This was the NAUGHTY CORNER

Haha,

glad you asked Ivanhoew. It's an amazing product. I've been using it for years to repair damaged rubber and plastic. It's nigh on impossible to take a picture to show you what it looks like on the windows I've just done because they're very long very thin channels and I have a terrible camera phone. But it's a perfect performing product that with the right prep and application looks absolutely factory-fit perfect. Some of mine this weekend look a little less than perfect for various reasons but generally, you can use this stuff to weather seal something and it will look like a factory seal.

It's called Sugru.

sugru.com

It's nothing short of amazing. Tricky to apply, and quite expensive, but a great way to revive aged seals. I've had some Sugru on this car for two years already and it still looks and performs like new. It looks and feels like sticky plasticine out of the pack, but it sets into a hard, flexible plasticised rubber that repels water and stays supple.

=====
Sugru tricks & tips

1. If you can get hold of some polythene based sheet plastic (eg PALIGHT foamed PVC), then make yourself a rolling mat and a rolling tool - because Sugru wont stick to it. That way you can roll Sugru into long, perfectly regular and smooth cables.



^ My Sugru rolling tool. The reason some of my seals weren't absolutely perfect this weekend is because I'd lost that and in my haste opted to roll the Sugru with my fingers, making it uneven. Turned out my daughter had pilfered my rolling tool so I managed to do half of them to perfection and half less so.


2. Sugru sticks to everything, and if it's small and thin it will prefer to stick you fingertips more than the thing you are fixing it to. So have a pot of warm water with a splurge of washing up liquid in to dip a finger in to allow you to press the Sugru home and smooth it in place.


3. Sugru stays mouldable for a decent amount of time (30mins or more) but once it's been exposed to the air it begins to cure. I've had no luck resealing an opened Sugru pack. Packs are very small (Like a condom sachet) although the Sugru goes a long way. Make sure you have prepped enough surfaces that need Sugruing so that you can make use of any you get left over rather than hoping to seal it up for another day. I prefer to end with more to be done and no more Sugru than everything done and a blob of redundant Sugru.

4. If you let it cure for a decent amount of time (ie 48 hours or so) you can sand it to shape afterwards and with a fine enough paper you can create a 99.9% invisible join between old rubber and new Sugru. It tends to dry with a shiny surface, and old rubber tends to be grainy matt, but once you shape-down Sugru with a fine sanding paper it looks exactly like rubber (at least the black does, but then I've only ever used black Sugru)

5. It's cheaper to order it online than buy it at a retailer (Halfords sometimes stock it) and it's cheaper (and more useful) to buy an 8 pack than a few sachets.

Disclaimer: I do not work for Sugru. However I love the stuff and for a conscientious bodger like myself who can't always afford to do things the right way straight away, it's a brilliant product.

Also very useful for electric wiring connections. If like me you hate those insulated pinch terminals you can secure two wires by twisting and then coating in Sugru for a never-going-to-fail watertight connection.

= )