Weird Auto Balm glitch - important.

EDIT: Well, we have our answer, straight from Pete Hamber at Bilt-Hamber. It's on page five of this thread. And the answer is: using Auto Balm on textured plastic is not recommended.

Guys -

Since I've been all over the internet telling people "you have to try Auto Balm," I just noticed something a couple of minutes ago and wanted to share it with you.

Keep it OFF Toyota black plastic.

Right this minute there is a Toyota MR2 Spyder in the driveway. I used Auto Balm to darken up the cowling, the black plastic under the wiper arms. It's turning white. Yesterday, it looked great. Today, after a heavy rain, it looks like it's ruined. And so far, I can't get it to come back black.

Probably a Toyota specific thing. My F250 mirrors aren't doing this. It could even be specific to MR2 Spyders. But at the moment, I have yet to find anything that will "fix" it.

If I get the piece wet with water, it darkens it back up, but it comes back to white in seconds.

The other pieces of black plastic on this particular car were done with Stoner Trim Shine, and they all look perfect.

Once I'm off the phone, I'll try and go out and take some photos of it. Never seen anything do this before.

:sorry:

 

Thank you for the heads up and owning this one. This still doesn't make you a bad guy...:thumb:

 

black wow wasn't effective?

Zoiks!

 

Uh oh Karl, i will know here pretty soon if it messed up the BMW i did a couple of days ago :yikes: Keep your head up, im sure you will get it worked out.

 

hmmmmm...sounds like this stuff has a lot of solvents in it, or even perhaps cleaners...That's why I prefer using on black plastic trim stuff designed ONLY for plastic trim...I'd rather be safe, then sorry.

 

Karl..I had an interesting side effect with AB the other day. I washed my wife's Pacifica and applied a coat of AB to it. My garage was teeming with mosquitos...the lights were on and there had to be 2000 of them in my garage. They were all over the top surfaces of the car. I would have to sweep them away to apply the sealant. After I was done, the little buggers settled down on the top surfaces again but I didn't think much about it. In the morning, I went to sweep them off...this has happened to me before and they always sweep off no problem. Well, their little bodies were stuck into the surface. It was like as the sealant was curing, the mosquito became part of the surface. The car left town that morning and just got back yesterday and I won't have a chance to touch it for a few days as I am doing my 1st detail since my operation. I found this reaction to be very strange!

 

Thanks for the heads up Karl.

 

I was about to apply it to my Corolla's trim... what year is the Spyder? It looked amazing on the Honda Accord I did, but I haven't seen it since.

 

Update: well, there's not much in the way of good news. I went out to run an errand on the other side of town. Upon my return, the white stuff is getting WORSE. It keeps getting lighter and lighter.

Not only that, I was on the phone with JL about this issue, and while I "thought" the F250 was fine, it's doing it now too.

Here's the really weird part. I did the F250 over a month ago. The Spyder a couple weeks ago. Why did it take this problem so long to show itself? The Spyder I can understand, it mostly lives in the garage. The F250 though, it lives outside, getting rained on all, the time. Took this a month to show itself. So over the phone, JL and I came to the conclusion that it's specific to Toyotas. But it isn't. My truck is doing it too.

It also clearly depends on what kind of plastic we're talking about. The mirrors on the F250 do still look good - what I thought was the white stuff was just road grime. But the cowling under the wipers? That's turning white, just like on the Spyder.

Well, it's the least I can do. As soon as I saw this, I thought, oh hell, I just gave a bunch of people a bunch of bad advice.

Just one minor clarification item though. This was not actually my original idea. If you go poke around on some of the UK detailing sites, you'll see people mention this "technique" all the time.

That brings me to the "good news part" of this post. Whatever this is, Black Wow does fix it. I just hadn't tried the BW yet, I'd forgotten I had any left.

I haven't had any phone calls from angry customers yet. It's more than likely very vehicle dependent. Or maybe it's not. Now that the F250 is starting to do it, I'm no longer sure.

It does. It smells like diesel fuel. But don't forget...Stoner Trim Shine has a lot of solvents in it too, and those parts of the car look fine. I use Trim Shine by the case. In a minute, I'll post the photos I just uploaded to Photobucket.

Now THAT is a weird one. "Causes mosquitos to stick to the car." It's doubly weird that once the stuff has cured, it feels so slippery, and knocking bugs off the vehicle is so easy.

I guess it's easy to forget that this stuff is designed, and behaves, very very differently than what we're usually "used to."

You're welcome.

The Spyder is a 2002.

Next post, pictures.

 

Pictures, as requested.





This seems to be the worst spot:



Here's a shot of the air intake, which has Stoner Trim Shine on it, to give you an idea what color this stuff is "supposed to look like:"



Spot on the back bumper of my truck that's started to go all white now:



Cowling on the truck:


Back to the Toyota, to show that Black Wow does indeed appear to solve the issue. I just don't like Black Wow. I find it messy to use.

 

It's definitely getting whiter and whiter as the day progresses. Which is not what I was hoping to see.

Now I'm really worried - I think I put it on the headlights. Headlights for the Spyder shouldn't be super expensive, but...the S2000 has HID headlights, and they are VERY expensive.

Also: notice how uneven the discoloration is. Maybe I'm actually that sloppy, but...I doubt that I am.

It almost looks like I didn't buff it well enough, but it's impossible to tell when you're "done" buffing it. It's hard to describe with words, it's just difficult to spot when you're done. If you've never used the stuff, I'm sure that sounds nuts, but it's true. It sort of disappears into the car.

 

I know this may sound dumb but have your tried 100% IPA, if that does not do anything maybe taking the parts off and letting them sit in a APC for a bit and then clean off? I am going to guess you have tried this already but just thought I throw it out there. Can also try Xylene, 3m adhesive remover has this as a major component.

One good thing about the headlights is that you can use a plastic polish to clear them up. Let me know if you need some as I have some 3m headlight polish that I can send you.

 

Another solution would be to simply redye the plastic pieces. Not hard to do at all. I use SEM brand dye up here and it works great. Sorry about the experiences guys. Lets just use wax and sealant for paint from now on, shall we. :whistle:

 

How about Klean Strip Prep All? that normally removes the hazing from the black textured trim.

Weird that it takes a while to show up though.

 

You could do that, my dad works for SEM he is the technical director for them, works in the lab and r&d.

 

Shit. This stuff looks REALLY good on trim. I haven't noticed anything on the Range Rover as far as whitening. Actually, now that I think about it, the windshield cowl on the Range Rover kinda has the same problem. I don't think I ever used Auto Balm on it though :shead:

 

Ken, any chance I could get you on the phone for a bit? You've used this stuff more than anyone here.

 

Karl do you have Meguiars D151? I used this on a few plastic pieces flat and grooved to remove white residue. If you have some try a test area. After I would wipe it clean then use a dedicated product for the trim. I like FK 350 at the moment

 

Very odd how the discoloration is not uniform.

 

Think it's weird now? It's about to get more weird.

It's raining here in Raleigh, well, it's been threatening to all day, and now it's started to. The vehicles now look different.

- White on the cowl of the Spyder is gone
- White on the F250 is still there

The stuff on the Toyota seems to have just...disappeared. F250 still looks covered with baby powder in little small places.

It may come right back once the rain is gone. Seems to be somehow moisture related.