Faded plastic

[Spearo]

I found out about using a heat gun to clean up the faded plastics on my dualsport KLR 650 motorbike, and used it on the plastic over the bumper on my Deli.
Here's a phone pic halfway through the process... looks excellent now :)

[bigbird]

Just point and shoot?....

[Spearo]

Yup! Just get close enough that the top layer flows and keep moving along.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pw0cWfTZ_dA

[Green1]

I've heard that the heat gun trick works great, but is exceedingly short lived... anyone with any long term feedback on it?

[Delicanadabc]

Hello

I did it on my van about a year ago and it is still holding well. It does help to give it a good wash and treat with back to black from time to time. Before the heat gun treatment it was almost impossible to keep the gray away.

[impalator]

I tried a small section of the front plastic-bumper cover with the heat gun last year... it worked - but unfortunately didn't hold up very well.

I thought about getting a can of black tremclad matte-finish and give it a good spray-over... that should hold up... and the grey plastic appears dry and rough enough to absorb the paint rather than it peeling off again...

Has anybody done that (tremclad / spraypaint)? Does it hold up? Any objections or concerns?

Thanks and cheers,
Chris

[Delicanadabc]

I would personally not paint it. For one it is a hell o' a lot of masking. A friend of mind did use Stove Top Black to treat and that is an option too...It turned out OK but you can see that something has been "done" to make it black. Again, I am happy with the heat gun results but I do use Back to Black as well. I guess Rhino Liner type on the whole deal would look alright, maybe.

[Artacoma]

Actually I use a plumbers torch with a light touch , probably touch up every six months or so and hey I wanted rewire my foglight s anyways , I just wanted to see what color the wire was under the plastic insulation.

[Luna-Sea]

Hey,
You gotta use "Back to Black" (mothers) or Plastix (or something that sounds like that by Mcguires)
or a whole bunch or other similiar products,go for the outdoor use ones. (any one of em will do it)
I had some nice luck with the "Back to Black" recommended by previous post of Falco.
I think he might have been anti-heat gun actually.

Use this after your carefully controlled melt.

As far as my understanding you are just getting rid of the oxidized surface,
when you apply your chosen product you will be preserving this nice finish by (among other things)
creating a protective layer between your work peice and the elements.
You can get this effect with just product alone ,but it is quite labour intensive.

I have two factory fog lamp covers that are so new looking now I can't put them on because they
make the rest of my plastic look horrendous.


Right on!