Avoid sticky buttons?

I'll toss this data into the mix regarding cause of sticky buttons. I have a TV remote from an early flat screen LCD that has a similar soft touch coating on the back. It was never used at time of TV purchase it was tossed in a drawer. Never touched, no UV, never cleaned. That was probably 14 or 15 +/- years ago. I stumbled onto that remote digging through a drawer and the coating has deteriorated into a sticky greasy gooey mess. I'm going with the material is not stable and inherently flawed for the applications such as vehicle interior finishes. There is no avoiding it only removing it in my opinion.

 

So, how do you remove?

 

Did the same thing with a spotlight that was never used,never outdoors totally in air conditioned house it's entire existence. What a sticky mess. Ferrari approx. had a cleaning solution that cost 100.00 dollars for this prob. Throw your money in the garage satisfaction.

 

clear plastic sticker over the top, that's what i did.

 

With a solvent, patience, and tears. Or you send the parts away to one of the companies that offer refinishing services.

 

Isopropyl alcohol is what is most commonly used to clean. It readily dissolves the soft touch coating while leaving the underlying plastic undamaged. You'll need plenty of rags to wipe all of the crud away.

As for stopping this deterioration in the first place, a cool and low humidity environment buys you some time but eventually these coatings begin to turn to mush and then there is no option but removal. Just recently, I pulled out a carefully stored watch box that I had not touched in a few years and it was a sticky gooey mess. I then discovered that all of the major luxury watch brands that used these coatings in their packaging have encountered similar problems.

Best Regards,
Paul

 

Wouldn't use Isopropyl Alchohol personally. Yes it will remove the sticky surface from the buttons or dash but unless your very careful it may also remove the lettering.
There is a baby wipe that works better. Cant remember the name right now.
Its not so aggressive ....obviously.

 

The soft touch coatings you encounter will almost always be one of two types. One is a coloured opaque coating onto which the graphics are printed or laser etched directly. With this type, when the coating comes off so do the graphics. There is no way around this regardless of what you you use. The other type of coating you will normally encounter is a transparent/satin clear which is applied over the component. In this case the graphics are normally etched onto the plastic and will be unaffected by the removal of the coating, again regardless of what you use. This second type is normally used on buttons that are back-lit; the graphics are etched into the part allowing light to shine through and then the clear coating provides the soft touch effect without obscuring the graphics.

Best Regards,
Paul

 

neutrogena make up remover worked really well on a few of my stickies.

 

Yes thats the one.

 

and also ok with bio ethanol

 

Purell Hand Sanitizer.

 

Gosh, with all these issues, do we really need to keep the stickies? I cleaned my plastic parts with alcohol and they look fine. The metal pieces I had powdercoated in a textured black. Much better in my opinion.

 

Better question is, knowing this fact, why the heck did Ferrari continue making interiors with this finish!!!!!

 

It went on for Decades, model after model. Just don't give a damn!

 

FWIW, about eight years ago, my plastic parts got so bad that my finger would be black, hand brake handle the worst. Didn't want to go through the trouble and expense for pro-fix so decided to give it a try with Armor All. A few hours with Armor All, micro-fiber cloths and "Q-tips" stick was removed. Has remained sticky free since then. Posted same experience quite a few years ago and was told by one of the pros that Armor All would ruin the plastic. So there is that. Photo today of some former sticky and still not sticky parts.
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Armor all litterly destroyed my Daytona Seats Summer of 74!

 

2006 porsche too. alcohol worked.

 

To the OP, nothing you can do to stop it from happening. Anyone who needs some help with their parts, send us an email. www.stickynomore.com

 

Here’s a thread from the California forum that has a few success stories…

https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/threads/diy-sticky-button-cleaning.673873/#post-149271177

 

I don't have sticky buttons on my 88 3.2, but this product was suggested by another Fchatter to use on my door seals and the like. I tried it on a Ferrari watch box that had become sticky, and also on the handle of a Jaguar umbrella that I had for my other car, it seemed to help reduce or eliminate the stickiness.
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Rumor has it a simple water and borax solution dissolves it like its nothing. Sounds too easy. After all these years of pain suffering and various solvents. The guys with a popular youtube channel about super cars and normal dudes figured it out. You can google and probably find it.