Oily, Sticky Dash Pads - Can They Be Dyed & Sealed?

[Old Moparz]

I had a few spare, dash pad pieces wrapped in brown paper & took them out last night. They are (were) in excellent condition except for the oily, sticky substance on the surface. I am sure these are the compounds that are in the vinyl & foam breaking down now that they are close to 50 years old. They're still soft, pliable & not brittle & are original parts that have never been dyed or painted. They now look discolored & blotchy & the blue is not really very blue anymore. This also happened to the blue glove box door that is still on my Satellite which was also in great shape.

It took some scrubbing to get the pads clean but they look bad & I am sure the substance will come back.

Has anyone dyed pads that have had this issue?

Did the dye hold up & did it seem to seal the pad & prevent the oozing substance from coming back?

[timmycharger]

I re dyed my lower pads and visors that were originally green. Some were very nasty. First I just used Simple Green to clean them up, then I used the Vinyl prep system from SEM, which is an aresol spray which softens up the vinyl and prepares it for the color coat. Then I sprayed the SEM color.

I tested it on a spare visor and almost 2 years later, the spot I sprayed to test looks perfect, very difficult to scrape off. 

[Old Moparz]

I re dyed my lower pads and visors that were originally green. Some were very nasty. First I just used Simple Green to clean them up, then I used the Vinyl prep system from SEM, which is an aresol spray which softens up the vinyl and prepares it for the color coat. Then I sprayed the SEM color.

I tested it on a spare visor and almost 2 years later, the spot I sprayed to test looks perfect, very difficult to scrape off. 

That's good to know, thanks. Other than the upper dash pad in my car which is cracked all over, the rest are in good shape except for the oily & sticky mess on them. I was never worried about it because I had a nice set of replacement pads but now they are a mess. I cleaned them up pretty nice & will give the dye a shot. It's not like I can ruin them.   

I'll do the entire spare set of dash pads, then the horn & arm rest pads to see how they look.