Sticky seat 82 Goldwing

[van avery]

A friend has an 82 Goldwing with brown seat that has turned sticky. Like a ashesive residue. Does anyone know how to remove this, or does he need to replace the seat covers.

His daughter did not believe him when he told her it was a new safety device to keep her in the seat.

Have tried goo gone, peanut butter , wd40 and vinyl cleaner and its still sticky.

Any Ideas?????

[VanRiver]

Hi @van avery, sounds like the vinyl is breaking down or may have been exposed to some kind of chemical to cause the "plasticizers" in the vinyl material to start leaching out...if that is the case then it is not a case of "cleaning" the sticky stuff off but stabilizing the material to stop the leaching from continuing....basically replacing the seat is the only option I would suggest unless you don't mind a sticky butt every time you ride. Might even be the foam underneath the vinyl seat cover causing the chemical leaching too.

 

I personally have had other plastics leach, but not a motorcycle seat......most of my seats have done the opposite by having the "plasticizers" in the material evaporating due to heat or UV rays from the sun and becoming brittle instead. The good thing is that GL1100 seats are fairly plentiful on Ebay, and probably cheaper then trying to get the existing one recovered.

 

One last option might be to use a Vinyl paint (you can pick up a spray can of your favourite colour at any auto store) which might seal the surface and lock in any further leaching....but I'm not sure if the vinyl dye/paint would stick to the leaching plasticizer chemicals escaping from the surface....but might be worth a try.