General Mother of plastic (how to clean it?)

[combwork]

Hi.

Having got back from a round trip of a couple of hundred miles to see the Falkirk Wheel and Glasgow's botanic gardens, I thought I'd clean the dashboard up a bit. Tesco's Multi Purpose pump action spray cleaner should do the trick, shouldn't it? It's in a plastic bottle and it's water based so must be safe on plastic.......WRONG:yuck:

Fiat in their wisdom use a kind of soft feel plastic on the dashboard that manages not only to absorb grime from grubby fingers, but dissolves in at least some household cleaners. Regrettably this includes Tesco's. Luckily I'd tried it first on the aircon and air recirculate buttons. They're nice and clean now; hopefully they'll get less sticky as they dry off:bang: .

I've been looking through the owners handbook What the hell are SMASH Arexons? A plastic cleaner only available in Italy, or from a fiat dealership? Does anyone know of a general purpose cleaner safe to use on Multipla dashboards that doesn't involve a bank loan in favour of Arnold Clark?

Happy Motoring. It's a daft car but I wouldn't change it

 

[combwork]

Mother of plastic (how to clean it?) follow up.

Going by the thunderous response, either nobody knows or nobody cares. No matter........... From the minimal research I've done, I think Formaldehyde may be the culprit. It's used in a wide range of household cleaners as a preservative; problem is it's also used as an ingredient in a lot of plastics. So, in the event of nobody else chipping in, in answer to my own question if you stick with the so called `green' (solvent/preservative free) cleaners, you should be ok. If it's not ok and your dashboard melts, don't blame me. I pass this information on for what it's worth; maybe sweet F A (I knew a girl nicknamed Fanny once; vicars daughter in Essex. Happy days when a `modern' car was a Vauxhall Cresta). For my sins I drove a Hillman Minx........Jim.

PS. Title head of my original post was the nickname of a large 78 rpm Juke Box. One of the first to use the new `wonder material' (plastic), it became known as the "Mother of Plastic".

 

[PAN366E]

I've been using Lidl's upholstery spray foam on the WHOLE interior of my Multipla... works a treat... only thing thats become an issue is the plastic lens over the speedo which became a little hazy

But am picking up another speed and swapping lenses....

 

[combwork]

I've been using Lidl's upholstery spray foam on the WHOLE interior of my Multipla... works a treat... only thing thats become an issue is the plastic lens over the speedo which became a little hazy

But am picking up another speed and swapping lenses....[/quote]

Are you going to have a spare speedo with rev counter? I could be interested.............. Jim.

 

[the frog]

I tend to use Armor All on interior plastic though I've not used is on the dash 'pod'. I tend to use a duster dampened with warm soapy water for the soft touch plastic.