How do you restore faded scratched plastics? Boiled linseed oil??

[Don 86 250sx]

It seems from my research there are two ways to restore old plastics, the linseed oil paint thinner mix and floor cleaner.

I was gonna blend out scratches with 2000 grit wet paper and 000 steel wool, then coat.

I was planning on the 60 40 boiled linseed oil and paint thinner, but don't know what paint thinner to use. Theres acetone, no odor, several types?.

Anyone have luck with either method? Also, are these methods safe on newer 4 wheelers with no fading or much wear, as a preventative measure?

[BOB MARLIN]

The "plastic restore" that you can get at any motorcycle shop works real well. There is enough in the bottle to do 3 or 4 trikes.

[trikeguy2014]

I'm about to take the tank off my 85r and do the heat gun restoring to hopefully brighten it up has anyone had luck with this

[atc007]

Fine wet sanding,tons of labor, and buffing is the only way to get great results that I am aware of.

[ebaccm26]

Heat guns and linseed oil are all shortcuts, sometimes they work okay and sometimes they will actually make things worse. If you truly want to make the plastics look nice the best route is to sand them, it can be time consuming but will absolutely give you the best result. If you want to try the linseed oil and paint thinner you will want just plain old paint thinner that uses mineral spirits.

[jakep53]

The linseed oil doesn't work at all

[ebaccm26]

The linseed oil doesn't work at all

It does bring back some color to dull plastics but doesn't really do anything more than Armor All would. Certainly not the best nor a permanent remedy.

[jb2wheels]

I'm about to take the tank off my 85r and do the heat gun restoring to hopefully brighten it up has anyone had luck with this

I heat gunned my lightly faded 85 250R tank a few weeks ago and made it worse. I had to scrape the resultant crust off with a razor blade.

I then wet sanded with 320 followed by 600 then polished with Meguiar's 015 "Ultra Cut". This worked out much better.

The heat gun worked great on my red Tecate tank.

[jakep53]

It does bring back some color to dull plastics but doesn't really do anything more than Armor All would. Certainly not the best nor a permanent remedy.

all it does is make it oily it looks good for the first 10 seconds and then everything sticks to it and makes it looks dirty and

[Keepah Rolln]

This is what I did for real sun baked dirt build up and oxidation. I used about 3 tubes of Pepsodent Toothepaste. A couple bags of really fine 0000 steel wool. You have to experiment on the back side of the plastic if you have real bad build up or oxidation if they are bad like mine was. Before I used the really fine steel wool I had to use a little couser one first to get the real nasty stuff off. After you can put wax on and buff if you get some slight swirl marks. I barely got any swirl marks so I hit it with a couple coats of armor all and it drank it up and shined good. You can also follow up after the 0000 wool with the finest wet sanding paper and wet sand also. I did this on one fender. Its not easy and takes several resands to get down to the original plastic. In all it took me a whole week, a bunch of popped blisters but was definately worth the effort!! Use gloves the steel wool is a hand killer..

Here is my finished front fender next to the headlight as to what it looked like before..


The nasty rear fender which took 3 different scrub downs..


The finished YTM 200.


Never give up its pain staking but worth it...Not sure if it will work for just clean fenders that are sunbleached..

[jakep53]

Here is my finished front fender next to the headlight as to what it looked like before..
Attachment 199350

The nasty rear fender which took 3 different scrub downs..
Attachment 199354

The finished YTM 200.
Attachment 199355

Never give up its pain staking but worth it...

pics no workie

[Keepah Rolln]

pics no workie

Think I fixed them.

[jakep53]

wow that rear fender was NASTY!!

[tvpierce]

I was planning on the 60 40 boiled linseed oil and paint thinner, but don't know what paint thinner to use. Theres acetone, no odor, several types?.

Do not use acetone. It dissolves plastic.

[czac]

excellent job, she looks great now!