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| Tips on cleaning sticky steering wheels? (photos added 2007-04-24) |
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| bleargh:
Before I delved into the cupboards for cleaning supplies, I thought I'd ask first and see what (if anything) people have used in the past to clean the stickiness/gunk off of old steering wheels... I bought a lot of older Atari-style wheels (e.g. Sprint) on eBay and although some are fairly clean, several of them are quite sticky. I'm not sure if its just surface gunk or if its actually the rubber/plastic finally wearing down and becoming sticky, but thought I'd ask first before I did something stupid and wrecked any of the wheels entirely. Any idea (a) if this stuff can be cleaned up, and (b) if so, what's the best thing to use to get it off? |
| SavannahLion:
Is one of those steering wheels red? This is what I learned from some research I did when trying to see if I could fix some 40 year old equipment. The rubber/plastic breaks down in one of two ways. It "dries" out and turns brittle or the material essentially turns to goo. As far as I could find, if the material reaches either stage, it can't be recovered or halted. I couldn't find any reliable information on why this occurs, but the general consensus is that the only way to prevent it is to treat/clean the part with certain cleaners/moisturizers from the moment it comes into your possession. There seems to be some differing opinion on what, exactly, works to prevent the problem. I'll see if I can dig up the information I found at work. I think I have a catalogue somewhere that deals exclusively in preservation. I'll see if there's anything interesting in there. Edit: Made corrections to information |
| bleargh:
--- Quote from: SavannahLion on April 19, 2007, 02:19:12 am ---Is one of those steering wheels red? I don't remember what the steering wheels are made of. Does it have a rubber or plastic coating or is it some kind of baked on enamel? --- End quote --- Uh yeah, one of them is red... was that you I bought them from? Or, did you just happen to see the same lot? The red one is definately rubber and is quite sticky; I'm expecting that one to need to be shellac'd or coated with something else before it'd be useful. Is a shame too, its the nicest looking wheel of the lot. As for all of the other wheels, they're more like hard plastic than "rubber". Don't think they're baked on enamel. |
| SavannahLion:
No I didn't sell them :P. I was giving serious thought to bidding on that particular auction since I want an Off Road cab. But I was trying to get a Simpsons cab at the same time and I wouldn't have been able to pay my debts if the Simpsons cab deal went through. Of course, it didn't, but by that time you won the auction for the wheels. :cry: Don't do anything to the wheels at this point. Don't clean them. Don't cover them in shellac, nothing. Those wheels have been sitting somewhere for 20-odd years. A few more weeks or months won't hurt them more than a mistaken attempt at preservation. Let me dig up my old research and share the results here. |
| bleargh:
--- Quote from: SavannahLion on April 19, 2007, 02:32:00 am ---No I didn't sell them :P. I was giving serious thought to bidding on that particular auction since I want an Off Road cab. But I was trying to get a Simpsons cab at the same time and I wouldn't have been able to pay my debts if the Simpsons cab deal went through. Of course, it didn't, but by that time you won the auction for the wheels. :cry: --- End quote --- Well, if it makes you feel any better.... I only need two of the wheels. The rest I'd be happy to sell and spread the good cheer... --- Quote from: SavannahLion on April 19, 2007, 02:32:00 am ---Don't do anything to the wheels at this point. Don't clean them. Don't cover them in shellac, nothing. Those wheels have been sitting somewhere for 20-odd years. A few more weeks or months won't hurt them more than a mistaken attempt at preservation. Let me dig up my old research and share the results here. --- End quote --- That's about what I figured... I did take one of the cleaner wheels and just wipe of some of the grime/gunk with a wet cloth and that one seems to be in pretty good shape. Being one of the cleaner ones, though, it didn't have that much gunk on it. The dirty ones, OTOH, have a pretty solid layer of sticky "whatever that crap is" on them. |
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