I bought a new tail section for my ZXR250 as someone had cut the number plate holder down, the plastic is in good nick, but its sun-faded. Does anyone have any tricks or tips to restoring faded plastics back to a black shine, heres a pic as I bought it.
With the Fizzer all the hard plastic looked like that.......actually the whole bike did! With the tail section I gave it a good scrub with hot soapy water and when it was dry I used tyre gel on it , as I did with alot of things plastic and rubber. I applied lots of it and spread it with my hands and fingers to get it into the tight and small areas until its totally covered...then leave it for a day or 2 so it can "soak" in a little ......some plastics are porous ,some not so much. Then I just "polished" it off ......sometimes a second go is worthwhile. I used the gel only cuz it was there in the box of 101 detailing products on hand......its probably isnt the greatest solution and will probably not last but it came up ok and is water resistant. I probably have a before and after pic but unfortunately not on hand. This is it.......
Spray it with WD40 and scrub it clean. Used this on plastic indicators with some success. Also have used a strong polish, with reasonable results.
that did come up well, I found this on-line, lots of car owners with faded bumpers seem to be doing it
also found this one on the net, white spirit is Mineral Turps Here's a cheap and effective way to restore colour to faded black plastic parts, such as radiator cheeks, airbox, chainguard etc etc. 1. Thoroughly mix together a small amount of 2 parts linseed oil to 1 part white spirit. 2. Dip a clean rag into the mix and wipe onto the faded plastic parts. Gently rub away any excess and allow to dry. A little bit goes a long way.
That sounds like an easy and "natural" method ...... that heat gun method looks like it could go terribly wrong very easily
Have used miineral turps before, couldn't remember the result. Stands to reason as it states on the mineral turps bottles that in can be used as a cleaner. Would certainly like to try the heat gun method on something old, interesting to see the end result.
Must be the oil from the peanut butter that gives the shine. Be careful with the heat gun as there is a fine line between re-melted plastic and burnt plastic. I use leather dressing on my plastic parts, boots, gloves, etc. Buy it at horse accessories shop.
I'd be worried about blistering the paint doing it on the car like he did. But something I tried last night worked on dirtbike plastics: carby cleaner. It seems to dissolve the chalky plastic, use a kitchen scourer and then wipe with a clean cloth afterwards. Looking at it today, it could do with a polish/buffing. So I tried it on black plastic today: the tail of a zx2r, no less. Not as good, but I'm sure the tyre shine will give it gloss.
At work we use silicone tyre shine on all black/faded plastics and let it soak in for detailing work. If they are too far gone then take off, sand back and repaint with satin black
If its black you want to restore... this stuff is the absolute best on the market.. it isnt cheap but you use so little of it that it isnt a big deal... I buy mine from a company called Detail Central In Victoria.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3&v=WI1vtIAtFBk
Similar process to @Linkin but I use the Mothers to restore & the V.H.T to sand/paint if there too scratched. When there this bad the Mothers has to soak in with daily coats.
