Protectant Plus and rubber trim/window moldings


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Alright, first off, I love protectant plus, it works great on interior vinyl and leather componenets, and most exterior trim, and lasts a long time, BUT, for the life of me, I can't get it to work nicely on rubber exterior trim; particulalrly, the soft rubber trim that surround most windows. The only product I've ever had work perfectly on this type of trim was Meguiar's #38 Tire and Trims Gel, but this product is discontinued, and the shelf life is poor so I'd really like to get protectant plus to work for me, as finding a good bottle of #38 will not only be hard, but the product may only stay good for a year or two.

 

I usually apply protectant plus with a microfiber sponge, and sometimes it lays down nice, other times it comes out really streaky, but it always ends up streaking when I am removing the residue from surrounding paint. I spoke with Anthony on the phone the other day regarding this trim, and he indicated it may be the microfiber removing the product as I'm applying it. So I tried applaying it with a sponge, and the resulsts while better, still weren't as good as I'd like them to be, and of course, I'd always mess it up when cleaning the surrounding paint/glass.

 

Anyone have any suggestions?

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Hey,

 

This is the main reason why I do not dress those rubber seals around windows. Every time you clean the glass you'll mess up the dressing so I opt to clean them well and just leave them "El Naturel"

 

The Protectant Plus will work on rubber BUT I have found that it's been when sprayed on until fully covered then allows to dry, coming back when almost all soaked in and then buffing lightly. This application process though for the areas you speak of would be very difficult, not to mention messy.

 

What I opt for many times is to use Klasse All-In-One for those areas. It cleans then up nicely. If you have some Poli-Seal you can try that also as others have stated they use Poli-Seal to clean and shine up trim and rubber pieces. I personally have never used it like that so I can't give you direct, personal experience on the outcome.

 

Hope that helps,

Anthony

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This is the main reason why I do not dress those rubber seals around windows. Every time you clean the glass you'll mess up the dressing so I opt to clean them well and just leave them "El Naturel"

 

Anthony,

 

The problem with this, is that here in California(at least in areas surrounding LA), we have a lot of environmental degredants and oxidants, that will quickly degrade and breakdown rubber trim components, the window moldings being first to go. A direct example would be my mother's Audi; it's 3 months older than our neighbors(2005 models, before they did the change over to the new full height grills), but the rubber moldings look almost as good as the day we bought it, it's been washed every 2-3 weeks, and all the rubber dressed every 1.5-2 months. The neighbors audi is 3 months newer, it gets washed regularly, with cash wash shampoo(I buy them a nice big 1.25 gallon jug of gold class whenever it's on special), but the rubber trim never gets dressed, it's dry and faded, starting to exhibit cracking, and won't accept dressing. Alternatively, you can look at most toyota's on the road here in california, and 2/3's of them having dry, faded, or cracking rubber window moldings(some of the newer models are using a different style trim that seems to hold up much better).

 

I have also tried poli-seal, but it only seems to "dress" certains types of hard vinyl trim, and doesn't look like it doesn't anything for rubber. So you can understand my problem, I have to dress rubber components so that they don't quickly deteriorate, and I'd rather use protectant plus, as I don't like carrying 30 different dressings for 30 different types of trim. I'm sure it's a problem with my application method, we just need someone with similar experiences to chime in ;)

 

George

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Yo....

 

Have you tried Optimum spray wax on these areas? It contains UV absorbers and while it will not dress these areas it will protect them. Clean them well first and then try some OCW on them and see how it goes.

 

The Protectant Plus will work but you'll have to spray the area down and let it dwell for a bit in order to get a nice even finish but this can be a messy application process. .

 

Anthony

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Have you tried Optimum spray wax on these areas? It contains UV absorbers and while it will not dress these areas it will protect them. Clean them well first and then try some OCW on them and see how it goes.

 

 

Yes, but, the results were unsatisfying. This brings up another thought though; would anyone mine doing some testing and posting some pictures(optional if you have the time) for me, as I don't have access to Opti-Seal right now, but probably won't have access to any for a couple weeks. What I'd like you to do(if you have acess to this type of trim, Anthony if you have the time, the soft rubber window moldings on Porsche's are the exact type of trim I have trouble with, along with Audi's, Fords, and various other vehicles), is to clean the the trim(with alcohol, or mild apc mix), and divide it into three sections: Leave one section clean and undressed, one section dressed as best as you can with protectant plus, and the third section "dressed" with opti-seal. If you could get a pic of the results as well as your thoughts on the application, I'd really appreciate it. If no one wants to, or has the time to do it, I'll go ahead and try it out once I get some opti-seal, and post the results, but like I said, I probably won't have access for a few weaks.

 

 

George

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Have you tried the tire shine? That may work... tires are rubber... seals are rubber.

 

I'm actually going to do this with my car tomorrow. I'll try and remember to come back and let you know how it goes.

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Have you tried the tire shine? That may work... tires are rubber... seals are rubber.

 

I'm actually going to do this with my car tomorrow. I'll try and remember to come back and let you know how it goes.

 

 

Yes I have tried the tire shine, and it poses the same issues as the Protectant Plus

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Any luck finding a solution? These seals are ridiculously hard to dress or restore. I think 1Z is the only company that makes a product that works.

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Yes, I know, but I just wanted to know what was Woob thinking about.

 

I'd try FK1's 350, or Carlack Plasti-Care (Klasse VLRP) on them, oooor... I got a sample from the Opti-Bond II tire gel, so have to check how it works on the window frame-rubbers...

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Poorboy's Trim Restorer would probably work. Very similar to #38

 

Nope, on my BMW it hasn't worked. I use Natural Look on weather stripping and that works fine. My concern is the Rubber stripping around the outside of the vehicle on the edges of glass, etc. It's is as if they can get wet for a second, then just go back to their dirty brown/black mix.

 

New Tire Shine II is a gel correct? Going to order some for the Michelin tires I've been trying to tackle.

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  • 1 month later...

Just wanted to update this thread, now that I've got my hands on on both opti-seal and opti-bond tire gel.

 

The optiseal experiment was a no go, does not "dress" rubber trim. It works good as protectant on hard trim that is in good condition though(beads really well), but will not darken the part or restore color.

 

As far as the optibond gel goes, I'm copy/pasting this from another post regarding the same issue. It works very much like my old favorite(meguiar's #38) but doesn't spread as easily. First water tests(directly after application) show that it holds up very well to hard black trim(both smooth and porous), but not so well on the rubber trim(compared to #38, my old standby). So next test will be to see how it holds up after a couple of hours curing, and how it olds up during long term application. My only other alternative is to use a solvent based dressing(like the one I get from AI), but those are messy and greasy and cleanup is a pain.

 

Also, I'll report back after I've done some durability testing, but the new gel looks GREAT on tires when wiped on with a sponge.

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