Camry door frame weatherstrips

The reason you should not use armorall is because the chemicals in it leach the softening agents out of the plastic and vinyl. A chemist provided a detailed explanation a few years ago but I lost the info. In any event, I've had two vehicles with perfectly good dashes that developed lots of cracks within months of using armoral on them. Many others have shared the same experience. Since banning armoral from my garage I have never had a significant dash deterioration issue. Currently I use either a Turtle wax product or some stuff the comes in a green bottle called 2000 something or other. If you don't care about it looking shiny, the best thing for dashes is just cleaning them with soap and water. As to the weather stripping, I use the Green bottle stuff.

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My apartment building offers a great, huge covered parking area that provides excellent shading and hale protection, but the problem is every so often, somebody's car will get vandalized by some pycho who isn't "thinking with his dipstick, Jimmy."

A few months ago, this cute college girl (with huge pretty breasts ;-) had her late-model Mitsubishi Eclipse vandalized by somebody when the car took up 2 parking spots. She parked right in the middle of the two spots--actually parking dead-center on the white line separating the two spots. This lady occasionally parks a little askance, for some reason. Of course, I would never say anything about her bad parking--she's too cute {chuckle}.

Anyway, the following morning as I was walking to my car, I noticed that her awesome-looking Eclipse had a large, heavy 1-foot-long rock resting on its engine hood! And the driver side door was riddled with foot-long scratches and dents near the door handle. Also some nasty scratches on the engine hood. There was a sheet of paper on her windshield with the word "Jerk" written on it. I figured some jealous gal she knew did a job on her car, but she said she had no idea who could have done it. Her impression was that it was a random act based solely on her having parked in two spots.

An old lady who lives here also has had some damage to her car over the years, minor damage though, and several others (including myself) have had unexplained minor scratches. So I usually don't park in the covered parking lot anymore. I've tried to find a spot in the street protected by sun-shading trees. But over time, I've learned the trees will take a toll on your car worse than the sun.

What are folks' opinions on this: Is it better to let the sun beat down on your car's paint than to park underneath trees, especially parking underneath trees overnight?

I parked my Corolla GTS (aka "Hachiroku") in the sun for all of it's life. There are no cracks in the dash, the paint only started to fade three years ago, basically because it does not get washed every three weeks or polished every thrid washing. Until then it still glowed in the dark...

If you put a little attention into keeping your car clean and polish 3-4 times a year with a good wax, I don't think you'll have an issue.

Of course, is it you that lives in Sunny Southern California? The good thing is, it's dry. The bad thing is the sun beats on it 345 days a year...

Here in Texas the heat of the sun can damage paint and interior plastics rather quickly. It is takes a toll on the clearcoat. It also cooks the plasticizer out of the interior plastics, which often shows us as a film on the inside of the windows.

A shady place to park can be a real prize here.

No, I live in the Midwest: Columbia, Missouri. I've never lived in Southern California, but even here at 43 degrees latitude or so, the sun can be fierce during the summer. Columbia, Missouri (near St. Louis) is half-way between the northern U.S. border and the southern border--right in the middle of the country. I guess Massachusetts, your state, is further north, latitude wise. I think if I employ a sun shield on the windscreen, that'll protect the interior really well, but I am still wondering about the exterior paint job with clear coat. Wouldn't the clear coat protect the paint pretty well even in the blazing heat? My car's outside thermometer measured 100 degrees yesterday.

The clearcoat is there to make the paint job shine. Modern painting procedures are drab as hell unless you spray clearcoat. And, those clearcoat shots are not usually very thick.

The sun will make the clearcoat deteriorate with time. It starts sheeting off like skin after a bad sunburn.

Just clean it and wax it regularly and it should last the life of the car. I guess you have 'winters' there, with snow and ice; see if you can find someone to 'oil' the car, if you plan on keeping it as long as you say. The used to charge $50, but that was before hydraulic oil went up. Some states don't allow it; VT is one that does so I take it to a wrecking yard up there where they do it. You can get a 5 gallon pail and a sprayer at the local hardware store and do it yourself; put pans under the openeings in the body to catch the dribbles.

Also, go to the dollar store and get DuPont 'Teflon' wax. They sell it for about $3. Wax the car with a good wax like Meguire's, and then recoat with the teflon. It will keep stuff from sticking to the paint. Redo the Meguire's twice a year and the teflon stuff 3-4 times a year and your car should look good for a long time.

Silver, gold, and other metallics usually outlast flat colors like red or white, so if you have a red car wash it frequently! Red is one of the most expensive paints, and also the one to dull the fastest!

Last time I did a BC/CC finish, (we won't go into when THAT was...) the BC was somewhat glossy when I sprayed it, and the CC really made it glow. My guitar player just did an Olds for someone using R-M Diamont, and when he finished the base coat I was shocked at how dull it was! It looked like it had been sanded with 800 grit paper!

THEN he hit it with the clear coat. He was working in a barn, so had some nibbing and sanding to do, but when he got done you could shave in the finish...

Ain't that the truth. And VW didn't clearcoat red cars back in the day for some reason... (had two of 'em, they'd oxidize if you looked at them funny.)

nate

Park in a covered space to avoid the problems that HLS described.

It took my beloved Hachiroku about 3 years to oxidize.

But, I have a fresh gallon of Limco 3 "International Red", custom blended by Yours Truly, with a quart of Bright Red, half a quart of White Pearl,

If I ever get the body work done...

White reflects more light than any of the others so WHY should white be among the first to become dull?

It's because of the difference in the way the paint is made. Solid colors usually chalk up easier than metallic colors, red is the worst, white and black are probably the best.

Armor All seems quite controversial; some people love it, others hate it. Like you, I've used Armor All spray on the dashboard and interior plastics for a while--2 or 3 years, and haven't had any problems with it so far, but I only use it once every few months. Don't know if that makes a diff. Also the Armor All I've been using is the original formula. It looks a lot like milk as you spray it out of the bottle. It's not the clear stuff. Maybe the original formula of Armor All is less problematic?

Machens Toyota sells Armor All in the lobby, along with a product they recently started carrying called Vinylex. The lady really recommended this Vinylex stuff for dashboard and plastics. She said the dealership started carrying it when one of their customers praised the product a whole bunch. What do you guys think? Anyone ever used Vinylex?

Thanks for the link. That is one unpleasant, greasy-looking Corvette. That steering wheel and shifter looks dangerous! I wonder if they greased up the brake pedal pad too? My brother used to Armor-all the seats of his Plymouth Valiant - more fun than Coney Island. :-)

That would make it easier for the farts to escape.

Your clearcoat will probably last ten years or so even if you park in the sun. It will start hazing a couple of years before it starts flaking off, usually. Keep the car clean and waxed and you may delay the deterioration somewhat. Or just trade the thing in every 4-5 years and let somebody else take the hickey.

You CAN put a car cover on the auto every time you park it, but that is a pain to do. If I had a classic Ferrari, I would be a lot more careful than if I drove a Hyundai.

I like the idea of treating the weatherstripping but greasy interior plastics lack appeal for me. The good news is that cars these days don't seem to suffer from cracked dashboards like the ones I had in the seventies and eighties. Every VW and Fiat I've ever owned had this problem. That was some ugly stuff.

I think that in those days the plasticizers were not as well developed for the polymeric parts as they are today. The dialkylphthalates would literally cook out of the plastics, and you would find the windshield smoky with that stuff.. Heaven only knows what it did to our health.

Some of the cars made in the Eastern Bloc had steering wheels that would often shatter in your hands at winter temperatures. (Some of these strikingly resembles Fiats, by the way ;>)

The company I worked for had a business unit that made boats out of polyethylene. We went through some of the same teething problems. The dyes faded, the plastic degraded, etc. But those items became very much improved as better technology was developed.

So I think the quality of some plastic items is generally better today than in the past. So much plastic is used that some of the parts inevitably fail, upsetting curmudgeons like me. (and those parts are not cheap to buy, just cheap to make).