1995 Grand prix Instrument Bezel Issues

[mchill07]

I bought a 95 GP today and The bezel which covers the radio/speedometer is really gooey and looks like a dog mauled it to death? Is this a common problem with age or what?

Is there a remedy or just find a good one from a junk yard?

[RobertISaar]

that's not caused by age... somebody got something onto that melted it. i think it's acrylic? brake/carb cleaner, among MANY other chemicals will cause it.

 

once they're like that, there is no saving them.

[crunkGP96]

The coating they have on them sucks. They get scratched real easy. Whatever someone spilled on it or tried to clean it with probably messed it up.

[revnrob]

I had the same crap all over my radio/speedo cover also,,It looked like crap and everything I tried to clean it with the normal cleaning products available to me but nothing was working.

 

I had a spare bezel that had the same crap all over it and decided to use it as a test bed for getting that slimy crap off.

 

The thing I found that works the best is gas and (0000 Steal Wool) ,,,The gas will soften the sticky/slimy shit down to the virgin plastic easily and the steel wool wont scatch the harder plastic to bad,it just leaves very fine scratches you can polish out later when all done.

 

I started out by getting a bag of (0000 Steel Wool), It has about 9 or ten "pads" per bag and a small bowl of gas.

 

The purpose of the Steel Wool is to hold the gas and to scrub and to carry the sticky/slimy crap to.

 

I would start with a piece of steel wool about the size and shape of a Bick lighter,dunk the end in gas then scub in small circles with it untill you hit the smooth new plastic,you will know when you have removed the sticky/slimy crap from the area you are scrubing,, it seamed that it worked the best when the Steel Wool was always soked with gas.

 

Do this until the Steel Wool starts to be a a slimy sticky filled nugget that wont hold anymore of the slime,and throw that nugget out,,,I would use the Steel wool untli it was the size of a cashew half or so then start with a new section of the pad,The whole time the Steel Wool wil kinda disintergrate and small peices will flake off but this is kinda helpfull as it carrys away the sticky/slimy crap to.

 

You just have to repeat this process a whole bunch of times till you get the sticky/slimy crap off everything, It will take you a good amount of time to do it but it will be worth it in the end.

 

I used I think 4-5 of the Steel Wool pads total and about 1-2 quarts of gas.I did this over a few days a hr or so at a crack.

 

But once you get that sticky/slim shit off everything you are left with a surface that is sticky/slim free but has what looks to be something like sun fadeing ,mine looked like white stain/sun faded or something , Dont worry, you can get most of this stuff off when you are completely slim free and go over everything very lightly with a fresh pad of Steal Wool, mine came completly smooth and nice black looking and would work right then but it had very fine scatches and had the white tint to it yet and wanted alittle bit better outcome.

 

I founf that if I used the Steel Wool very gently and took my time I could get almost all the scratches and the white stuff off and it could have ben used right then but wanted to get it better if I could.

 

Once I was done with the gas and Steel Wool, what I was left with was a piece that was very very smooth to the touch and had no sticky/slime crap on it at all but still had the white tint looking stuff left on it.

 

To try and get the white stuff off was , I just used the box of blue shop rags to rub pretty hard all over and it kinda polished it while takeing the white stuff away,,it was so good I called it good enough, But I am quite sure that it could be even better if I kept at it!! You could probly get it shiny brand new looking with some kind of cutting paste or something on that order,,I thought of useing peanut buter.

 

Thats how I got my dash/radio bezel looking great, and maybe will take it back out and try to really polish then up suring warmer weather.

[mchill07]

This is from a 96' GP it looks to be one piece instead to two where the radio bezel separates. did they change that? I'm hoping if I take a gamble on this it works for me.

[john koehler]

I used lacquer thinner and a scotchbrite pad. Took the goo off with little effort. Sand with 600, adhesion promoter, paint, clearcoat... Not a problem. I went with a lighter grey (by choice) with a satin clear coat. Hold up great.