VW Jettas, interior plastic around the climate controls

[Richard Grasa]

I detail alot of Jettas, and there is an annoying issue I have noticed with I think the late 90's, early 2000's models or thereabout. The plastic around the climate controls and a few other places almost always has this thick kind of film that almost looks like grease from people's hands. At first I thought it was grease, but as I detailed a couple more of them, I notice it's actually the plastic itself. If you scrape it with your fingernail it will come off, but it pretty apparent there's something going on with the plastic or some kind of coating on it that seems to have degraded over time. So instead of trying to remove it, which takes forever I decided to leave it alone. Well this causes an issue with the customer because they think it's a dirty, greasy spot that I missed and I have to explain to them it's not dirty, it's the plastic itself. Has anyone else noticed this with these cars, and can you tell me what this is? And should I remove it or leave it there? Hopefully someone knows *** I'm talking about, this is sooo annoying as I do alot of these cars.

 

[Barry Theal]

Make an add on service to fix it.bremove the piece and respray them with plastic dip. this is a huge issue wit older ferraris as well.



lol im sorry dont use plastic dip. use interior dye. wow i really wasn,t thinking when i typed that. lol A company called SEM makes great long lasting aerosals.

 

[Richard Grasa]

Make an add on service to fix it.bremove the piece and respray them with plastic dip. this is a huge issue wit older ferraris as well.



lol im sorry dont use plastic dip. use interior dye. wow i really wasn,t thinking when i typed that. lol A company called SEM makes great long lasting aerosals.

Thanks Barry, that's a great idea.



What if they don't want to have it resprayed? Do you think I should scrape that stuff off or leave it?

 

[C. Charles Hahn]

Thanks Barry, that's a great idea.



What if they don't want to have it resprayed? Do you think I should scrape that stuff off or leave it?

You'd need some kind of solvent to dissolve it, and then depending on what solvent it takes you're risking damage to the plastic underneath the coating.



Very common issue, and it does suck.

 

[Richard Grasa]

You'd need some kind of solvent to dissolve it, and then depending on what solvent it takes you're risking damage to the plastic underneath the coating.



Very common issue, and it does suck.

So best to leave it alone and explain to the customer unless they want to recoat it. It seems like it could be scraped off if you remove the panel and then respray it. These cars make me cringe, the carpet is a nightmare too clean in these as well.

 

[C. Charles Hahn]

So best to leave it alone and explain to the customer unless they want to recoat it. It seems like it could be scraped off if you remove the panel and then respray it. These cars make me cringe, the carpet is a nightmare too clean in these as well.

That would be my opinion, yeah. I know it sucks having to explain what the problem is to customers, but if you catch it up front when they drop the vehicle off (or when you arrive to start the work) it keeps them from thinking you left something dirty and gives you the chance to upsell them on having it stripped/scraped off (and again, scraping you'd have to be careful about because any gouges you put into the plastic will show through the fresh ColorCoat) and resprayed with the SEM dye like Barry suggested.



I hate VW carpet in general because it's usually such cheap crap.

 

[Concours.John]

There is a company called "Sticky no More" they refinish these prices correctly. I have a Jetta and just did a 93 RX7 with the same problem.