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10 minute project: making black plastic look like new!
I remember reading on a Jeep forum a while back about restoring faded black plastic trim (in their case, wheel arches) by simply using a heat gun on it.
I have this crappy looking fuel rail cover, missing bits and more about to fall off. It is badly faded to a dark gray and is blotchy in places (you can even see it in my current avatar picture). Could care less about it so I decided to heat gun it, just to see.
It really works! Just a PSA to anyone with faded plastic bits. The fuel rail covers are NLA so I thought that alone was worth sharing.
You want to 1) clean it off thoroughly with soap and hot water. Make sure it's dry after. 2) hold the heat gun about 1" away from the surface, on the high setting if you have options. On mine this is 1500W. You will begin to see the plastic darken to a shiny black, in a few seconds. Once it looks good move over to the next area before you melt/deform the plastic. It's not hard, just use common sense.
Here's a pic I took halfway through. Bad lighting, doesn't really do it justice. In person it's absolutely night and day. Just thought I'd share something that works!
Easy trick! Now the question is how long it lasts. Better picture would be more reassuring but looks like a improvement.
The plastic itself actually melts on the surface, this is why the fading is "reset" or rather, the unfaded plastic below commingles with the faded part and it looks nicer. I accidentally touched it while it was still hot, and melted black plastic transferred to my finger so there's definitely something happening. (don't touch the melted plastic! It leaves a mark.) Jeep guys report it being a long term refresh, you're changing the structure at a molecular level and not just applying something like armor-all.
Originally Posted by porscharu
Have you ever cleaned the lens on your phone? The hazing/starburst effect on highlights like in your avatar pic indicates a dirty lens.
No kidding...I've cleaned it often (smartphone camera), I think my camera is on the way out. I clean it every week or so and even removing it from the case and cleaning it with a glasses cleaning cloth doesn't really help. Really annoying.
I would caution against trying the heat gun approach on any window trim or the spoiler while still installed on the car - the glass won't take kindly to localized intense heat...
I would caution against trying the heat gun approach on any window trim or the spoiler while still installed on the car - the glass won't take kindly to localized intense heat...
The glass doesn't really care that much, but I can say that the spoiler will *not* take kindly to the heat gun. I was using a heat gun to loosen the adhesive on some vintage purple window tint on my hatch and hit the spoiler with the heat a few times- it bubbles right up and stays a funky texture as a result.
Luckily (?) there's also a split in the rubber on my spoiler, so I was going to replace it anyway, otherwise I'd feel pretty stupid.
Yeah for the spoiler it seems like the only thing you can really do is apply products to it, which of course don't last very long and need to reapplied. Whenever I wash my car I use a little trim restorer on it, and within a week it's back to how it was.
Yeah for the spoiler it seems like the only thing you can really do is apply products to it, which of course don't last very long and need to reapplied. Whenever I wash my car I use a little trim restorer on it, and within a week it's back to how it was.
Agreed. I've wondered if there's any kind of paint, dye, or other coating that would work on the rubber without a) looking stupid or b) cracking instantly and then looking stupid, but haven't had any luck.
There is a product that is applied with sponge and it perfectly restores the plastic/rubber trim back to black. I used it on freelander trim (lots of plastic on freelander exterior) that was totally light gray. After half year it is still dark black.
There is a product called "Back to Black". I can't remember if itis a turtle wax product or Meguiars. I used Meguiars silicone purple stuff detailer on my spoiler..Looks great, but the car is not outside, either.
11-04-2015, 10:30 PM
10 minute project: making black plastic look like new!
