Plastic Conditioner? (Namely for LC 500s)

[Scott Baret]

I recently read on here about an LC 580 coming apart during shipping. I know the plastic of a lot of the Spindler-era Macs is terrible, especially these 500s, and was wondering if there was anything to do about it.

The plastic gets brittle, of course. Is there any sort of conditioner to put on it to restore it to original condition? I'm not talking about color here, but simply strength. (Sort of like taking a calcium supplement for brittle bones).

I know leather can be reconditioned, as I did it on one of my cars, but what about plastic?

I have one 550 that tends to have plastic chip just by setting it in a new location--and this is one I take on the road sometimes!! It's fairly yellowed, much more than the 575 that doesn't chip easily.

 

[techknight]

The only person that could even remotely answer that question would be a chemist, and they would have to be familiar with plasticisers. 

My honest opinion is the chemicals that keep the plastics elasticity breaks down, much in the same way the fire retardent oxidizes and makes things yellow. Sure you can reverse that, but can you reverse the elasticity? I dunno. 

I think they fucked up the formula for awhile because even cars that were exposed to the sun too long, the dashboards would become so brittle that a feather landing on them would cause it to crack and fall apart. 

 

[ArmorAlley]

To be fair to the designers back in the Nineties, these things weren't designed with decades of life in them. That they lasted so long is a testament to them and harsh financial realities that the heady days of the Sculley era left them with (short term profiteering is not very helpful when market-share needed growing...).

 

[Brett B.]

even cars that were exposed to the sun too long, the dashboards would become so brittle that a feather landing on them would cause it to crack and fall apart. 

Yeah... take note of Chrysler products from the mid 90's to late 2000's.  Not uncommon to see Dodge trucks in particular with most or all of the dash missing because it simply fell apart.

I don't know of anything in particular, I wipe my stuff down with Pledge occasionally and try to be careful if I have to disassemble something.

 

[just.in.time]

...I know leather can be reconditioned, as I did it on one of my cars, but what about plastic?...

This is a Mac forum, not a car forum but I gotta run with this for a second. Depending on your climate, you should be conditioning the leather in your car every 4 weeks (think Yuma, Arizona in the summer time) to 12 weeks (most other environments that aren't hot and dry) to keep it healthy. If it gets to the point where it looks like it needs conditioner then you are already 6 months late to condition it

 

[Concorde1993]

Yeah... take note of Chrysler products from the mid 90's to late 2000's.  Not uncommon to see Dodge trucks in particular with most or all of the dash missing because it simply fell apart.

Passenger air bag covers on the early LHs were notorious for warping, although I've seen the same problem in BMWs and Nissans of the same vintage. 

 

[Bunsen]

That said, there are car care products which claim to keep your dash from cracking.  One of those might be worth trying.

 

[Johnnya101]

To answer the question: YES, you can do it. There's a certain time frame you have though. Completley shot plastic won't have any benefits. Only the stuff that is still somewhat okay. I work with old rubber a lot, and there's a type of same process since they both use plasticizers. If you would want to do this, you would probably have to get a good oil that contains a lot of of these plasticizers, and soak the parts. I am not a chemist or a pro, and haven't even done this but it has been done to rubber. I'm not sure this would work with thicker plastic however.