Hi everyone,

I have only posted once before, so I am not really good at navigating this website. I did try to do a search on this in the threads first before posting this, and nothing came up (hopefully I did it right!).

Anyway, my question has to do with the exterior black rubber on my 2003 mini cooper that is starting to fade in spots. I tried Armoral on it, thinking it would condition it, but it looked better for about 5 minutes before it dried.

Are there any products that I can purchase that are good for this? I even tried a wide tip permanent black marker in a small area, and I was surprised that it didn't make it look any better, either.

Thanks for any help you can give me. It is my first mini and I acquired it used about 7 moinths ago.

Monica

 

I use Mother's Back to Black on my vehicles. Does a great job.

 

^^^

Or you can always plastidip

 

There is also Black Wow and Prima Infinity

 

Thank you so much to all of you for replying. I have never heard of any of these products and will read up on them now. I really appreciate the help!

 

Kiwi leather dye (not polish!) is another option. More info here https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...-pictures.html

More discussion on this topic in this thread: https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...lack-trim.html

Good luck!

 

+1

 

I use Black Wow. It was formulated by Richard Lin, who is a long-time NAMer and MINIac. (There are threads her on NAM documenting his journey in making the product.) You only need to use very little. Good luck!

 

It's too bad that the video is of such low quality -- I suspect that the difference between the treated & untreated sides is greater than it looks.

Does this make everything shiny, or does it leave flat rubber trim, for example, flat like it should be?

 

rubber or plastic?

if talking about the plastic trim pieces

Zymol vinyl treatment or 303 Aerospace protectant
http://www.303products.com/protectan...rotectant.html
http://www.zymol.com/zymolvinyl85oz.aspx

I had to learn about protecting plastic/vinyl when I bought a Miata many moons ago. These are the products that continually were recommended for the top. They are not cheap .... but they do work. The v' top on my Miata lasted over 15 years.

I use Z on my MINIs now . . . no gloss, deep color, no slime

you can get 303 in most boat supply stores. The boaters know this works . . . I get my Z on line.

 

Regular peanut oil from the grocery store works too. $2-3 for a liter.
Rub it on, and then wipe it off or dirt will stick to it. lasts about a month.
It also helps to moisturizer the trunk and window seals to get rid of wind noise and whistling.

 

Kirby11 thank you for your response. Last night I had started to wonder about the bottles of ink that are used to refresh a stamp pad, but then figured that would probably wash off, too. I actually found a tin of black Kiwi shoe polish today that I thought would work, and am glad you said that I should use the Kiwi dye, and not the polish. I'm glad your experience has been that it does not wash off, and I am going to try it on the car seat, too. I really appreciate the help, and thanks to the rest of you that replied, too.

 

+1 on the use of Black Wow.
Use Pre Wow first to clean the trim pieces before applying BW

 

Step 1, throw the Armor All in the trash. It's not worth anything. Back to Black and Aerospace 303 both are great, I find that 303 has more staying power.

 

I don't know about the others mentioned here but I just used pre/black wow on my MINI last night and it seems pretty bulletproof. I didn't even think my trim was fading much, but it showed me I was wrong about that. The water beads up and rolls off now like the rest of the car.

 

try Vinyl X. I too had a miata years ago and a miata specialist told me to never use armorall on anything and recommended vinyl X (about $10) for the vinyl top and all vinyl and plastic and rubber parts. I have used it ever since. I apply it with a sponge, using sparingly, and it lasts about 6 months. It makes the rubber and plastic parts, including the interior dash etc.,look new and keeps them supple.

 

I just used Meguaiars Black Plastic Restorer today. Makes the car look a few years younger.