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Re: ARM RESToration
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Home away from home
 
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More progress...
  
Posted on: 1/20 19:10
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Re: ARM RESToration
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Quote:
I was surprised how easy it was to work the plastic, a bit of heat in the right spot and I was able to work it back pretty much to the original shape. I'm going to make sure I don't tighten them too much when they get put back on, hopefully they won't distort again. They are actually dark gray, and pretty close to the original colour. The original colour, at least 71 years later, has more brown undertones. My interior is a combination of dark and light gray. 
Posted on: 1/21 1:39
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Re: ARM RESToration
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Not sure exactly what the plastic is, mostly tenite and PVC in that era.
Tenite is known for the white film degradation. See link below. I was surprised the surface wasn't more disturbed requiring body work, if that occurred, so maybe something just contaminating. Must have been living a sedate garaged life. When they sit out in the sun with the windows up and the internal temp can reach the Tg of some of the plastics, they'll have no choice but to move/crack, etc.. I don't know what the mechanism of bending/distortion was but it's either from plastic shrinkage along residual molding stress lines or swelling/deformation of the door card and pushing/tensioning on the arm rest(creep). I doubt 'over' tightening would do much except crack the parts. Dimensional stability of early plastics was not that good/not scientific. '50s is the infancy of 'modern' plastics. Today, they model out the injection molding, custom formulate the material, etc. in the design of the parts where in those edisonian daze it was just make parts best guess and throw them out if they weren't right, aka trial by error. Anyway - looks nice and good work all around. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenite
Posted on: 1/22 12:51
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Re: ARM RESToration
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Good information, thank you! Thoughts..... -I suspect my car was garaged most, if not all of it's life, as fading is minimal for a 71 year old car. We don't get lots of humidity here on the prairies, but I have no idea how it was stored in the years before I bought the car. It could have been in an uninsulated shipping container. There is surface rust on unpainted surfaces such as the back side of the window trim, so I suspect it saw some high humidity at some point in it's life. -The surface of the plastic is really not degraded at all, so maybe as the Wiki article suggests, it's a surface mold, and not the plastic itself breaking down. Maybe keeping the car clean and dry will prevent it from coming back? -Without a doubt, the distortion is directly related to the force applied by the screws that fastens the armrest to the door. I was able to warm these areas and remove most of the distortion by applying force in the opposite direction. -Regardless of how the car was stored, and how little they knew about plastics in the 50's, that these armrests survived as well as they did is impressive.
Posted on: 1/22 13:32
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Re: ARM RESToration
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Whatever the white stuff was on the plastic on my armrests, it's coming back after cleaning it off when I restored my armrests a few months ago. Anyone have ideas for treating it? Maybe clean them up and paint them? It's kinda pungent smelling too, I don't want that smell in my car. 🤮
Posted on: 4/19 19:26
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Re: ARM RESToration
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Some plastics can actual harbor mold and other things. I would try spraying it with a mold killer, like they use on drywall.
Posted on: 4/19 21:16
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-BigKev
1954 Packard Clipper Deluxe Touring Sedan -> Registry | Project Blog 1937 Packard 115-C Convertible Coupe -> Registry | Project Blog |
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Re: ARM RESToration
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Home away from home
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Hmmm, I'll give that a try. It'll be a good experiment.
Posted on: 4/19 21:20
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Re: ARM RESToration
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I cleaned up two of the little ribbed inserts for the armrests, one with mold killer and one with white cleaning vinegar. I wrapped them up in paper towels soaked with each, put them in ziplocks and I'm going to leave them overnight. Tomorrow I'll clean and dry them and then leave them for a while to see if anything begins to grow again. I'll report back.
Posted on: 4/19 22:36
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Re: ARM RESToration
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If it’s coming back it’s a good chance it’s an additive migrating to the surface. Older plastic (or rubber) that has somewhat degraded will usually have lower solubility for the additives and they can bloom. Your idea of cleaning and painting is likely to work. Can’t say much more without knowing the type of plastic. Tenite is a brand name for a formaldehyde-urea type and degradation products do smell. Vinyl degradation can give off a sharp vinegar odor
Posted on: 4/20 7:48
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