Tips to restore & preserve NOS rubber?
 

After more than 3 years of looking, I finally scored an NOS set of headlight surround cushions for my 69 Firebird :hooray::whoo:

When I receive them, I'm curious what is recommended to thoroughly clean them then to coat them in to moisturize/preserve them, and how to store them? It may be 2-3 years until I install them. They appear to still have remains of that mold release that turns white'ish like you see on old radiator hoses.

I was thinking just warm soapy water for cleaning, but for storing I have no clue. I know I need to be careful of chemicals the rubber may absorb which would swell the rubber. Suggestions? I'm thinking archival butcher type paper to store them in so nothing will react with the rubber surface like a plastic bag may.

Thanks!

Plastic bag will be fine, suck the air out of it. Keep them out of the sunlight, stored in a cool dry place. Helped a friend restore his '67 GTO about 9 years ago....used new NOS body mounts, etc. he had bought in 1978 and sealed in a plastic bag. They were perfect. Still are. The new, reproduction ball joint and tie rod boots he bought rotted and fell off the car before they were 6 months old and the car hadn't been driven yet. We ended up washing the original boots in kerosene and re-using them. The poly control arm bushings are now rotted and have fallen out of the car after a few years, so he is about to install NOS Moog rubber bushings that are 40+ years old. The poly bushings went maybe 200 miles. Old rubber is high quality and will keep if taken care of. Keep it sealed and ozone won't get to it. New rubber is terrible and starts to fail from the minute it leaves the mold.

He never wiped them in any kind of oil to store them in the plastic bags?

Thanks for the feedback!

Use silicone. The spray can kind if they're installed. If you don't install them and keep them in the house where they aren't out in the weather, they'll be fine.

Back when I was a kid my stepdad took our 64 Star Chief to a garage for oil changes and other work. The mechanics were brothers and they'd spray all the rubber parts with silicone to protect them.... tires included, inside and outside. And it worked great. I do the same with my GTO and it still works fine.

There's a German product for car rubber treatment that works very well, called Gummi Pflege. Local auto parts stores probably won't have it but you could check with BMW or Mercedes dealerships; You can also buy it from Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/s?k=gummi+pfl..._ss_ts-a-p_2_5

BTW ... if you use ANY silicone of ANY kind ANY where near the shop where you will be painting you will regret it for the rest of your life :) I know that's a lot of "ANY" ... but I'm serious, there are probably paint shops that will fire you if you bring any silicone into their shop.

It's an outstanding product to protect things because it is extremely difficult to remove, which is why it's a nightmare in a paint shop. You can touch something with silicone on it and then touch 10 other things and they will all be contaminated. Get it on bare aluminum ... forget ever painting it, even on steel it's a nightmare, I don't think you can even burn the stuff off. I think silicone products are even banned from the entire grounds of OEM production facilities.

Have had a couple 69 Birds and re-used the Original black surrounds on both. They looked spectacular.
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Thing is if they are good now, they will likely stay good in them plastic bags.

I did not ever use silicone spray (no WD-40 on my property).

I used vaseline jelly, and perhaps 0000 steel wool for oxides and paint spray. I believe the Surrounds have a SMOOTH GLOSS finish and the 0000 steel wool would be counter-intuitive. So don't use the steel wool unless there is paint to remove AND you tried it on the underside to see the effect. They might be Smooth Semi-Gloss but the
point is they are not dull, Matt. or Satin and we all can imagine 0000 steel wool should attack the gloss.

I probably used a Box-cut Stanley blade to remove paint from 68 LeMans Front Bumper Fender filler, but those rubber parts are dull, matt and soft.

It certainly is banned from the entire site. NO silicone (outside of RTV in the Industrial Truck Repair shop) allowed anywhere on company property - same for WD 40 or anything else similar due to the water based paints....same result. And the paint departments are in entirely separate buildings. Strictly Forbidden! They actually come through and spot check our tool boxes every so often for this sort of "contraband". Serious stuff.

I have a pair of roof/window seals for the 78-81 t-top Trans ams. (F body) I ordered them from my local GM dealer about 18 years ago. No clue how old they were by that time, but I opened one of the boxes about 5 years ago & was saddened to find it was a bit hard & seems to have permanently taken the "in box" shape. Not sure they can be saved & I never even bothered to open the other side, but Its likely safe to say its the same way.

I restored a Chev Monza Spyder about 12 years ago & bought some NOS GM seals. They were really , really stiff. I soaked them in marvel mystery oil for several days & it worked. Well, at first it did anyway...... As they dried they went back to what they were & started to crack where I formed them into the designed shape. Sadly those went in the garbage can. I feel these F body seals I have will have the same fate, but I have continued to store them just in case there is a good way to bring them back.

I used Mothers VLR on mine. I sprayed them down liberally and just let them set for about ten days. I kept checking on them, flipping them, and spraying them so more. In the end it softened (re-hydrated) them up real good, and then I wiped them down. They cleaned up very nice.