It appears that the widow trim rubber on my '60 Falcon wagon is melting! In one corner of the dash there was actually a small puddle of amber liquid from the liquifying windshield trim! A good portion of the trim has a moist outer coating that I just wipe off. The window integrity is fine but what can I do to remedy this? DASBOOT resides in a H-O-T South Florida garage. Your thoughts please.
Do you have any solvents sitting around in the garage where the car is? I remember reading that if you have a particular solvent or compound evaporating into the air, it can cause big-time corrosion of metal anywhere nearby. I wonder if the same type of thing can happen to rubber?
Just did a quick search. Acetone and other solvents will definitely melt rubber. If you have some in the garage, along with the heat, that might do it. Don't ***ume that if the lid is closed, it won't leak out.
I think I have one small can of acetone sitting around but it's only a quart or so. Thanks for the thought though. I'll take it out just to be safe. There MUST be some kind of restoreative spray for this though.
Here is some good reading for you! Natural rubber is made of polyisoprene chains that slip past each other when the material is stretched. When raw, the substance is too sticky and soft to be of much use, so it is toughened with the addition of chemicals such as sulphur that create cross-links between the chains, making the rubber stiffer and less sticky. This process is called vulcanization. With time, ultraviolet light and oxygen in the air react with the rubber, creating reactive radicals that snip the polyisoprene chains into shorter segments. This returns the rubber to something like its original state, soft and sticky. Meanwhile, these radicals can also form new, short cross-links between chains. This hardens the rubber and eventually it turns brittle. Any vulcanization agents left in the rubber contribute to the process. Whether a rubber goes sticky or hard depends on the relative rates of these processes, and these rates in turn depend on the rubbers quality such as what additives, fillers, and dyes it contains, and how it is stored. Heat and light speed up the reactions, for example, an 18°F rise in temperature will roughly double reaction rates, and the presence of strong oxidizers such as ozone creates even more radicals. The eventual fate of your rubber depends on the temperature in the room, and on whether you have a window or are near a machine such as a photocopier that creates ozone. How much light and heat is required for these changes? The polymer chemistry of rubber is fairly messy, and so this is difficult to answer precisely. Obviously, the chemical reactions run slowly if the rubber is in a cool area, more quickly if left on a sunny area. A rule of thumb is that reaction rates roughly double for an 18°F rise in temperature, but this is complicated when you take oxygen and light into consideration. The quality of the rubber is also important, such as whether it contains additives, fillers, or dyes that absorb light energy or help transfer radicals. The final factors that influence the change are ozone concentration, UV light intensity, and whether the rubber is stretched or not, stretching brings chains closer together, allowing radicals to jump from one chain to another more easily, and to create new bonds between chains.
BRAVO Themoose!!! Brilliant and enlightening little article! Yes...the garage gets VERY hot, especially this time of year. Easily 87 degrees +! Widows are covered so UV is not in question. There are cans of paint stored in there though. Could these have an effect?
As long as the cans are not leaking then that should not have any effect.Like everything else no matter what precautions you take time will eventually take its tole.There are products available that are supposed to extend the life of rubber Armor-All being one but I don't know how well they work.Might be worth some more research.
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