External plastic trim restoration using heat gun?

Was having a chat with Wellsy & Rajan at the weekend and we were moaning about how hard it is to keep the "black" plastic trim on VW's (especially the bumpers and arch covers) looking good.

Most petroleum based treatments (Autoglym, Armour All, etc.) looks fine until it rains and then the plastic just goes grey and  mottled looking  :roll: .

Anyway, Woky was saying that he had heard its possible to bring the plastic back to its new appearance by careful application of a heat gun to the surface. Obviously you gotta know what you are doing, but I'm up for trying this on some scrap plastic parts.

All I wanted to know has anyone ever tried this, or got any more info on how to go about it?

Cheers,

Chris

Woky  :x  :x  u mean Wellsy

Cheers

Wellsy

Thats the fella  ops: Sorry mate, never was very good with names - will amend the original post accordingly  

Cheers,

Chris

Not tried it but curious if anyone has ever tried 'Plasticoat?' As this dies/stains deep into material maybe this would work well?

With a view to possibly being able to get some half decent used or even GSF arches as a back-up, I attacked one of my arches with an aerosol can of Brake Cleaner and some cellulose thinners (see later comments).  I had used all sorts of "stuff" like "Back to black", trim restorer, etc over the years but they always look scruffy again after a few weeks and the stuff just built up on the surface making it look even worse.

 Using the thinners with lots of clean kitchen roll (until it remained clean after a good rubbing), followed by the more of the same treatment using the Brake Cleaner (good to get hi on if you suck in too much of the vapours!), I finally gave them a squirt of the Matt finish "Armor-All" (Halfords), rubbed in with an olde tooth brush followed by a quick rub with clean towelling, and they have come up looking like new with the proper, as new, grained effect.

Now, I have also tried this treatment on an "A" Pillar wind deflector thingy and its disolved the surface somewhat (ouch)…a bloody mess in fact.

Next I shall try this method on one of my bumpers (small area..underneath …out of sight) just to test if it reacts with the plastic.

The moral of this missive is (as it says on many tins and packets) test it on a small area first as the various trim parts obviously use different formulae for the plastic material….please don't blame me if it doesn't work for you.

Cheers

ive always used old engine oil on a rag 2 blacken my bumpers and wheels! works really well 2

Right to update this has any one got any NEW good tips for keeping those bumpers black ?
 :dontknow:

Mine are grey so your tips or products use would be most helpfull  


Thanks …………Chudd………

Hi,
My CL has grey bumpers and arch trims.
It took ages with white spirit and a nail brush to take off someones 'over paint'.  :? When they looked clean I used Halfords vinyl bumper & trim restorer.  
It won't hide the scuffs  but the colour & brightness seems right!
I use the same stuff on a mk2 with black bumpers & trim with no over paint this time.
I use it as part of the general washing, polishing & cleaning. Now they're OK it's no extra work.
I hope this helps

Halfords vinyl bumper & trim restorer.  

Cheers Bondy , looks like a visit to Halfords  

Thanks.

were mk1 bumpers jet black when new ? I've seen a lot of bumpers like this (repainted) and wonder if they look too black. I repainted my faded bumpers dark grey last year, and am now wondering should I repaint them black.

Hi Watson,
According to  Wessex Auto Colour in Westbury my CL was born with grey bumpers and wheel arch trims. Looking at the back of the trims, when I removed them, they were definately grey. Sorry I don't know which other MK 1's have grey as standard.  :dontknow:

Hi Bpndy, thats good news, to hear that you and Chudd have grey bumpers aswell      had me worried there. I cleaned off the old grey paint and bought a can of gold class trim detailer. tried this with a wire brush but I think the bumpers were too far faded. Not a waste of money though as its worked wonders on my sons and daughters car bumpers. So I've spent all day cleaning and polishing their two cars to match their great looking bumpers   I decided to repaint the mk1 bumpers halfords dark grey. degreased them, masked up the two thin chrome strips (took ages) undercoated and top coated them. They look good. Now I have to do is the two arch trims to match.   Dave.

didn't all cl's and gl's have grey bumpers? and black on the base model driver and gti.

There was another post on this I think it was in chat. I have tried the heat gun method but only on green garden furniture that was sun bleached. Lets just sat I had mixed results! I also use black boot polish on mine occasionally but regulary use the autoglym bumper restorer.

volkswarren said

didn't all cl's and gl's have grey bumpers? and black on the base model driver and gti.

I think so, I had a GL years ago with grey bumpers - when front replaced after accident with new one this was grey too!

My GLS was dark grey with chrome strips but I used a bumper wax on them to brighten them up, sadly the brand is unavailable now but I find armour all soaked cloth does the trick a week at a time and tbh if you wash the car once a week its no hardship to reapply.
Tip is to have a cloth soaked in it and after use put in a sandwich bag to keep moist its ready to wipe over next time…

black kiwi shoe scuff polish (the one with the foam aplicator pad)  :wink:  8)

When I was selling my old Mk2 I did the bumpers with engine oil- new of course. Looks great for about a week. Simply squirt onto a cloth and wipe. Waterproof as well. car looked good and I got ?650 for it- not bad considering I paid ?375 for it a month earlier!
My Mk1 cab has got colour coded bumpers- not a factory job obviously but previous owner sprayed everything Baikal blue. Now looking for new grey bumpers with chrome inserts and arches!

this stuff is very good!  :y:

http://www.frost.co.uk/item_Detail.asp?productID=9214

Y'all

Per Chef's post, "Armour-All" now do a satin finish plazzy restorer.  I used meths to clean the crud and ingrained "back-to-black" stuff off of the bits using a toothbrush (don't have a lot of use for that these days) .  Then Armour-All brushed in using the wifey's toothbrush (doesn't have a lot of use for that these days) and they come up like new.


Cheers