Boiled Linseed Oil.......substitute for plastic dressing!

T

The Enforcer

New member
a while back, actually over a year ago...i ran into some older fellas who told me about a way to keep your exterior plastics shining (bumbers, wiper cowls, all the stuff you have to constantly apply dressing to). they told me to completely degrease and clean the plastic piece you were applying it to, apply the linseed oil with a rag, and let it cure for 18-24 hours before it is driven or touched. if it gets on the windows, it will wipe right off. not sure about paint, tho. it even smells like sweet tea lol.



once it dries.....the piece will have a nice satin shine to it, but it is dry to the touch. now, over a year later...the plastic wiper cowl still looks the way it did when i applied it.



anyone else have any experience/advice/opinions on this? you can purchase this stuff at your local hardware store. for $4.00....you can get enough to do well over 100 cars i think. i wonder what makes this stuff work, and how it will affect the pieces in the long run. all comments are welcome!
 
The Enforcer said:
i wonder what makes this stuff work, and how it will affect the pieces in the long run. all comments are welcome!
Click to expand...



Wow, what a wonderful discovery. I may try this one out. I believe that some of these natural oils crosslink when exposed to air. This is a lot like some sealants, and it makes them insoluble and nonvolatile, so the oil can no longer be rinsed or evaporated away. The fact that it has lasted a whole year is awefully impressive. Thanks for sharing!
 
ehh these arent too great, but its all i have.



when it was first applied, one week old in august of 2008...



001-3.jpg




here is is last month, 14 months after first applied. ive never added anything to it, other than wash it or dust it. it may have lost a LITTTTTLE itty bit of the shine, but it is no way as dull as it would be if i were to maintain it with a dressing week after week.



004-1.jpg
 
jose206 said:
Let me know if anyone else tries this, might be my new dressing for trim and plastics:)
Click to expand...



i wouldnt even call this a dressing. its more like a one-time fix for dul and faded plastic. the parts look just like they have been dressed, but ocne this stuff cures, it is completely dry to the touch. i guess kinda like freshly sprayed trim paint. while it is curing the first 18-24 hours tho, you have to make sure dirt, dust, flies, nothing gets on it at all. i owuld imagine that you would have QUITE a mess if a lot of dirt or dust settled on a piece that wasnt dry yet. i wouldnt even do this unless you have a garage to keep the car in.



or even getter....remove the piece if you can and bring them inside with ya!
 
linseed oil is pretty popular on the older vw golfs that have lots of black trim , works great and lasts a longggggg time



just be aware a linseed soaked rag can be a fire hazzard , best wash them out straight after use
 
looks like a great discovery...anyone heard of any disasters doing this? Safety in the long run hasnt been confirmed yet...would be dyin to know
 
yeah, we need a few more reviews/testimonials and a write up!



This could make dressing the dumb funky shaped windshield cowls a thing of the past!
 
Linseed oil is very flamable and the towels can spontaneous combust, be aware of that before you are using it.
 
toyotaguy said:
so is it less flamable once its cured on the trim?? I would just throw the rag out anyway, not wash it!
Click to expand...



The rag can spontaneous combust in the trash can...soak it with water or something smilar.
 
I have actually used boiled linseed oil on a 2001 xterra that I own. This might sound crazy but I heard a mix of boiled linseed oil and paint thinner works well 60/40 was their mix. I used it on textured plastic, like yours, and on some smooth plastic that was highly oxidized around the head lights. There were some areas of the smooth plastic that had pretty much lost all color and those could not be saved. I simply wiped it on sparingly in a buffing motion with no real force (it pretty much works by itself) and then with the same motion used a clean towel to wipe it off. I was skeptical at first... you know like the next morning all my plastic would melt into a puddle on the garage floor... or it would turn pink after leaving it in the sun, but it has been half a year and it still looks as good as when I first applied it (like new in my opinion) despite the Texas heat and sun beating down on it which had originally sucked the oils out of the plastic in the first place. If you are going to attempt this make sure you do it in a ventilated area (open the garage door) and it would be wise to use a respirator, don't let the stuff touch your skin because besides the paint thinner being bad I've heard that boiled linseed oil can reek havoc on your body. I would also listen to porta's advice about spontaneous combustion since oily rags are a good way to burn your house/garage down, so dispose of them properly. Also this is a word of mouth thing so don't try this on a car that you aren't willing or cannot afford to experiment on, in which case I might try a commercial product like forever black or something of that nature. I think it would be wise for anyone attempting this to try it in a not so visible place like the underside of a bumper or the inside of a mud flap before applying it to visible major plastic pieces. Hope that helps this thread a bit. :-)
 
toyotaguy said:
so is it less flamable once its cured on the trim?? I would just throw the rag out anyway, not wash it!
Click to expand...



I've been to a few fires that were caused by the improper disposal of rags used to apply boiled linseed oil.



They should be soaked in a water/apc solution to break down the oil.
 
porta said:
Why not use a proper trim product?
Click to expand...



That's the whole point of this thread. It's been discovered that linseed oil works better, and longer, that any "trim" product. Cheaper, too. :clap: I, too, would like to know more about it. I don't like my exterior trim to "shine", though.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top