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(Do not try on non-black interiors like grey or shale)
So I watched a link (will put at bottom) where they used lemon (important) ammonia to clean the sticky airbag. You basically use microfibers and the ammonia to wipe everything with a good amount of force, over and over. I don't remember if he said you could use it on other trim pieces, but I did anyways. I did the air bag, the whole steering wheel rim, whole radio bezel, and arm piece surround.
This isn't for the impatient ones, as it took me almost a good 1.5 hours. It takes a lot of effort to get off 20 years of heat-tortured plastic goo and baked-in body oils. Only use old microfibers, as they get ruined anyways, or use new ones that have been washed at least once so they don't get lint stuck everywhere. I went through about 5 or 6 towels too.
Everything I cleaned was absolutely sticky before hand. Now, everything including the steering wheel rim, has a beautiful soft satin finish, and feels like it would have been brand new 20 years ago. Absolutely worth it to me!
Beforehand, I couldn't wipe the radio bezel clean or really clean anything. I tried other products, but it would just move the oils and gunk around. It would sometimes even scratch the outer layer of gunk and look bad.
Oh and I also had an intermittent issue with the whole door's power on the passenger side. After some research and visiting this website: https://www.carstereoremoval.com/htm...ette97_99P.htm it seems it's a crimped factory connection called a scotch lock. It connected main power from the rubber accordian into the door panel assembly to power everything. Some effects are the sub woofer not working, or the door lock or window not working. Sometimes my door would not lock at all with the key fob or any window switch. It is wrapped up in the harness but you can watch the full short videos in the link. Just go in there and solder the connections. I did both doors
02torchred: Great tip, I need to tackle my wheel airbag cover. Did you dress the cover and parts after with a 303 or other plastic /rubber dressing? Thanks and nice!
Ive posted this several time with 100 % results.
I would never use ammonia on the delicate protective coating of a C5 interior. The steering wheel and air bag issue can easily be address " safely " by spraying Simple green on to some paper towels take a single paper towel and wrapn the steering wheel and air bag with sheets of moistend simple green.. much like doing decoupage. No rubbing no constant effort.. allowing the Simple green to break down the stickiness. after 30 minutes, remove the moistened towels ( temperature should be such as to allow the simple greed towel not to dry out. ).. after 30 minute remove towels and use a moistened with simple green, Microfiber towel to wipe down the steering wheel and air bag. The components will be free of any greasy stickiness, You then wipe down the components with water and then apply something like 303 protectant. it will be like New with not rubbing or effort.
Bill aka ET
Ive posted this several time with 100 % results.
I would never use ammonia on the delicate protective coating of a C5 interior. The steering wheel and air bag issue can easily be address " safely " by spraying Simple green on to some paper towels take a single paper towel and wrapn the steering wheel and air bag with sheets of moistend simple green.. much like doing decoupage. No rubbing no constant effort.. allowing the Simple green to break down the stickiness. after 30 minutes, remove the moistened towels ( temperature should be such as to allow the simple greed towel not to dry out. ).. after 30 minute remove towels and use a moistened with simple green, Microfiber towel to wipe down the steering wheel and air bag. The components will be free of any greasy stickiness, You then wipe down the components with water and then apply something like 303 protectant. it will be like New with not rubbing or effort.
Bill aka ET
No problem guys! Fiberglass itself doesn't have a smell, so you might mean the aromatic solvents used in them. Also, there is no fiberglass inside the interior, so you might mean the solvents used in the interior.
The interior does now smell amazing, and I don't see why someone wouldn't want that. Time to shampoo all the carpets and trunk again here too.
As far as rubber dressings, and UV coatings I have nothing on them now. I have used the 303 before though, and I do think that is one of the better products.
Also, if one feels simple green works quicker that's fine too. I'm a firm believer from starting at least the least amount of work and working up. Mine was bad though. Simple green has ester alcohols and salt ions that could act as a good degreaser and pull other minerals from the trim but is different from ammonia.
I can assure you no harm was done to the finish. Ammonia cleaner is actually ammonia gas (well that's the only way it exists) and is dissolved in water. So any cleaners like this are actually ammonium hydroxide when dissolved in water. The cleaner I used also had soaps in it, as it is a floor cleaner. Also has citrates (from the lemon additives) like the Simple Green has.
What makes ammonia so good to clean with is because it's a gas dissolved in water, it evaporates with the water after applied, which makes it so great for cleaning windows, floors, and other things. The cleaners with soaps do this more slowly than straight ammonia found in the glass cleaners.
The only reason ammonia would harm plastics is by breaking the hydrogen bonds, or having an excess of hydroxide ions. However, our black plastics have the black dye tightly bonded between crosslinked chains (this will sound familiar if you are into plastic chemistry) and will not be affected by ammonia. On the pieces I cleaned, you're only removing the upper layer of shortened poly chains that are caked up on top, with the oils, salts, and fats as well. The nitrogen in the ammonia does a great job in this. Ammonia is found in nature and made by humans, animals, plants, really anything with amines, amino acids, proteins - so really anything with DNA or RN. That's also why it is so good at dissolving amines and proteins.
The reason you can't do this on the shale interiors (as mentioned in the video) is because GM painted the airbags (and possibly other trim pieces) the shale color instead of molding them with the pigment in them, so it would rub right off.
Also the plastic itself, usually Fluorine cross linked, will not be disturbed at all by this. The reason ammonia reacts with window tint (a reason a lot of glass cleaners are now ammonia-less) is window tint is generally not Fluorine or other strong-bonded derivatives. Also, they are not injection or pressure molded under high heat like interior trim pieces.
It is important to wipe all the pieces off afterwards with soap and water just to remove any cleaners which I did.
If you look at the dash, they don't suffer (at least mine doesnt) from being sticky because it is vinyl covered molded dash that isn't made of the same material either.
The intense heat and UV from the sun, combined with your body salts, fatted acids, proteins, and oils are what destroy the protective coating of the plastics. I'm sure like mine, every ones has been destroyed after 20 years. I've only seen one 4,000 mile example of a garage queen where the trim looks like mine does now and that was a huge inspiration for this project.
Last edited by 02torchred; 04-09-2020 at 10:48 PM.
Not trying to be argumentative... just offering my experience..
and what I used successfully and with no effort
To me... ammonia always smells like cat ****. even the lemon.. its smells like lemon cat ****... cant put my nose arou8nd the notion that it smells like a new car.
Bill aka ET
as far as the rest of the car interior... water and a micro fiber towel, is all i've used.
No problem roegs! Thats cool, he seems it. And nice I didn't know he was local to me actually.
Also I wasn't trying to argue either, just explaining some details. I think the Simple Green is a good suggestion if it takes less time and should definitely be tried.
To me, ammonia is not the stand-alone-source of what we associate with cat pee or actually really any kind of urine.
I have access to a lot of different chemicals, and pee smells come mainly from amines and nitro groups that weren't fully broken down. Ammonia itself has a very short lasting, sharp smell.
Mercaptans and other sulfur compounds are also associated with that pungent smell. In animals, it's more likely to be other protein and nitro based chemicals than ammonia that you associate with pee.
Trichloramine is also that terrible smell we've experienced from pee in chlorinated pools.
Also to be clear, the car does not smell like cat **** or any type of pee.
Again, ammonia evaporates almost instantly with the water as a gas.
The car smells like a brand new car would. Like new plasticizers, carpet fibers, etc.
Last edited by 02torchred; 04-10-2020 at 12:32 AM.
Mercaptans and other sulfur compounds are also associated with that pungent smell. In animals, it's more likely to be other protein and nitro based chemicals than ammonia that you associate with the smell.
I didn’t know what bad smells were until I got my first whiff of methylmercaptan.
The only things I can think of that are as bad is used gear oil from the rear diff of a turbo Subaru and Fluid Film after applying a heavy coat on a fall day.
Hahaha yes that's what I was actually specifically talking about, otherwise known as methanethiol.
A similar form called ethyl mercaptan or ethanethiol is added to gasses because butane and propane are odorless, and that gives us something our noses can detect. That's why I don't like propane grills, the food tastes like it.
However, if you think that's bad, try concentrated putrescine, cadaverine, or trimethylamine. Responsible for some of the most foul things ever. I agree rear diff fluid is pretty bad too.
Last edited by 02torchred; 04-10-2020 at 12:17 AM.
04-09-2020, 03:03 AM
Used Ammonia to Make Interior Like New (and more)
