Urethane cowl care/renovation
- Thread starter Twinsen
- Start date
mikey123mushukl
Well-Known Member
Re: B.D. Begins cowl "repair"
If you want to creat a glossy finish without attracting lint and dust us mop and glo. When i was a fire fighter we used it on the fire engine tires to make them shiny even when driveng on dirt roads.
If you want to creat a glossy finish without attracting lint and dust us mop and glo. When i was a fire fighter we used it on the fire engine tires to make them shiny even when driveng on dirt roads.
Re: B.D. Begins cowl "repair"
Fours years later i'm finally able to bring an answer to my own thread.
In these four years i've discovered the world of auto detailing and learned what to do and what not to do when it comes to rubber.
A couple years ago I had the immense pleasure to receive a Batman Begins cowl from inkmonkey/findhead and this was (still is) the best Begins cowl out there.
But over time rubber will attract dust, dirt and will slowly dry out. Good quality urethane will NOT rot or degrade easily, but good care is nonetheless very important. Better safe than sorry!
For urethane cowls this is, to me, the best method :
- Give it a gentle wash (bathtubs work great) with warm water and mild soap. Use your hands to massage the cowl and reach everywhere. Do NOT use stiff brushes as they might scuff the rubber (soft paint brushes are okay). Also, the less chemicals in the soap the better.
- Thoroughly dry it with a soft cloth and a blow dryer (no heat!). Once again, be gentle. You're not scrubbing the toilet! Urethane is a tough material but surface blemishes can appear quickly if you're not careful.
As a finishing touch i've been using a product called "Natural Look" from Poorboy's.
Well known amongst car detailers, it is used for interior cleaning/dressing and does wonders when applied to vinyl, plastic, rubber and the like.
It smells great, cleans, protects from UV light, is non-greasy to the touch and helps preventing the rubber from drying out and cracking.
A lot of low-end rubber care products leave a shiny/greasy finish that does not suit Batman cowls at all. This is not the case with Natural Look.
First you might want to test the product on a hidden area (in my case the tip of the "V" in the back) to see if the aspect suits you and if the rubber does not do anything funny :
Let it sit for a few minutes, then buff to desired sheen. If the result is satisfying and matches your expectations, you can treat the whole cowl.
Warning: Never apply the product directly to the cowl. Always use a cloth.
I recommend you use a high quality microfiber cloth. You don't need to apply pressure, just wipe it gently. Don't over apply the product : A drop the size of a pea is plenty to treat an area the size of a postcard as it streches a lot.
Do one area at a time : neck, face, ears... And check regularly for missed spots. Try not to go twice over the same area.
By the time the whole cowl is done, you can start buffing the area you did first.
Use a clean microfiber towel to buff the surface to the desired level of shine. Buffing will also remove any blotches and/or strokes from the application. Again, no need to apply pressure. Just drag the towel (preferably folded in a square) across the cowl.
Now all you have to do is let it dry by itself for an hour or so, and here's the result :
Before/after pic (bottom is done, top is untouched) :
Since the product had just been applied it still looks wet but you can see how it gives the urethane a deep black color and hides all the imperfections. You will notice that water produces a similar effect but unfortunately this effect disappears once the water has evaporated.
And here's the final result, once dry and buffed :
Overview and close-up (night time, artificial lighting) :
Overview and close-up (natural sunlight) :
As you can see the color is even and the finish has a very nice "graphite-esque" satin aspect to it.
All the imperfections usually found on urethane pulls (light scuffs, small dimples, slight differences in aspect...) are softened and the cowl could almost pass up for painted fiberglass.
I hope this little tutorial was helpful!
Note: I would not recommend using this product on foam latex cowls unless you do proper testing first on a discarded piece of foam.
Fours years later i'm finally able to bring an answer to my own thread.
In these four years i've discovered the world of auto detailing and learned what to do and what not to do when it comes to rubber.
A couple years ago I had the immense pleasure to receive a Batman Begins cowl from inkmonkey/findhead and this was (still is) the best Begins cowl out there.
But over time rubber will attract dust, dirt and will slowly dry out. Good quality urethane will NOT rot or degrade easily, but good care is nonetheless very important. Better safe than sorry!
For urethane cowls this is, to me, the best method :
- Give it a gentle wash (bathtubs work great) with warm water and mild soap. Use your hands to massage the cowl and reach everywhere. Do NOT use stiff brushes as they might scuff the rubber (soft paint brushes are okay). Also, the less chemicals in the soap the better.
- Thoroughly dry it with a soft cloth and a blow dryer (no heat!). Once again, be gentle. You're not scrubbing the toilet! Urethane is a tough material but surface blemishes can appear quickly if you're not careful.
As a finishing touch i've been using a product called "Natural Look" from Poorboy's.
Well known amongst car detailers, it is used for interior cleaning/dressing and does wonders when applied to vinyl, plastic, rubber and the like.
It smells great, cleans, protects from UV light, is non-greasy to the touch and helps preventing the rubber from drying out and cracking.
A lot of low-end rubber care products leave a shiny/greasy finish that does not suit Batman cowls at all. This is not the case with Natural Look.
First you might want to test the product on a hidden area (in my case the tip of the "V" in the back) to see if the aspect suits you and if the rubber does not do anything funny :
Let it sit for a few minutes, then buff to desired sheen. If the result is satisfying and matches your expectations, you can treat the whole cowl.
Warning: Never apply the product directly to the cowl. Always use a cloth.
I recommend you use a high quality microfiber cloth. You don't need to apply pressure, just wipe it gently. Don't over apply the product : A drop the size of a pea is plenty to treat an area the size of a postcard as it streches a lot.
Do one area at a time : neck, face, ears... And check regularly for missed spots. Try not to go twice over the same area.
By the time the whole cowl is done, you can start buffing the area you did first.
Use a clean microfiber towel to buff the surface to the desired level of shine. Buffing will also remove any blotches and/or strokes from the application. Again, no need to apply pressure. Just drag the towel (preferably folded in a square) across the cowl.
Now all you have to do is let it dry by itself for an hour or so, and here's the result :
Before/after pic (bottom is done, top is untouched) :
Since the product had just been applied it still looks wet but you can see how it gives the urethane a deep black color and hides all the imperfections. You will notice that water produces a similar effect but unfortunately this effect disappears once the water has evaporated.
And here's the final result, once dry and buffed :
Overview and close-up (night time, artificial lighting) :
Overview and close-up (natural sunlight) :
As you can see the color is even and the finish has a very nice "graphite-esque" satin aspect to it.
All the imperfections usually found on urethane pulls (light scuffs, small dimples, slight differences in aspect...) are softened and the cowl could almost pass up for painted fiberglass.
I hope this little tutorial was helpful!
Note: I would not recommend using this product on foam latex cowls unless you do proper testing first on a discarded piece of foam.
Last edited:
CSMacLaren
Sr Member
Awesome! Thanks for sharing. But I hope people don't read "bathtub" and start taking their cowls with them into the bath. That... Would... Be... Weird...
CSMacLaren
Sr Member
Btw is this a permanent effect or something you have to do periodically?
I don't see why wearing your Batman cowl while enjoying a nice bubble bath should be frowned upon :O
And to answer your question, no it's not permanent. Like most dressing products the effect will last for some time but not forever.
For this particular use (display cowl) i'd say it will easily last several months though. Especially if you carefully dust it every once in a while.
But if you're using your cowl for costuming and going outside i'd say a good wash + dressing would be needed after each use. It will help keeping the rubber nice and soft for a long time.
Basically, the surface will remain clean, protected and good looking for as long as "environmental agressions" are kept away from it.
And to answer your question, no it's not permanent. Like most dressing products the effect will last for some time but not forever.
For this particular use (display cowl) i'd say it will easily last several months though. Especially if you carefully dust it every once in a while.
But if you're using your cowl for costuming and going outside i'd say a good wash + dressing would be needed after each use. It will help keeping the rubber nice and soft for a long time.
Basically, the surface will remain clean, protected and good looking for as long as "environmental agressions" are kept away from it.
Dark808Knight
New Member
Aloha ALL,
This was a great read, and extremely helpful. However, everyone mentioned the exterior of the cowl...what do you guys do if anything at all, to the interior? especially if used often for costuming and such?
For torso pieces what is the best way to store them, if not displaying on a bodycast?
Thanks in advance guys...
This was a great read, and extremely helpful. However, everyone mentioned the exterior of the cowl...what do you guys do if anything at all, to the interior? especially if used often for costuming and such?
For torso pieces what is the best way to store them, if not displaying on a bodycast?
Thanks in advance guys...
kibble48
New Member
Thank you for the diligence on this issue Mr. K, I was wondering about this as well, as my Begins Cowl is looking a little rough. I bought a new GCFX Dark Knight Cowl for con's and special events, wish I had seen coofunkcurly's first but hopefully I'll be able to afford a cowl from him at some point to upgrade. Anyway, I'll be putting my Begin's cowl on display in my office, and I really wanted to apply something to it, to darken and protect the Urethane. So Poorboy's Natural Look here I come! Thanks again for the great investigation on this, now all I have to do is buy it from Amazon.
A small thought here, even though this thread is necroed, because it's still viable. A lot of these products that are intended to detail automotive parts were never intended to be near or against your skin for any lengths of time. Even if they say "completely safe" they are referring to the use they were intended for and as such, may NOT be safe to use on something you might want to wear against your skin.
Knowone251
Well-Known Member
Because of that reason I use cleaners made for BDSM gear: Deviant Slick Latex Polish (4 oz.) ? The Latex Store (this link is safe for work, but not sure about the rest of the site.)
Billzebub
Member
The main ingredient in most "tire shine" products is mineral oil. It is also used to keep rubber boots from cracking on farms, so it's probably be ok for keeping anything rubber fresh and shiny. I recommend buying straight mineral oil at CVS or Walgreens (it's also a laxative?)...anyways, it's pennies on the dollar what Tire Shine products cost, it just doesn't smell like cherries.
Yet even there, several types exist and not all of them may be completely safe and if there are OTHER ingredients in them, caution still applies.
Honestly... I've recently even become a little wary about things like urethane cowls. Uncured urethane is carcinogenic and it's not super easy to find out exactly how safe cured urethane is- especially when you talk about having it directly against the skin. I mean, unless you are mixing urethane in VERY precise measurements, who can say that a "cure" will be 100%? I've often found urethane rubber to smell for weeks (or months) after they have cured and if they smell, they are emitting particles of some kind. (No, I'm not anything close to a reactionary environmentalist or anything... just trying to be aware that there CAN be cause to be diligent with these things.)
mattycsi
Master Member
I know this a full on necro, but....Re: B.D. Begins cowl "repair"
Fours years later i'm finally able to bring an answer to my own thread.
In these four years i've discovered the world of auto detailing and learned what to do and what not to do when it comes to rubber.
A couple years ago I had the immense pleasure to receive a Batman Begins cowl from inkmonkey/findhead and this was (still is) the best Begins cowl out there.
But over time rubber will attract dust, dirt and will slowly dry out. Good quality urethane will NOT rot or degrade easily, but good care is nonetheless very important. Better safe than sorry!
For urethane cowls this is, to me, the best method :
- Give it a gentle wash (bathtubs work great) with warm water and mild soap. Use your hands to massage the cowl and reach everywhere. Do NOT use stiff brushes as they might scuff the rubber (soft paint brushes are okay). Also, the less chemicals in the soap the better.
- Thoroughly dry it with a soft cloth and a blow dryer (no heat!). Once again, be gentle. You're not scrubbing the toilet! Urethane is a tough material but surface blemishes can appear quickly if you're not careful.
As a finishing touch i've been using a product called "Natural Look" from Poorboy's.
Well known amongst car detailers, it is used for interior cleaning/dressing and does wonders when applied to vinyl, plastic, rubber and the like.
It smells great, cleans, protects from UV light, is non-greasy to the touch and helps preventing the rubber from drying out and cracking.
A lot of low-end rubber care products leave a shiny/greasy finish that does not suit Batman cowls at all. This is not the case with Natural Look.
First you might want to test the product on a hidden area (in my case the tip of the "V" in the back) to see if the aspect suits you and if the rubber does not do anything funny :
Let it sit for a few minutes, then buff to desired sheen. If the result is satisfying and matches your expectations, you can treat the whole cowl.
Warning: Never apply the product directly to the cowl. Always use a cloth.
I recommend you use a high quality microfiber cloth. You don't need to apply pressure, just wipe it gently. Don't over apply the product : A drop the size of a pea is plenty to treat an area the size of a postcard as it streches a lot.
Do one area at a time : neck, face, ears... And check regularly for missed spots. Try not to go twice over the same area.
By the time the whole cowl is done, you can start buffing the area you did first.
Use a clean microfiber towel to buff the surface to the desired level of shine. Buffing will also remove any blotches and/or strokes from the application. Again, no need to apply pressure. Just drag the towel (preferably folded in a square) across the cowl.
Now all you have to do is let it dry by itself for an hour or so, and here's the result :
Before/after pic (bottom is done, top is untouched) :
Since the product had just been applied it still looks wet but you can see how it gives the urethane a deep black color and hides all the imperfections. You will notice that water produces a similar effect but unfortunately this effect disappears once the water has evaporated.
And here's the final result, once dry and buffed :
Overview and close-up (night time, artificial lighting) :
Overview and close-up (natural sunlight) :
As you can see the color is even and the finish has a very nice "graphite-esque" satin aspect to it.
All the imperfections usually found on urethane pulls (light scuffs, small dimples, slight differences in aspect...) are softened and the cowl could almost pass up for painted fiberglass.
I hope this little tutorial was helpful!
Note: I would not recommend using this product on foam latex cowls unless you do proper testing first on a discarded piece of foam.
I just got my hands on a 2nd hand cowl, by Gauntlet Fx, it looks amazing.
I felt it was a little dulled though and looked into ways to refresh it a little.
Searches brought me here, but the pics have long died off so I couldnt really get a full idea of the effectiveness.
Went for it anyway.
How it started:
How it finished up:
The difference is immense, the pics don't do enough for it!!
I didn't bother with the washing of it, I've heard too many issues with water spots on urethane and didn't want to chance it.
I did test it on an old cowl first and spot tested on this before going all in.
The whole procedure was less than 10mins!
I'm posting this to help out anyone with urethane cowls or masks that want to brighten them up and show the visual of what is achievable for such little effort.
mattycsi
Master Member
Thank you for your original post, its surprising how little is out there on the subject.That looks great !
But damn how time flies… I wrote my original post over 10 years ago. Full on necro indeedI have the original pics somewhere i’m sure but the results are very similar!
Couldn't be happier with how this turned out.
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