastic such as center console cupholders and the random plastic buttons on door panels etc. it won’t hurt clear plastic surfaces, but I just prefer something like Mothers Revision cleaner for those areas.
Meguiars D181 Leather Cleaner
You can also use Meguiars D101 APC diluted @10:1. It works very similar and I’ve never had a negative experience using it the same way, I just think the Leather Cleaner is a notch more effective, but not by much.
P.s. Just remember to spray the microfiber then wipe the surface, don’t spray the surface directly with the cleaner. This is the safer way to use it and prevents any possible semi permanent streaking/bleaching for lack of a better word that can rarely happen on some leather/vinyl surfaces. It’s somewhat rare but it can happen.