Rejuvenate Plastic and Rubber

What do you guy’s use to rejuvenate plastic and rubber parts? :roll:

 

Define "rejuvenate".

For the black plastic stuff there's products like Mother's Back to Black that will clean it up and add a little dye to make it that nice black colour again.

For rubber, you can get "rubber rejuvenator" at good electronics stores, or places that sell rubber boots, waders, etc.

If by "rubber" you mean your carb joints, the best fix I've heard of so far (short of replacing them) has been to coat them with a layer of black RTV silicone, then squeeze a bicycle innertube over them and trim to fit -- form fitting, and guaranteed to outlive the bike.

 

Good advice, thanks

 

Thanks for the advice i guess that will save me a 100 bucks :>

 

Tried the Mother's Back to Black, I'm very happy with the results.
I haven't found the "rubber rejuvenator" yet.

 

would the shoe polish work? the stuff in a bottle not the can..

 

Oh sorry, just found the bottle i was talking about, its the heel and sole edge color renew... would that stuff works as its made for rubber and such??

 

It is made for rubber, but tends to have a red-rust colored hue to it. I used it on my steering wheel with satisfactory results.

 

I have seen various discussions in different places regarding this topic with different suggestions. I recall one here previously talking about correcting carb boot problems by some combination of a hot water soak and then coating with vasoline. Others say use brake fluid, while others say use ATF fluid as the break fluid will consume (organic) rubber, followed by something with high concentrations of lanolin after the ATF fluid is cleaned off and the rubber dry.. There are other suggestions too, such as using orange peel, armorall, etc. ...

Does anyone have any *real* experience and success at bring hardened carb boot rubber (in particular) back to life?

 

If you're talking about the carb-to-engine boots, some folks have had success sealing leaks with bicycle inner tubes and RTV... cut a length from an inner tube that will fit tightly over the boot, spread on a layer of RTV, then stretch or roll the tube over the outside.

YMMV...

 

Buy new ones?

 

Yes, Chacal, buy new ... However, the prices on new ones has a cost per ounce close to that of silver ... Right now I need something a little cheaper.

 

MidniteMax wrote:
Here's a real example of ultimate fuel efficiency in your XJ:

Load up your XJ in a truck, bring it to my house, and hand me the signed title.

Your bike didn't actually use any fuel during the delivery and...this is the bonus...you'll never have to buy fuel for it again.

Hyper-miling at its finest.



Deleting a few words in the above quote and you have a solution to your carb boot troubles.

All you need to know is:

Load up your XJ in a truck, bring it to my house, and hand me the signed title.

I'm such a good friend to take care of these issues for you folks.

You can thank me later.

 

So am I! I just tried it and it does a phenomenal job on the faded black plastic Yamaha was so fond of using as trim everywhere.
Whoever suggested it about a week or so back thank you.

 

I used the bike innertube method on my boots with elmers rubber cement. It was a little messy and doesn't look great up close but it did the trick.

A friend suggested puck rejuvenated. He used it in the audio business to rejuvenate rollers on various tape players. I have never used it but he has used it on carb boots and swears by it.

 

Years ago when I serviced dot matrix line printers, we used what we called platen cleaner to clean the platen. It was the nastiest smelling stuff, but it cleaned it very nicely. I just did a google search on platen cleaner and turned up this:

https://www.tselectronic.com/techspray/ ... d149edce5e

It would cost me about the same amount in shipping as to buy it, so I'll head over to a computer supply store tomorrow (If I can find one open). I have my bike completely disassembled for cleaning, and the carb boots are on the list, so I'll take a few before and after shots.

Doug

 

Finally got to the store. I ended up purchasing goof off, which smells suspiciously similar to the platen cleaner...

If the attachment attached correctly, you can see two boots - one that has been cleaned next to one that hasn't. The one on the left was soaked in goof off for a few minutes, then rinsed and dried. It looks a lot cleaner, but rejunvenated? definitely not. Old rubber is old rubber....

 

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