Caring for the Rubberized Wing on Coupes
 

Anyone out there have a good product/plan for consistant long term maintainence for the rear wing/spoiler on a Coupe. What about this Dodo juice I see addy'ed on the Forum? My wing is really nice and I'd like to keep it that way. In the U.S. all the Tuner guys use Armorall. I think they do shots of the stuff, either way I'm dubious.

My has faded so badley its nearly white. I sopke to my sprayer and he said its sun damage. Long and short of it Im replacing it with one off of a CQ as can colour code when I respray.

Not sure if this is going to help. But - When i had my 1989 Porsche 911 carerra coupe I had similar problems with the rubber whale tail wing. I used Auto Glym Vynil and rubber care to get it black again.

It took quite a while to build up the rubber care product into the rubber, but did work.

I use a product which was imported from the States called Black Wow.

Works very well and outlasts the Meguiars and Autoglym equivalents by a few weeks but still not brilliant. You can heat plastic trim up to make it "bleed" and the colour will come back and stay but doesn't work so well with rubberised parts. I'm trialling a new product at the moment made by a UK firm (Bomoco I think?). I'll let you know my findings as it says it works in a totally different way to the other products.

I always used 'Armorall' or 'Son of a Gun', which was available years ago, on my 1st Sport, but found it did not last that long. Used to leave it to 'soak in a bit' & knacked one spolier by doing that on what turned out to be a frosty night. So now I used dubbin or boot polish: probably won't suit you concours chaps, but as my car lives outside all year; it's the only way I've kept a new one from splitting & crumbling over the years. Cheers.

Thanks gentleman. Mine is going to be outdoors for at least a year.

I used to use armor-all on my old coupe rubber spoiler also.
It did work for a while but always faded back out after a couple of weeks.
Guess its just a short term valeting aid rather than a true restoration product.

Wonder if itd be possible to have the outside of the rubber covered with maybe some kind of shrink wrap or possibly remanufactured with a thin silicon skin of the type found on some aftermarket performance hoses?
Thats easy to maintain and dosent fade and washes with soap and water.
Think ive just invented an new product... :D

You could always have a look on the easwoods company website and see if they do a restoration product to suit your needs. http://www.eastwoodco.com/

stuff
 

I have always used a combination of polish, Armorall and silicon oil from work to keep mine in as new. Hasn't faded yet or cracked etc, fingers crossed.

i just use pure silicon spray on all rubber and black plastic :)the rain just runs off it;)

I just had mine changed for a peugot spoiler......

well not me exactly, the previous owner did cos the rubber wing turned into a sponge over time ;)

Sounds like a clean product with a high silicone base is the way to go. I'll look into Eastwood Co. I've seen the catalog at my bosses place. Thanks again gentleman.

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OK,probably will work.I use this method for faded plastics.

I use a heat gun set on the first or second (max) setting.Move the heat gun back and forth over small areas at a time.

What happens is the product actually bleeds.Plastic does,I guess rubber will do too.The Key is not to hold it too long in the same place

There a youtube vid of a guy doing a Volvo 740 bumper resto this way somewhere but cant find it right now.

Steve

I don't think the wing is ready for a bleed treatment yet. ( An interesting idea to be sure. )It's really pretty straight, clean, and black. At 25 years there is only a few micro-cracks in each corner on the horizontal part. So, really this just about maintainence.

However this thread is taking on a greater scope, which is general care and maintainence of all such plastic, vinyl, and rubber parts. Please keep it up. This is all really great information for Newbies and 4-ringers.

I use either boot polish or linseed oil. I've tried various back to black products etc and fro the spoiler the boot polish or linseed oil seem to work best. Needs doing regurlarly tho. Mine's still in good nick, but she has lived in the garage for 25/26 yrs.

I wouldn't try the heat gun method just in case it doesn't work on rubber and you end up with a blob on the back of the car where the spoiler used to be.

Despite being in the garage the one area that has took a bollockin is the rear head rests. They've been bleached by the sun over the years when the cars on the drive or out and about :(

I use smooth peanut butter buffed onto black plastic/rubber with a clean cloth. Leaves a lovely satin sheen, water beads off and it lasts for ages, plus your car will smell good enough to eat!

If you think im winding you up go out and try it! Remember to use smooth peanut butter. not crunchy. Cheaper the better.

'Tim, strange, but probably brilliant.

I love the idea of this but my neighbours already think I'm bonkers the amount of time I spend cleaning the coupe. I think this would have them rushing for the number of the local asylum!:lol:

well I bought one of ebay recently and used black boot polish. It came up a real treat. Pity as I'm after a CQ spoiler now so it's sat in my garage at the mo looking black and shiny and going nowhere :shake:

Why you after a cq spoiler Martyn?

to go with the zender kit. Thats the idea but I wont know for sure till I see it in the flesh. Could still use the original yet :tup:

Have you got the kit stripped yet? How's the fuel flow problem or haven't you got round to sorting it out ?

not done a thing since the last BC to be honest Chris, just too busy with work at the mo

So Lankytim, I've gone and tried the peanut butter/oil finish on my wing. Looks the dogs. I'll try to post back in a week or so with an update.

I didn't use cheap PB so mush as poor off the excess oil from some natural PB. 1 inch brush, even controlable coating, let it soak a bit, and wiped off the heavy stuff.

Sweet.

Smear some strawberry jam (jelly) on it and have a PBJ :tup: