Exterior window rubber turns towels black

[bmcfadde]

This has been the most difficult problem in my quest to bring a '92 Sable daily driver back to reasonable condition. Over the years I have used all kinds of rubber cleaner and conditioners. The result has always been the same - black washing mitts, black drying towels, black window cleaning towels, black dressing applicators, and black streaks down the car after a rain. After searching through the forums I found a post that suggested using alcohol to clean the rubber seals. It worked (with some elbow grease). The black never completely stopped bleeding onto the towels when they were saturated with alcohol and rubbed vigorously against the seals. However, after applying several coats of 303, the black bleeding has stopped on washing and drying towels, and only a trace appears on the dressing towel.

Here are the steps that I took to finally stop the bleeding:

1. Washed the seals with Dawn and water using a bug and tar sponge.

2. Rinsed thoroughly with water.

3. Sprayed ISO on a MF wrapped around two fingers and began cleaning the rubber. I srubbed rather hard and only worked a small section at a time.

4. Wiped the small section dry and compared to an "uncleaned" section. The rubber on a section that was finally cleaned of all contaminants was a very flat black. The rubber on an uncleaned section was slightly shiny (probably from silicon build-up).

5. Continued this process until all the rubber around the window was flat black.

6. Rinsed with water and dried immediately with a MF. While drying I paid close attention to the MF to see if it turned black. If it did I repeated the alcohol washing on the section that caused the towel to turn black.

7. When I could finally dry the trim and not turn the towel black, I applied a thick coat of 303 and let it soak into the trim for 30 to 40 minutes. I then smoothed out the excess and let it further soak into the trim.

8. Repeated step 7 two more times.

9. Buffed off all execess 303 at the end of the day.

The rubber looks great and I'm not getting any black on the MF I use to clean the window!!!

CAUTION:

I tried to speed up the cleaning by using 3M Adhesive Remover. This contained some solvents that were stronger than the alcohol. They dried out something in the rubber and caused it to wringle on one of the bottow window seals. Heavy coats of 303 on this seal and some time in the sun helped the wrinkles to go away.

[RH]

Good info and procedure! Thumbs up!

[Bad03xtreme]

I will have to try that I get black all over my towels!!

[kleraudio]

I always thought the black was caked in dirt?

Jim

[rmzalbar]

Rubber "rot." From sun damage. In essence what bmcfadde is telling you to do is exfoliate the dead rubber and then put a nice UV protectant on (303, armor-all) to keep it from happening again.

How durable is 303? I know the 303 and Armor-all use the water-based silicones, which mean the bad solvents that used to do damage are gone but the protectant itself gets washed/rained off more quickly? Is there something more durable for outside trim?

[Joseph K]

I had to spend about 2 hours cleaning all the buildup/rot, then dressing all the seals when I first got my truck... I have 3 mf towels that were yellow that are now permanently black . They still work just as well, though.