Sticky headliner, why ???

[Challenger_7]

Hi all

I read the posts on headliner, and none mentioned this.
On my 67 - 250 SL, my headliner is all sticky, although looking perfectly well.
I tried cleaning it but it is still sticky to the touch.
Any idea why that is so?
Is it simply chemically falling apart, degenerating?

Thanks for any clues
Cheers

[mdsalemi]

I've heard of two or three possible solutions to vinyl getting sticky.

1. Baking soda and water mix.
2. Marine Spray Nine
3. Simple Green

I don't know if the latter two are readily available in Beirut, but surely the first is!

[Challenger_7]

Oh, wow, ok sounds interesting, will sure give it a try.

Thanks Buddy

[BaronYoungman]

Over time vinyl can tend to “ooze” an oily, sticky substance on the surface. Sometimes this sticky residue can be cleaned away with a simple cleaner and other times requires drying out the sticky substance first.  I have used Mr. Clean Magic Erasers.  But just so you know it is because of the age/heat it is doing this and unfortunately the next step is it will become brittle and start to crack. Bob

[Challenger_7]

Thanks Baron for your input.
As regards to mdsalemi's comments, I am yet to try baking Soda.

In the meantime, i used a bit of petrol in a small corner.
I could see white paint coming off onto the cloth that I was using to wipe with, so did not scrub too hard.
However as soon as the petrol dried, the area was dry as well.

So, I suppose it is the oil/colour pigments which are oozing off due to age and cleaning with petrol seems very easy seeing it evaporates off very quickly. The only thing is that one needs to be careful so as not to spoil the appearance of the vinyl by over scrubbing.
I will give it a broader try soon and see how it goes.
If I make a mess out of it, well I will install the headliner that I have already purchased a while back

Cheers

[mdsalemi]

I suspect, Farouk, that if you use petrol or other kinds of petroleum based solvents, you may accomplish the task of cleaning, but accelerate the degradation of the product. If you do a bit of research on vinyl cleaning, petroleum-based solvents are not generally recommended.

[Challenger_7]

Oh, I see. Fair comment.
Then let me try the backing soda bit.
The only reason I have not tried that yet is that we do not have any at home, and have been too lazy to go out and buy some

I will soon and see how it goes.

Thanks Buddy

[Cees Klumper]

This is the first time I've heard of someone having this problem. I had it on the steering wheel of my El Camino from '73 and there (in the Chevy crowd) it was very common. But I never heard of it on Pagodas and mine feels very smooth and not sticky at all. Perhaps someone cleaned yours in the past with the wrong product.

[Challenger_7]

You know, maybe so as I have the same problem on the roof window seals.
This car came from USA and I bought off from the person who imported it.
Maybe the interior was dirty and they tried cleaning it using a wrong compound, (as I was planning to do with petrol before Michael stopped me), thus arriving at the current degenerated stage!!

You discuss a topic and end up learning much more about even more topics.

What a great Forum

[Challenger_7]

OK friends, I have been wanting to follow this issue through and try to contribute a good solution.

I did research, as mdsalemi suggested, on cleaning vinyl, and a bunch of product names came up which I do not have access to.
However, "baking soda" kept coming up, and I have not tried that for one reason.
You need to mix it with water until it becomes like a paste. This would be fine to use on solid surfaces, but not like the headliner, which is full of tiny holes. I would end up with a lot of the paste under the liner which I will never be able to remove.

Someone suggested vinegar, so I will try that out.
Someone else suggested WD40. again I will try that out too and keep you posted.

On the other hand, the small area which I tried with petrol looks ok and still dry.
Just now whilst writing this, I remember having encountered this situation with my multi chested tool box.
Some of those tools were never used for years, and about ten years ago, whilst cleaning the box out, I noticed the same thing with their plastic/rubbery handles.
I cleaned them then with petrol which seemed the easiest solution, and to date I have not experienced more degeneration of the sticky stuff.
So, maybe we are onto an easy solution there???

Till my next report
Cheers

[Challenger_7]

OK, here we go with more experiments and coming to a final conclusion.

White vinegar as mentioned somewhere, did nothing for the oozing stuff.
Maybe a good cleaner for normal dirty spots, not sure.

As I was about to give up and go for the petrol solution, I then remembered someone talking about WD40.
So I took my WD40 gallon, some cotton, and tried it. What do you know, it worked like magic !!
The only thing is that WD40 is oily, so it leaves the surface full of oil which you need to dry out.

I decided to try out cleaning with petrol again to compare notes and realised that with petrol you have to be extra careful due to the higher ability of petrol to melt the paint out, so it can be a much messier method.
Where as WD40 seems to act on the already deteriorated stuff leaving the un-deteriorated pigments alone.

Thus I would definitely conclude that WD40 would be the solution.
You would need to be generous with the amount of WD40 you use so you can swipe quickly without needing to scrub for fear of over-cleaning.

I used Cotton wool to apply WD40 and paper tissues to dry the excess off the liner.
I do not recommend this as parts of the cotton kept sticking onto the liner and I had to keep picking them off.
Same with the paper tissues.
Thus I would recommend the use of cotton fabric, such as in T Shirts, small pieces to be changed as you clean one area.
Maybe a lint-free towel to wipe the fabric with afterwards.

I hope this helps out anyone who faces this issue.

Cheers
Farouk

[mdsalemi]

Of course, WD40 would work; so would "Citrus Magic" and a variety of other solvent based products. It (WD40) is odorized Stoddard solvent, or some similar blend. Also known as Naphtha, petroleum distillate, paint thinner, etc.

Once you have it cleaned with the WD40, you can probably de-grease it with a soap or detergent spray of some kind; I hesitate to make any name brand recommendations since I have no idea what you have available in Lebanon!

[hauser]

Here's a Youtube video addressing this problem.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vxe3Sa21MM