How To: Bring back the shine in plastic exterior trim parts
Posted: Sat Dec 15, 2012 8:33 pm
Are your exterior plastic trim parts oxidized and faded? Mine were; it really made the car look all of its 25 years of it's age! I decided to do some experimenting on some black plastic parts, like my zenki eyelids, to see if I could bring back the shine. With just some polishing compound, I was able to bring a lot of life back into the part. I also tried the same technique on a side marker and the plastic trunk garnish, with all levels of success.
Today I deiced to take it further. I added more steps and different compounds, and made a how to. I would like to point out that my how to will not make a factory original finish. My guess is to attain that level of refinishing, a good amount of time wet-sanding would have to be done before hand.
Also, use this procedure at your own risk, I am not responsible for anything. I am simply showing a method that worked for me. And keep in mind, if you want the part to look like it just came from the factory, I THINK you will have to do a good amount of wet-sanding to take out any blemishes in the plastic.
To begin with, here is the part I will work on, a Zenki piece.
First, clean it off with a soapy solution(like dishwater soap)
After cleaning, it still looks terrible.
For this write up, I taped off half to show how much of any improvement. This first product I used was polishing compound with an applicator pad
follow the directions on the can.
After jsut this tep I notiec a huge imporvement
Next, I used ScratchX
here are my results after using
Before and after
I was not proactive in taking pics after this, so you will have to use your imagination. I decied I could improve upon what I had done.
First, I used rubbing compound, which is very very strong. I was dismayed at first, for after i rubbed the compound off, it looked liked a step back.
I then re-did my previous steps of polishing compound and Scratch X. I noticed after doing that, the plastic shine was much deeper!
I finished up wiht a coat of wax, which really improved the appearance.
My poor car's paint, why did someone rattle can it white? I would have been fine with the stock baby blue
And here is a lineup of the products I used. Also note, the driver side eyelid only has polishing compound applied to it, the passenger had the procedure I described above(the driver side had also been outside in the rain, keep in mind) I still noticed a much deeper shine, and I am pleased with the results. I'll update this thread with any other parts I do or re-do.
:drink:
Today I deiced to take it further. I added more steps and different compounds, and made a how to. I would like to point out that my how to will not make a factory original finish. My guess is to attain that level of refinishing, a good amount of time wet-sanding would have to be done before hand.
Also, use this procedure at your own risk, I am not responsible for anything. I am simply showing a method that worked for me. And keep in mind, if you want the part to look like it just came from the factory, I THINK you will have to do a good amount of wet-sanding to take out any blemishes in the plastic.
To begin with, here is the part I will work on, a Zenki piece.
First, clean it off with a soapy solution(like dishwater soap)
After cleaning, it still looks terrible.
For this write up, I taped off half to show how much of any improvement. This first product I used was polishing compound with an applicator pad
follow the directions on the can.
After jsut this tep I notiec a huge imporvement
Next, I used ScratchX
here are my results after using
Before and after
I was not proactive in taking pics after this, so you will have to use your imagination. I decied I could improve upon what I had done.
First, I used rubbing compound, which is very very strong. I was dismayed at first, for after i rubbed the compound off, it looked liked a step back.
I then re-did my previous steps of polishing compound and Scratch X. I noticed after doing that, the plastic shine was much deeper!
I finished up wiht a coat of wax, which really improved the appearance.
My poor car's paint, why did someone rattle can it white? I would have been fine with the stock baby blue
And here is a lineup of the products I used. Also note, the driver side eyelid only has polishing compound applied to it, the passenger had the procedure I described above(the driver side had also been outside in the rain, keep in mind) I still noticed a much deeper shine, and I am pleased with the results. I'll update this thread with any other parts I do or re-do.
:drink: