how to revive seals

[nmikmik]

I just bought a 15 year old car and all rubber seals and weatherstrips are intact but very, very dry. Is there anything I can do to revive/preserve them? I don’t want to use something like ArmorAll because I know it’s not for everything…

Thanks,

[gw84]

I've not found any products that work great for this purpose. One product that I have used is "Turtle Wax wet n black." The label says that it "...provides the ultimate deep black, wet look for your tires, black rubber bumpers, and black vinyl trim...." It made the surfaces look good (and black as the label promised!) but I don't think it would do much for "preserving."
Before I found this product, I had used Armor All and other similar products to try to preserve my trim.....mistake!! Sure, it made them look good at the time, but over time it actually seemed to dry them out. OVer time they began to fade and become brittle.

Because I was having no luck with products, I went to the junkyard in search of replacement trim. To my surprise, there were actually several vehicles that had better looking trim than mine (it's a '93). I got a few pieces for a couple of bucks; and a couple years later they look good as ever. NO PRODUCTS used!! I just swapped them out. I haven't checked, but I'm sure you can buy them new and then wouldn't have to worry about them for many years to come. You can experiment with some different "conditioners" and such, but stay away from the "protectants" such as armor all, they will just dry them out more.

[nmikmik]

Thanks a Lot!
Was the trim you picked up at the junk yard from the same year vehicle?
If it was, I'd assume someone knew what to use on it since it held up so well.
What do you think of 303 Aerospace Protectant? my last hope, I guess.

[gw84]

I've got a '93 lumina. I don't know if I got trim from the same year, but the lumina didn't change much from '90-94 so any trim would've worked. If that's the case with your vehicle you could try finding the newest one ('94 in my case). What kind of vehicle do you have by the way? I don't think anything was used on the trim. Seems like the most common factor is the sun...if the vehicle was often parked in the sun there would be a lot more damage/wear. As far as the 303 protectant, I'm no help You could try it and if it doesn't work, grab some trim from the junkyard as replacements. In my opinion, trim pieces are better left alone without using any products, as I've noticed that the trim actually suffered from their use.