Anyone use PENETROL on their poptop?

[ThankYouJerry]

[kamzcab86]

[Merian]

[ThankYouJerry]

^^^

Edited above
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1990 Multivan - "Ohana"
1.8T, Auto w/3.27 R&P + Peloquin TBD

[Merian]

Ha! Even if you don't read this site for technical info on vanagons, it is still worthwhile for the humor
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[Terry Kay]

Here's the best suggestion;

Feel free to use whatever you assume will work the best for you & your top.

I have used the Penetrol on rat fiberglass boats, and it brought the hulls & decks back to life, and it lasted an entire boating season in the direct sunlight 24/7/ from May through October.
I made the Penetrol announcement to the vanagon crew years prior to being here at the samba forum.

I didn't discover it.
A older wood boat restoration salt that I ran into in a boatyard years ago was watching me bust ass buffing & waxing a fiberglass yacht for a guy--
He sez--"Here try this"
Gave me a small baby bottle of who knows what--and tells me to wipe it on the sun beat gelcoat.

The spot I wiped it on blew me away with the results--one wipe with the Penetrol took milliseconds in comparison to the rubout & wax laborious act.
"Hey--what is this stuff??'

The only issue was with white tops,it gave a little yellow cast to the white.

I have used the stuff on fagged out Mack fiberglass hoods, and it lasted just fine over the engine heat, & Suns UV rays.

The MMO I've been using for at least 45 years with no negative adverse poor performance attributes.
I ran mostly Pontiacs & Oldsmobiles, and they always had lifter issues.
The marvel cured that.

It was also common in cast iron 4 speed hydro's to slip shift into each range.
B&M hydro had the cure with their blue trick shift, which was expensive.
I found that type F had the same formula, only was red instead of blue.
Been using it since 1961
Tight shifting transmissions, with minimal time taken to just swap the filter & fluid.

My 87 Westy had some cold shifting issues, it had a hesitation in reverse or Drive when cold.
Cured with type F.
In a matter of fact the 960 VOLVO wagon I landed on last june got the type F treatment shortly after I got it.
Shifts real crisp.


Bon Ami I used in an air cooled compactor engine that was blowing way too much oil outa the muffler.
It was almost dead---why not?
I had this cure in the living grey matter rolodex, and the goofy kraut engine is still running.
Does it use oil?
A little, but nowhere what it did, and is producing compression, enough to run well.
It isn't a new machine, it's OK.
Plus Al in Iowa took the Bon Ami ride. and his vehicle came back to life--
Don't know what his engines prognosis is right now, but he reported it worked.

I have been welding nuts to frozen and broken studs on just about any kind of engine to remove them fast, while other folks choose to slave drilling & tapping.
Slow menial labor, or the drilling & tapping, like on exhaust fasteners.
Folks here seem to enjoy the beat me whip me routine.

I use Nothing Meguiar's produces.
It's basically home hobbyist garbage.
I use only 3-M products, Finesse removes 1500 sanding marks with one quick pass, while the Meguire guys are busting their asses to get close to the finish I have with more moves, more time.

All this stuff is brought to you live through life's professional experiences which I have often shared trying to eliminate you guys busting your asses.
I've already been there & done the work a few times.

No, I have never applied any peanut oil onto skanky exhaust tubing, and expected the universe outa it--a lifetime of no rusting.
I seasoned the pipes when new and saw nothing in a corroded, rust---just as my cast iron frying pans stay clean & slick.

You guys with little or zero of life's experiences, may plunder on, I've passed on ways to get all kinds of jobs done in half the time with a 1/10th of the effort on all kinds of missions.

I can only lead you to the trough--I sure can't make you drink the water outa it.

Plunder on .

Congrats.
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T.K.

[nacradriver]

[jimf909]

[Terry Kay]

<<>Okay, so I did a second wipe-on coat of Penetrol after the first one soaked in, that was about 3 hours ago. Looks much better, gloss-wise, BUT I have a problem/concern.

How long does it take this stuff to dry?? It's ben almost three hours sionce I completed wiping on the second application, and the top still feels very sticky!! I mean like sap consistency sticky!!
All I did was clean the top with a Citrus based general cleaner, dry completely with a towel, let the sun shine on it for an hour or so to completely dry it, and then wiped on two coats of Penetrol.>>>

Whats the humidity at?
99.9%?
Whats the temp?

I don't know of are having some sort of chemical reaction with the citrus cleaner.
I sure didn't see you mentioning rinsing it off.
I never would have taken upon myself to do chemical reaction testing on my own vehicle.
Bad move.
You should have just ran the van through a car wash, by the time you got home it would have been ready to mop & glow with the Penetrol.
That's all I did.

If the sun was baking on that roof, the first coat should have been dry in 5-10 minutes max, same with the second coat.

I'd say this is a big Oops moment on the appliers part.
Zigged instead of zagged.
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T.K.

[Terry Kay]

[kamzcab86]

[Merian]

anyway...

the Penetrol can last 2 or even 3 years, but surface prep. is needed <--- and those results are in the West

insyncro provides a data point for the NE (upstate NY?) where it did not last long at all; surface prep. not stated but it would be likely based on his history of postings & threads

so....
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[DwarfVader]

[Terry Kay]

I was being careful on the he, she, him, her, stuff that one just slipped off of my fingertips.
A Vanagon isn't gender specific anyway.

I just screwed up a little on forgetting what I had just saw in your posts.

Nothing intended, other than a little dyslexia.

The roof or even a full time car cover would without a doubt retard the milking out of the roof, whatever you have on it.
The rest of the vehicle too.

Don't know what happened out east with the color blotching.
Something evil happened .
It wasn't the products fault.
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T.K.

[Sodo]

[j_dirge]

[bobbyblack]

All good, any side you take. Good to hear of those who like and those who don't. No worries here. Fun thread, however you take any of the opinions. One thing I wondered at on the last post tho.

j_dirge:

Could you fill me in a little more on the part you said "the absurd
argument over removing that dumb gas line fitting in the bulkhead" please? I'd like to know how there is any argument at all on that one?

Thanks,

-bobby
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'87 Westy 'Flossie','86 Westy 'R1','86 tintop GL - Subi2.2 'J2','83.5 stock tintop L 'ZoomBus','74 Karmann Ghia, '63 Notch

[Michael4104]

Has anyone tried Poli-Glow instead of Penetrol? Both claim to do the same except Poli-Glow has a kit to clean and also a kit to remove it.
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1990 Wolfsburg Carat with new poptop.
1985 Westy now sporting a 1995 Jetta ABA 2.0L. Sold

[bobbyblack]

I was just re-reading the thread on T3 paint:

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=527875

I am wondering at the part where most of the tops are listed as White. Some are other colors, but this does mean that all tops were originally painted, does it not? From reading that thread, it seems clear that nobody knows paint codes of the top colors, but that is not relevant. Painted is painted.

So, the process of manufacturer must have gone in some set of steps including:

Form the fiberglass in a mold
Paint the top to spec
Put the top on the rig

If I am assuming correctly, regardless of the color, it was painted, right? So, what would it matter if a paint flow agent were used to spruce it up later or not? If you've got to repaint, you got to take the surface down to something the new paint can adhere too anyway, right?

Why is there any argument? Did someone get hurt by having to actually take whatever outer coating down a bit to re-paint? It had to be done anyway, regardless, if there were fresh paint to be applied. Makes no sense to get all bent on this.
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'87 Westy 'Flossie','86 Westy 'R1','86 tintop GL - Subi2.2 'J2','83.5 stock tintop L 'ZoomBus','74 Karmann Ghia, '63 Notch

[Sodo]

I found J_dirge' surface description to be a thoughtful and useful addition to the discussion. Posts like that take time and thought, thank you. It makes sense that Penetrol, applied sparingly would not contaminate, but with no UV protection doesn't protect. But if the Penetrol itself breaks down then you may have a contaminant?

It makes sense there are gelcoat or fiberglas restorer's potions used by boat flippers that require minimal work and last just long enough provided the sale is quick. So what are the products for the long-term boat owner that produce results and last long(er)? And how much longer? And respond well to re-application? Is this an impossible goal? It does sound impossible.

It sounds to me like J_dirge recommends leaving the oxidation "in place" to best protect the finish below and not contaminating it either. Such a dilemma. My van is "Bordello Red" and the top is "flat pink". I'd like to do something that makes it look better but am somewhat leery of contaminating it, thus interested in this discussion. Any other comments regarding 3M Finesse? I have covered parking currently but if we move in a few years that could change.
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'90 Westy EJ25, 2Peloquins, 3knobs, pressure-oiled GT mainshaft, filtered, cooled gearbox
'87 Tintop w 47k 53k, '12 SmallCar EJ25, cooled filtered gearbox
....KTMs, GasGas, SPOT mtb