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Thread: Sanding/restoring plastic. How to guide

  1. #76
    Join Date
    Feb 2003
    Location
    New York
    --
    619
    Your are doing the right thing. I dont like the new plastic. It sucks compared to the durability of the old plastic. Cheap Chinese garbage is what we have today, Parts made by an 8 year old slave girl.
    Two last things that I did that you might be interested in. The very last sanding I did was with McGuire's 2000 grit sand paper. Don't get nervous if your old red plastic has a white haze to it after you are done with the 2000 grit. The plastic is looking for a drink. So I use the rubbing compound like you mentioned. After the compound I did something different. Go out and buy some Butchers Bowling Alley Wax. Rub into the old sanded plastic and let it dry. The plastic will drink this up and become flexible again, It will also bring out the pigment in the plastic and take away that white haze. You dont need a professional buffing wheel. Just get a buffing wheel attachment for your drill and get a buffing pad. The synthetic wool ones will work best. Buff to a shine and it will be good until you dump your bike again. Do not use any other waxes after you apply the Butchers wax. If you use one wax stay with what you use. One last thing dont do stupid when you ride especially after all that hard detailing, Listen to chainsaw he is right. The only way to do a good finish requires patience time and a little bit of muscle. btw sprinkle some water onto the plastic when you are done buffing and rebuff until dry for extra high shine. Have fun with that boss.

  2. #77
    Join Date
    Mar 2010
    Location
    Crest California
    --
    3,014
    Damn, I wish I had found this before I embarked onto resurfacing my T3's plastics



    I used a steel scrubber, then progressed onto steel wool, and then tried to shine it up with a plastic dish scrubber sheet, all the while using water then moving onto armor all. Yep, there's deep scratches alright
    LED obsessed
    2015 Yamaha FJ-09

  3. #78
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Location
    Moncton, NB
    --
    106
    My mother used to wax the kitchen floor when I was a kid... it always came out looking nice. One day I took the bottle of Futura floor wax and gave the old 250R a wipe after a good washing. I was astounded to see how long it stayed "wet" looking. Remove with ammonia solution and repeat after a few months.

    It's no retoration job but looks better than white"ish" red plastics...

  4. #79
    Join Date
    Apr 2011
    Location
    clarksdale missouri
    --
    3

    dirtbike

    ill try this on all of my dirt bike plastic and post before and after pics thanks for the instructions.

  5. #80
    Join Date
    Jun 2011
    Location
    mid west
    --
    3
    All of the tips and tricks on this forum are very useful, so thank you! I have never thought of using floor wax on the plastic. After I had a bit of an incidence with my trike a while back, I worked and worked slowly sanding out the road rash. I had it looking fairly nice, so I tried your tip of the floor wax, and it worked extremely well. It sort of evened out the rough scratches that I was having trouble sanding out. If you have not tried this, you must!

  6. #81
    Join Date
    Sep 2011
    Location
    Manitoba, Canada
    --
    2

    White Plastics with "Webbing" ???? How to remove??

    My 86' 350X still has it's original white fenders. It has few scratches, that's not my concern. It's the webbing in the material I need to understand if they can be removed. Anyone have experience with this? See my image. Click image for larger version. 

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  7. #82
    Join Date
    Sep 2011
    Location
    Manitoba, Canada
    --
    2
    Quote Originally Posted by Dre350X View Post
    My 86' 350X still has it's original white fenders. It has few scratches, that's not my concern. It's the webbing in the material I need to understand if they can be removed. Anyone have experience with this? See my image. Click image for larger version. 

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    Figured it out from a local Body Shop Specialist. These original white rear fenders suffered stone chip underneath, this caused shock stress to the plastics thus creating the web effect on upper half of fender over tires. Conclusion: not repairable, only paint or decal can cover these webbings at even that is a short term repair. Maier it is then.

  8. #83
    Join Date
    Dec 2009
    Location
    illinois
    --
    1,763
    These surface cracks or "spider webbing" can be removed by wet sanding . You will need to wet sand starting with 400 grit sand paper. You will need to sand down past the surface cracks then go to 800 grit to 1000 to 1500 to 2000 grit sand paper. Then use a random orbital buffer with a synthetic wool bonnet,dry buff..Buff Buff Buff and you will have a great shine like showroom without any amourall etc. Spider webbing is caused by weathering of the sun etc,, the surface of the fender is dried out. I successfully sanded out a 1985 350X fender and white plastic is easier to restore because small flaws do no show up.
    Quote Originally Posted by Dre350X View Post
    Figured it out from a local Body Shop Specialist. These original white rear fenders suffered stone chip underneath, this caused shock stress to the plastics thus creating the web effect on upper half of fender over tires. Conclusion: not repairable, only paint or decal can cover these webbings at even that is a short term repair. Maier it is then.

  9. #84
    Join Date
    Dec 2009
    Location
    illinois
    --
    1,763
    GAfter my garage is built I am going to make a video on how to restore plastic back to NOS and this will end all concern of restoring plastic. This subject comes up too much and I will show you how to do it the right way from start to finish but it's a lot of work. Here is a thread of how I did it... http://www.3wheelerworld.com/showthr...estore+plastic

  10. #85
    Join Date
    Dec 2009
    Location
    illinois
    --
    1,763
    Also hands down the best alternative to make you plastics look new and protected is "SILCOLENE PRO PREP " forget Amourall,,, This stuff is the best http://www.motorcycle-superstore.com...mStyleId=25308

  11. #86
    Join Date
    May 2009
    Location
    monroe, Louisiana, United States
    --
    948
    i gave the plastic polishing a whirl the way i know to polish metals on a small unvisible patch of plastic on my T3 tank, to see how it would work on doing it on plastic before i attempted it on a visible part of the tank because i have never polished plastic before. I am glad i did to because the method i know how to polish didnt work to well after making my way through the different grits of sand paper, i was like hmmmm plan A is a bust lol so i had to go to plan B which was do some searching on how to do it lol yeah yeah i know should have check on how to polish plastic first but reading instruction are the desprete measure if ya cant figure something out lol, I know there was a thread on this process so i went to reading and boy i am glad i did to. I was missing out on a few of the main steps that i forgot about and new ones i didnt know about.

    so just wanted to say this is a AWSOME!!! write up of the steps to walk you through it, now i am fully ready take on this project head on the right way. Thanks man for taking the time to write this up helped me out ALOT!! thanks again man.

  12. #87
    Join Date
    Jul 2018
    Location
    TN
    --
    1,065
    I have been working on a 200s one piece rear fender for two days now.

    It was so badly oxidized the thing was light pink. I actually started with 80 grit and worked through 120, 220, 280 and now I'm on 320 on my way to 400, 600, 1000 then 2000.

    One thing I have found once I reached 320 is water is as much my enemy as my friend. There's a balance. Too much water and my paper (3m wet/dry) will stop cutting and sweat equity is lost to oblivion. Too little water and and the paper loads up, scratches and you start over. Everyone's mileage will vary but I have found instead of recreating Noah's flood like i did with 80 grit where I set the hose to a trickle and left it dribbling over the fender while i worked, a soaked cloth to keep things wet and CONSTANTLY checking your paper for build up works best (for me). About 15-20 strokes, wipe, rinse paper and repeat.


    By the way, polishing plastic SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!
    I was born and raised on Venus & I may be here a while.....

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