89 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme door armrests sticky and gooey

[GnatGoSplat]

It's a bit of a bummer, my 89 Cutlass door armrests are very gooey and sticky due to sweating plasticizer.  It's been going on the past few years.  I've read this is how vinyl decomposes, and it won't stop until the vinyl becomes hard, brittle, and cracks.  I've been cleaning it off with isopropyl alcohol in the meantime, but it's just temporary.  Going to try cleaning it again, then putting 303 Aerospace Protectant on it.

Anyone else have this problem and found a solution that works?

 

 

[94 olds vert]

This is something that I remember hearing about years ago about when modern day cars would age. The plastics would decay and the first stage is when they get sticky. Then over time that stops and the plastics dry out and get hard and start to crack. I don't think it's possible to reverse this process once it get started. I know it's a big issue on foreign cars that are around 20 years old. They always seem to get the sticky buttons. 

It is just going to keep happening. The best thing would be to clean, protect and keep it out of the sun to reduce the decay rate. Unfortunately these cars don't have a lot of aftermarket support, so getting new interior pieces isn't really an option. Buying a used one is likely going to have the same issue. 

Pretty impressive the car went 30 years without having that problem. Lasted much longer than most. 

[GnatGoSplat]

Yep, I've also read it's not reversible, which is pretty annoying to have to clean it with alcohol all the time.  It's been out of the sun for the last 5-years, but the damage is already done.  Also gets pretty hot in the garage and I'm sure that doesn't help.

Only permanent-ish solution I could really think of is to have it wrapped in color-matched leather.  Might look nice if professionally done.  Only thing is if leather needs to be glued down, it wouldn't stick for long if the vinyl underneath keeps sweating.  Maybe it would need to have the vinyl stripped off, then built up and sculpted with some other material to the right shape so that part can be leather-wrapped.  Sounds like very high cost.  Other parts of the car would need attention before I go to that extent to fix it though.