Well, I'm an offset printer by trade and have been using a product called "Rubber Rejuvenator" for years. It's a very potent solvent that cleans the ink and paper impurities from the rubber blanket that's used on an offset press. It absorbs into the rubber to make it more pliable and increases its resiliency.
I brought some home and tried it on the headrests and jump seats. I wet a terry towel with the "RR", scrubbed out the oxidization with a soft cloth and immediately buffed it out with a dry terry towel.. they looked great. I checked it again tonight... they still look new! I'm going to try it on other rubber components like door seals and window gaskets to see how they fare.
I sure hope it's a feasible alternative to recoating with Mothers Back to Black or Armoral every minute.
Soooo... hit up your local print shop for a few ounces... offer to buy it from them or trade out this bit of info... that high dollar "Blanket Fix" they use is actually a repackaged and relabeled product called "5F5 Paint Remover". (When you have a "smash up" on the press, the rubber blanket gets way over-compressed and this stuff "fluffs" it back up, saving $$$)
The 1980 price, (when I discovered it while stripping an antique desk and the smell was the same) was $16.00/4 oz. for Blanket Fix while the 5F5 Paint Remover was selling for $3.00 quart from our local hardware store.
They get you coming and going!
IMPORTANT!!! PLEASE READ!
***USE WITH CAUTION*** Rubber Rejuvenator will eat a styrofoam cup before you can blink and melt MOST plastics, it'll take off paint and any silkscreened printing. Test a small patch before using it... when testing, use a dry finger... if the surface feels "sticky" STOP IMMEDIATELY! Leave it and pray the "melted" area will reharden to its original state... (it probably will)... I have seen quite a few indiscretions by trainees on materials that were not rubber
