Reviving old plastics?

[neverdone]

My poor old SX I am working on has a pretty faded now pinkish front fender......... Anyway to bring it back to red? Or do I just need to trash it and find a new one?

I have had some people tell me that tranny fluid and a good rub will bring it back some. Anyone ever tried this? or anything else?

Since I put on the new plastic tank it really looks out of place....... Back ones don't match either but not near as bad as the front.....

[ScreaminRed]

You could try wet sanding it with fine grit (2000) and painting it. Just be sure to use fine grit sand paper as you don't want to scratch it. If there are scratches already, then you could use a slightly heavier grit to get most of them out. Then use the fine grit to smooth it all out, paint it with 2 to 3 coats. I did a headlight on my 350X like this and it turned out pretty good. If you
want to get fancy, you could try clear coating it, once its all finished. :)

If you can't find any info on here, try searching you tube, google, something will come up.

[neverdone]

really want to stay away from painting them..... My experience says that the paint just cracks off......

Also my new decal set for this showed up!!! Can anyone put up some pics so that I can see where they all belong so I can get them as close to original as possible???

[CodyRosa]

Instead of paint AND sanding try boiled linseed oil AND paint thinner. I've never used it but i will be trying it Monday. I've watched videos on it and all you do is wipe the mixture onto the plastics and its instantly back to color. Mix them 60 linseed 40 paint thinner. Make sure you throw your rag away.. and NOT in your garbage can please.. this stuff can combust when its on the rag, so i suggest tossing it outside, burning it OR letting it sit in soapy water for a few days.

[ScreaminRed]

really want to stay away from painting them..... My experience says that the paint just cracks off......

Also my new decal set for this showed up!!! Can anyone put up some pics so that I can see where they all belong so I can get them as close to original as possible???

Well, i'm still waiting on mine to crack. But anyway, if you bought new decals, then nothing better than a new
fender!! :cool:

[neverdone]

Instead of paint AND sanding try boiled linseed oil AND paint thinner. I've never used it but i will be trying it Monday. I've watched videos on it and all you do is wipe the mixture onto the plastics and its instantly back to color. Mix them 60 linseed 40 paint thinner. Make sure you throw your rag away.. and NOT in your garbage can please.. this stuff can combust when its on the rag, so i suggest tossing it outside, burning it OR letting it sit in soapy water for a few days.

If it can combust on the rag, what stops it from combusting on the plastics? Do I need safety gear for doing this??

[shortline10]

Transmission fluid will do wonders to old faded plastics .....

[Poco Loco]

Im a painter by trade of cars and areospace products. 32yrs now...Ok heres what works for me. If you dont want to paint, wet sand like the other person said. But 2000 is way too fine. 320gt paper cuts faster. Then you use a heavy cut/clean polish and a buffing wheel. I like the Meguires brand Dianond cut. Sand off all the whitesh pinkish until it looks red again. Then start buffing. Dont use a grinder to buff with. their too fast a generate too much heat. beg, borrow, steal, or rent a real buffer that has a speed control.

Polish the ol fender till she looks like a diamond ina goats ass.

If you feel the need to paint you must wet sand w/360gt and then use a binder 1st. The automotive body shop supply sells a product called Bronco. There are others too. I like the Bronco. Its the same crap they use on plastic car parts. After the binder, you need to use a Polyurethane base paint. No rattle can crap. Poly is flexable like the Bronco and wont crack and peel and chip like the cheap shart. It flexes with the fender.

I hope this is helpful, good luck

[my1423]

Or if they are really bad lightly sand and paint them with lineX bed liner.
Many colors to choose from. Has a rough surface.
Flexible and gas resistant.

[CodyRosa]

They wont combust on your plastics, keep them outside getting air to them to dry it out. I'll show you a video.. this stuff works INSTANTLY, it'd take 1minute to restore all the plastics on a trike. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KevwAZutZwI Here you are, proof that it works. I guess its 60 paint thinner, 40 linseed oil.. so i was wrong on my above post. I'll also be trying this later on monday and I can let you know how well it worked. The plastic i'll be working on has sun bleached spots though.

[Jwmajic]

I've had great luck using fine and ultra fine steel wool to sand them then using "plastic renew" but you can use mop and glow too.

[83 200e]

if you have the time, use a razor blade and scrape all one direction just to take the top layer of fade away, dont go fast or press too hard, just slow and smooth, becuse slow is smooth, and smooth is fast!

[CodyRosa]

I did the razor blade on my banshee plastics, it looks good far away but up close you can see every imperfection, and it looks terrible. That's why you need a heat gun, so you can get rid of those tiny tiny bumps a razor blade creates.

Sorry i didn't see the other question: Wearing gloves wouldn't hurt. I'm not sure if the guy does or not in the video, i already forgot lol.

[83 200e]

if you take your time and do it real good, it looks good with the blade, but ive done a pretty crap job before, so its not for the beginners

[CodyRosa]

Mines not terrible, if i had a heat gun it'd probably look like new again. I also did this to my rear plastics on my 200x, they had some hard layer of crust and had cracks in the crust hahaha

[kb0nly]

The boiled linseed oil and paint thinner looks interesting.. Looks kinda like that Wipe New product they sell now... Hmmmm

Anyway, i have some sun baked front fenders i might try that solution on for the heck of it!

[CodyRosa]

Well KB i'll be trying it tomorrow hopefully.. as long as my dad remembers to grab it after work that is haha, I can let you know how well it works. It takes a few coats I guess. If you try it before me post pics please! I'll be doing the same.

[puffine]

Once you get your plastics restored I recommend using 303 Aerospace protectant instead of armourall. 303 actually protects the plastic and keeps is from sun damage and drying out. I coat my trikes in the stuff!

[sweetip2000]

They wont combust on your plastics, keep them outside getting air to them to dry it out. I'll show you a video.. this stuff works INSTANTLY, it'd take 1minute to restore all the plastics on a trike. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KevwAZutZwI Here you are, proof that it works. I guess its 60 paint thinner, 40 linseed oil.. so i was wrong on my above post. I'll also be trying this later on monday and I can let you know how well it worked. The plastic i'll be working on has sun bleached spots though.

I am really impressed with the results. That's a nice quad. Here is some info that will compliment your solution. Weather you like to wet sand and buff or use a solution after you are done here is the final step that will make it shine really good.

Get this stuff called Butchers Bowling Alley Wax. It is a clear petroleum based wax. Put it on thin in small tight circles. Let it dry about 10 minutes. Then you can buff by hand or for best results use a buffer. It will keep on shining long after you are done and water will bead off of it like a ducks azz. It also brings out the pigment in the plastic. I have been wet sanding the front fender of my 350X for 3 days now. 28 years of deep scratches and scrapes are gone. I am up to 1500 grit and will finish with 2000 and then buff with Butchers bowling alley wax. BTW thanks for showing us this info. Totally awesome !!

[CodyRosa]

Sweetip do you happen to have a before and after of that 350x fender?? Be pretty cool to see how well that wax works!

[jb2wheels]

I had the pressure washer out to clean up one of the Tecates I bought recently. It had a severely crusted OEM front fender on it.

The pressure washer removed the crusty, dead plastic without leaving the scratches from a razor blade.

Just an idea. I have not done any more work on the fender. I hate sanding/polishing plastics.

[Doc Holliday]

Yep, I took my plastics to a car wash and used the pressure wand to blast them clean, then went home and wet sanded with a 600 grit sanding block. They look new, seriously. Take your time, be patient and don't rush. You'll love the results.

[CodyRosa]

173643173644173645173646 So I tried the linseed oil/paint thinner. Not sure on the ratio.. i just kinda threw the concoction together. I must say it did work to a point, it brought the red out and made the whites less noticeable. I do still see where the white was though. I'm on like my 3rd coat.. I'll probably need 10 or so sense the guy on the video used 6 and his plastics were not nearly as bad as this tank. I used 400 grit wet/dry paper on 2 white spots and it took them off within 10 seconds so i'll probably have to sand the rest out now. My tank also has some black residue that's hard to remove so its kinda hard to tell how well the stuff worked. (thats what that streak is on the right side)

All in all, i say give it a try, if your plastics are not nearly as bad as mine then yea go for it!

[neverdone]

Well that is good enough for me to say that it is worth a shot.....

My plastics are not near as bad as that tank is/was! I am going to order up an exhaust gasket too. I am going to pull the header on my old trike and take it and the muffler and sand blast them. They are looking kind of rough so before they are junk I want to clean em up and throw some paint on them. That will also help spruce it up a bit!

[kb0nly]

Hmm, if its that bad i suppose we should maybe lightly sand it then try the linseed oil and thinner combo on it. I have one front fender off a 110 thats really white and crusty i was going to try it on, i think i might go with some sanding then put the mix on there and see how that does. It looks promising at least!

[CodyRosa]

Yea after I did this I had a small piece of white left that the mix didn't fix.. lol.. so I took 400 grit to it and it came off it maybe 10 seconds and it looked brand new. Its definitely worth the try!