How to restore /revive old rubber parts

Bmachine

Bmachine

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I'm surprised I could not find a previous post on this... I am trying to revive or refresh the rubber bumper strips. I remember doing this by soaking it in WD40 for a few days on my previous coupe. Is there a better way to do this now?

On other forums I keep seeing mentions of Forever Black. Anyone using that?

When in doubt, I usually use whatever Meguiar's has for the job so I am thinking of Meguiar's Vinyl and Rubber Cleaner/Conditioner #40 but I wanted to see if anyone had a better recomendation.

Thank you

Bo
 
Forever Black did not work for me, probably from 40 years of crap being applied to the rubber despite cleaning them before applying. It started to peel off.

The other rubber bits I have used Gummi Pflege with good results
 
Forever Black and Back to Black are more appearance oriented.

If you are talking about making older rubber more flexible, I have used two products that have worked. Gummi Pflege works well, and I have had pretty good luck with Vaseline (petroleum jelly), which is a whole lot cheaper.
 
Fantastic tips. I read reviews on Gummi Pflege and that sounds just like what I am looking for.

Thanks Steve and Ohmess!
 
I can already see the eyes rolling when people read this and I certainly don't endorse the product nor have I used it in years.

In about 1988 I was doing a body off restoration on a 1956 Chrysler 300B and after searching for windwing rubbers I came up empty. My originals were dirty and rock hard as they had been with the car at that time for some 32 years.

I took the frames apart and removed the rubber and with a tooth brush and dish washing soap and warm water cleaned them in the kitchen sink and rinsed with clean warm water. My wife still reminds me of the dirt that rolled off them !!

They were placed on paper towels and left to air dry for a couple of days. After that I took a kitchen pan that would accommodate their size and filled it with ARMORALL. The rubbers were placed in the pan and left to soak for 2 or 3 days. I removed them and once again placed them on paper towels and let the air dry.

So fast forwarding 27 years as I still own the car those rubbers were installed back in their frames and remain very soft and clean to this day. Granted this car isn't out much but still after that time you would expect changes. I've seen none.
 
I use WD40 with 0000 steel wool, wipe it, then Gummi. I am hesitant with Gummi now because it smells so damn good, my bumper got chewed on during storage by some creature.
 
Ohmess said:
Forever Black and Back to Black are more appearance oriented.

If you are talking about making older rubber more flexible, I have used two products that have worked. Gummi Pflege works well, and I have had pretty good luck with Vaseline (petroleum jelly), which is a whole lot cheaper.
Click to expand...

+1 vaseline, but be careful, do not use vaseline on epdm rubbers such as brake system seals, vaseline is a petroleum derivate, as you correctly described) so it is ok with those rubbers that are so massive that you wont be able to tell about size changes, i.e. bumper rubbers,

specifically vaseline is ok with nbr (nitrilic rubbers) as fuel tank seal,...

epdm gets deformed with vaseline, size grows and material deteriorates

additionally vaseline leaves a greasy surface, so process is tedious, clean with water and soap, apply vaseline, let it soak, remove remains with a cloth or paper

i would recomend glicerine for weatherstrip rubbers and others, glicerline works better on those rubbers, it does not leave a greasy surface, and is very cheap too, you might find it in a pharmacy,
 
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