What s this stuff growing on my dash plastic

[Viper98912]

Hello friends,

Long time lurker, first time poster! (in many years....)

I haven't gotten the chance to drive the Viper much in the past few years, due to, well....life. So it's mostly been a garage queen, unintentionally.

On the inside of the car, the dash plastic, specifically the top around the gauges, the radio cluster, and the door panel front corners, I've got a mess of random white stuff that seems to be coming out/growing. Around the gauges themselves, it's more of a pimple effect. The white stuff (that looks like finger print stains) appears to rub off with some water and elbow grease, whereas the pimples aren't coming off at all.

Anyone had this happen to them? I first thought it was mold, but I had a buddy who had mold start growing on the soft parts of his dash and his seats in his Mustang (after the car sat for a long time), but it wiped off without issue. This doesn't seem to be wiping off much.

I don't know if before I purchased this car (about 10 years ago) if the previous owner used to use Armor-all on the dash. I wonder if this is the Armor-all starting to weep out of the pores of the plastic. Or if this is something else.

It doesn't smell bad or anything in the car. Thoughts? Had this happen to you?

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[FrgMstr]

Fungus/Mold.

[Viper GTS-R]

COVID

[Fatboy 18]

Is the Garage heated or does it have a dehumidifier? Looks like damp conditions have taken their toll on the car.

[Viper98912]

Garage is not heated nor dehumidified, but it's well insulated and it doesn't get overly muggy or hot or cold in there. Just stays...nice, most of the time.

It's a strange phenomenon (to me at least), because it's not everywhere, all over. It's strictly on the center console, top dash, and corners of the doors - where there's cheap plastic that isn't wrapped in any vinyl. It's not on the seats, carpet, no where. Just the cheap plastic. It kind of reminds me of the sticky-button situation you sometimes have on other/older luxury cars.

The prints/smears kind of remind me of my finger prints and potential oils I've left behind; whether I was removing the door panels to install speakers, or removing the center trim to install the radio, etc. But I don't think that mold specifically targets finger/body oils?

So it makes me think that oils or something is somehow seeping out of the plastic now or reacting to...stale air? But there's no odors, nothing. I could be completely wrong though. It's just strange.

The pimples though on the top of the dash, that one throws me for a loop.

[Viper98912]

In my ignorance, I never knew these gen vipers had the potential to have the sticky dash problem (Maserati, Ferrari, Mercedes, buttons, etc). I'm starting to think this is more of a sticky dash problem, but I can only find one post on the topic on here; currently searching the other two sites as well.

[Viper98912]

Update; I took a good look today at what's going on, and it's definitely only on the four pieces - the armrest surround, the dash front surround, and both door top corner triangles. There is no sign of this anywhere else; anything that is regular non-coated plastic is fine. So I'm definitely attributing this to the rubberized coating that these pieces have (the infamous sticky dash).

I don't exactly know if this is something growing on it, or if it's something that's reacting and seeping out of the rubberized coating. The areas that are "smeared" are definitely areas where I've previously put fingerprints, so the oil from my fingers is definitely causing it to smear or pimple differently than the rest of the dash. I'm guessing that the previous owner used to use Armor-all in this car, as everything I've touched has always seemed slightly greasy, even though I've wiped it clean for many years now. (PS - this is not a dig to the previous owner, as he was awesome and even helped me get into this car). So I'm guessing that something is outgassing (sort of) and coming out of the rubberized coating.

I did not notice this on the A-pillar/window trim, which appears to have the same similar coating. I noticed there are some slight splotches on it, that look more like water marks more than anything, along the main vertical curve/edge that faces you. This might just be from the fact that it's 25 years old; and possibly a different supplier with a slightly different coating process.

I guess I'll be taking these dash pieces out and removing the rubberized coating on them to resolve the issue. I'm considering painting it over, or wrapping them in vinyl. The more I think about it, I wonder if I can sandblast it and create a textured surface on the raw black plastic....