Hello,

I have a bit of a problem with the interior of my '77 Cutlass. The plastic near the lower of the door cards is dried and brittle. It's brittle to the point where a finger nail will scratch the surface. This is a bit of a problem with the manual window handles. My question is, is there anything I can do to rejuvenate this plastic? Anything to give it a little more protection from scratches in the future? Any oils or anything I can do to bring a little more life into the plastic?

 

We have had a few threads about this kind of thing before, mostly with the plastic on the dash or higher where the uv exposure is greater. If I recall the consensus was the degradation is from the uv exposure and simply age. This kind of goes hand in hand with threads about the "old car smell" and it is generally attributed to out-gassing of the plastic and fabrics used in the interior. With all that said, I don't think an oil would help, you might be better off using some kind of clear sealer but I can't say what kind, urethane or what. I know exactly what you are describing and have seen it many times in older cars. I know there are paints sold that are supposedly expressly for use on plastics, maybe a clear or a close color match would help seal it. I wish I could help out more but that is about all I can think of.

 

Oldsguy, thanks for the insight. I'll look into some sort of sealer, even if it changes the appearance a bit, just some added layer of protection.

I found some reproduction door cards, but I can't really justify the cost at the moment.

Thanks again.