Plastic restoration (ex. cladding)

[Steve McKellop]

I have used this technique on other plastic parts before but hadn't tried it on the dull gray cladding. After discussions on another Explorer forum I decided to see if it worked on the gray stuff. I had some old broken pieces of cladding so I tried it out on them. It is simple, and fast, enough but you have to be super careful if using a high temp gun. My gun is capable of over 600 degrees so a second too long and it's fubar. I could turn it down but I'm impatient! Here are the results of simply heating the plastic cladding. Fast, clean, PERMANENT!! No reapplying whatever you use to bring out the color. Your cladding should be as clean as possible. I did not spend much time cleaning this old piece before heating it.



Before w/flash:

Partially done:

Direct sunlight:

Inside w/flash:

Windshield post trim I got @ the salvage yard:

The heat gun I used:

Disclaimer:

Try at your own risk! Be aware this does NOT work on all plastics i.e. the cup holders on the old style consoles. Try it in an inconspicuous area before jumping in with both feet!!

 

[swshawaii]

Pretty cool Steve, oops, I meant hot. LOL

Something about heat and plastics that make me "gun shy", literally.

Think a propane or acetylene torch would work? (Kidding)

May try this on my creased rear bumper. Thanks.

 

[Chris Rice]

While its not quite the same thing, I had my black plastic start to fade. I found some stuff online called forever black that works very well in getting it back to shiny newer looking black plastic. I put some on last summer and then just did another coat last week (with the same bottle) that wasn't really needed but did make it shine up again quite nice, and I figured it couldn't hurt with this AZ sun!

 

[Johnny O]

The plastic flares on my daughter's Jeep were hopelessly faded. On the advice of a local Jeeper I painted them with Krylon Fusion paint although it took a while to find it in satin black. They showed the torch trick on the Jeep board also.