I was really surprised to see there weren't more threads about this. I'd heard that 93s have fairly poor quality plastics in the interior, but it wasn't until I recently purchased my 93 that I realized just how bad some of it is. The car is very low miles, and certain parts of the interior still look brand new, but some of the surfaces (shifter panel, climate panel, cluster hood, and ******* DOOR TRIM are awful. Some of these pieces can be replaced (at great expense) but some cannot (******* DOOR TRIM). I've heard people talk about "flaking" but I see nothing of that sort on my vehicle -- instead the plastic has become very soft and tacky. Literally, my elbow will stick to the left door trim, and you can leave finger prints and other scuffs on the plastics very easily.

What have people done to deal with this? I wish I could lightly sand it and apply some sort of oil or something to seal it and stop the sticky-ness.

 

Look up “flocking” not flaking, it seems to be the way to restore various interior parts. The throtl channel on YouTube used it on one of their car dashes and it turned out really nice actually

 

The plastics are probably as good as subsequent years. As far as I can tell, it's always been a question of finish on those plastics. Personally I prefer the look of the 93 plastics...once refinished. I'm "really surprised" you couldn't find at least some of the threads. Here are a few on a quick search....

https://www.rx7club.com/interior-ext...ishing-810859/

https://www.rx7club.com/interior-ext...panels-562988/

https://www.rx7club.com/interior-ext...k-trim-898507/

https://www.rx7club.com/new-member-r...ix-fd-1125303/

https://www.rx7club.com/new-member-r...-done-1080738/

 

Best cleaner to use is Easy Off over cleaner (original formula). Do this with the plastics removed from the interior.

 

I've seen flaking/chipping/peeling but not really sticky. But it could also be something that got spilled and reacted or a previous owner's attempt to refinish the panels.

There are a ton of writeups on refinishing the panels out there, search around on it. The interior plastics are one area that Mazda really didn't do a good job on for sure.

Dale

 

Yeah it's strange, it's very uniformly tacky across all the surfaces made of the non-textured '93 plastic, not just like something got spilled on part of it. Also, the car is super low miles so I'd be surprised if anybody tired any sort of restoration on it already (it's been sitting in a garage for 18 years). Perhaps the original owner way back cleaned it/wiped it down with something inappropriate that has slowly chemically reacted with the plastic or something. Who knows. Anyway thanks for the info. I think I'll replace as much as possible with OEM parts, and then experiment on the old pieces to see what works well for the remaining parts that are no longer available through Mazda.

Thanks for the links and the info. Much appreciated.

 

Here are a few photos. You can see how tacky it is from the clothing/finger imprints.

 

Off hand that doesn’t lol like the original finish, even without all the imprints. And IIRC door cups had no finish.

 

Someone refinished these a long time ago. They are no in original condition. What you have is something you never see with the plastics stock. Several newer cars are known to have this problem. Both of my Maserati's had the same problem and are known for it.

 

Awesome. I wonder what I should do about it. I guess I will need to experiment on the pieces that can be replaced so I know what will work on the parts that are no longer available...

 

There are a few threads on refinishing stock plastic interior pieces. Fairly straightforward but time consuming.

 

The original prototype of the 93 had shiny plastic interior panels, that were unacceptable. It was too late to remake all the dash and door panels with a satin finish plastic, so Mazda painted them. The problem is that owners unknowingly used interior cleaners or preservatives like Armor All and the chemicals degraded the satin coating. Easiest, safest and best method to remove the old coating is with a soft cloth soaked in denatured alcohol. No need to sand the surface, SEM makes a spray-on prep coating the will adhere any paint you put over it. Don't cheap out on the paint or it will chip or scratch. I used a satin black from SEM and it shows no flaws after a year of driving.
John H.

 

There’s almost as many methods, procedures and replacement finishes as there are owners that took on the task. The toughest job is usually removing the panels without damage.

I’m old-school and tend to trust adhesion promoters after the surface is prepped with a light sanding/scuff pad. And that’s what I used to remove the old finish on mine. It also helps with reducing minor flaws too large to be filled with the finish. Fast-dry enamel reducer worked well for me to remove traces of silicone (ArmorAll type products) before painting. Tack cloth is a good idea with decent room temps and low humidity to get the finish material to dry as quick as possible...since most of us don’t have filtered paint booths for the job.