How to fix splotchy rubber window seals.

P

Payne

New member
I am working on a 2007 Ford Focus. The car was left under a tree and the exterior rubber seals around the windows were covered in yellow cement like pollen. I tried to remove the pollen residue with P&S Enviro Clean, general purpose cleaner, diluted, sprayed on and scrubbed the seals with a soft tooth brush. Well now I am in a panic because after only leaving it on for about 20 minutes then washing the car the rubber seals now look like it has some sort of camoflauge light gray to charcoal gray splotchy finish. Before I started they were black and yellow now the seals look even worse. In some areas you can see the toothbrush streaks but in most it looks like the seals were hit with tiny paintballs in shades of gray on the black seals!

Any suggestions as to what to do? I thought about some black restorer but I think it will only look like differing shades of darker gray to black. I do not want to take a chance of screwing things up even more. It really looks bad. I really need your help.

Initially I blamed the Enviro Clean but it is probably more like operator error.
Thanks.
 
before I got my hands on Poorboy's Trim Restorer I had that same mess to clean up and being desperate I scrubbed the rubber seals with baby oil and then again with dish washing liquid knowing that oil deteriorates rubber. I did all the scrubbing with a soft tooth brush and it came out looking new. PB Trim Restorer Rocks!!
 
If you would happen to use this make shift slurry I would suggest topping it with some sort of rubber trim product. Maybe mothers back to black if you can get some locally. I used to get it at wal mart or an auto parts store.
 
tuscarora dave said:
If you would happen to use this make shift slurry I would suggest topping it with some sort of rubber trim product. Maybe mothers back to black if you can get some locally. I used to get it at wal mart or an auto parts store.
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Thanks. I guess I might need to compile a list of PoorBoys products that are "must haves" in order to avoid further grief of any kind and get an order off to them. I can get Mother's at a local Walmart so will do that. So your suggestion to make a slurry, I guess that Back to Black has to be diluted or are you suggesting a slurry of PB's product.
Thanks again
 
Payne said:
Thanks. I guess I might need to compile a list of PoorBoys products that are "must haves" in order to avoid further grief of any kind and get an order off to them. I can get Mother's at a local Walmart so will do that. So your suggestion to make a slurry, I guess that Back to Black has to be diluted or are you suggesting a slurry of PB's product.
Thanks again
Click to expand...

not suggesting that you mix anything like a slurry, sorry it was poor humor:surrender Just was saying that I did it by scrubbing the rubber seals with the baby oil which really deep cleaned the seals but was a black oily mess so I cleaned the black oily mess off the vehicle with dish washing liquid. I did this when I was very inexperienced and it worked rather well at getting the splotchy pollen and sappy tree mess out of the rubber. I suggested this because it sounded like you were in a hurry to take care of this and didn't a suitable product on hand.

I really would recommend a straight APC with a cotton terry towel rubbing vigorously to clean the rubber and then to apply some Trim restorer. My concern was if you had used the baby oil and dawn method that the rubber would be left dried out and unprotected and that you should at least apply some back to black on the rubber seals as to seal and moisturize them. I just thought you were in a real pinch for time. The back to black most likely will not clean the pollen splotchy mess out of the rubber on it's own without a strong APC first. or the above (in a pinch) method.
 
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