Ashamed to say this is the first time in 3 years of ownership (she's a working vehicle) I've got out the box of Autglym products and scrubbed away.

Everything's come up lovely, except I found a very disturbing thing.....

The inside of the door handles (not the silver door openers the big chunky black ones), especially the front, are caked in a thick sticky goo.

If it had been just one I'd have assumed it was some sort of tape glue leftover from the accident repair work but its all the doors. Just worse in the front, very much worse.

No idea what it is and going to try Sticky Stuff Remover because cleaning products won't shift it. You can scrape it off with a finger nail but as its 'origin unknown' I'm not keen on that.

Probably just my FL2 but intrigued to think some of you will now go take a look and find the same thing!!

PizzaGuy wrote:

Everything's come up lovely, except I found a very disturbing thing.....

The inside of the door handles (not the silver door openers the big chunky black ones), especially the front, are caked in a thick sticky goo.

Ha ha!!

Actually it was a vicar so that throws up even more dark conjecture.

He had a dog guard fitted, but maybe that was just cover for his late night activities?

That's not a palatable answer either really!!!

Have you tried lighter fuel. Great for removing sticky stuff from tape & stickers. Also cleaning surfaces like car grills from grease before spray painting.

Australia:
https://www.bunnings.com.au/diggers-1l-she...id=1563463 Procrastination, mankind's greatest labour saving device!

Acoustic insulation ARB TPMS 3xARB air compressors After cooler Air tank On-board OCD pressure air/water cleaning Additional 50L fuel Carpet in doors ABE 2x1kg Waeco 28L modified fridge Battery 4x26ah Solar 120w Victron MPPT 100/20 DC-DC 18amps 175amp jumper plug Awning 6x255/60R18

I would probably use "Acetone" as it's cheeper than chips
most hardware stores, wash the area afterwards though. DAVE.

Both very good suggestions, thanks.

I think sticky stuff remover is definitely spirit based, so I'll give that a try before moving on to the hard stuff.

Try lighter fuel before acetone. Acetone is more likely to have an issue with paint or plastics. Procrastination, mankind's greatest labour saving device!

Acoustic insulation ARB TPMS 3xARB air compressors After cooler Air tank On-board OCD pressure air/water cleaning Additional 50L fuel Carpet in doors ABE 2x1kg Waeco 28L modified fridge Battery 4x26ah Solar 120w Victron MPPT 100/20 DC-DC 18amps 175amp jumper plug Awning 6x255/60R18

Cool, thanks for the tip.

Again!

This is likely to be part of the door moulding which has degraded with age, possibly after contact with oily hands but maybe just age/car in the sun etc ... I do a lot of electronics servicing and I've seen it happen often with plastic control knobs on equipment.

Probably nothing sinister...

t's actually the unsuitable cleaning products that cause this described part to become sticky. One day, someone used APC (All Purpose Cleaner) from Meguiar's on my car on this area, and since then, it's become sticky. It's very unpleasant to touch, indeed

I had the same with mine. Felt nasty. I'm under the impression that it was a soft-touch coating applied at manufacture that hasn't held up well. Early 2000s German cars had a lot of this sort of thing, a matte rubber coating that rubbed off and left shiny patches. Some cameras and other instruments seemed to suffer in storage the same way, some off-gassing breaking down the rubber coatings and turning them into sticky goo that resisted all my non-mechanical means of rectification.

I removed the stickiness on mine with a scotchbrite pad and some detergent as a lubricant, just pushed it in there and rubbed away at it until it was all gone. Due care and attention to not scratch the trim was required, but it didn't take long and it hasn't returned, nor has the urge to wipe my hands every time I closed the door.