I wanted to put this 'Oil of Wintergreen' entry right up near the top of the tools I use, because I just discovered this, and although you might know about this, I was skeptical that it would work but Work it Does! 

Oil of Wintergreen, or Methyl Salicylate, as it's known, can bring back old, hard crusty manifold boots, saving you from springing for new ones, which yes, sometimes you have to do - but in this case I read about it, didn't quite believe it, but decided to try it and see what happens - and it's amazing! 

You see the rubber boots there...? Those came off the 1972 Honda JDM CB500 I'm working on and were so hard they felt like stone, I had to pry them off with heat, PB Blaster and a pry bar! 

I mixed up the Oil of Wintergreen and 90 percent isopropyl alcohol (rubbing alcohol - the higher percentage the better) in a 1 to 3 ratio, in this case 4 ounces of wintergreen to 12 ounces of alcohol, put the boots in the jar and just let it sit for at least a week. 

I checked on them after a week, and they seemed to be softening up a little, so put them back in the jar and basically forgot about them for another...oh, two, three weeks maybe...? I remembered them again and checked them, and I'll be darned, they were as soft as new ones!  And they smelled pretty good too! 

These boots have been sitting out now for about two weeks - I took them out the week before Mother Nature shit all over central Virginia - and even with the severe cold we are experiencing they are still soft and pliable, like new! 

So if you have some rock-hard boots from a project you're working on, try the Oil of Wintergreen and alcohol trick; it really works!