Hey everyone, thought Id share a tip I learned restoring my D1. If your plastic bumper caps are faded or any other trim, the best and only real way I have found to make them look new again is to paint them. I have found that the Krylon Fusion all in one SATIN BLACK is the best paint for this as it almost exactly matches the colour of new plastics. Take a look at some of the pics and see for yourself.


before

paint

after

painted all the trim, mirrors, bumper caps, rockers, everything that was black

 

A 9.99 heat gun from Harbor Freight used on D1 Bumper End Caps = makes them look new until the rubber once again ages, but it's cheap and easy to do.

 

I have heard that as well, not sure how long that lasts though vs paint.

 

I too have heard all kinds of ways to make them black again to include

Heat gun
Commercial products
transmission fluid
peanut butter
Vaseline

My feelings are that paint would be the longest lasting as long as the pieces are cleaned, prepped, primed and painted properly. I would add that having painted lots of plastic interior pieces on various cars Bull Dog adhesion promoter is great stuff.
I use SEM products exclusively. I am not sure if they are any better than the Krylon or Rustoleum products for the money, but I have had very good success with there products and the only company I could find a brown that matched the interior of my Mercedes.

Looks great.

 

Mix half baby oil and half mineral oil and apply it to faded plastic. Leave it out in the sun for a few hours and then wipe off.

 

I've tried all of the "application" remedies and they work only temporarily and never seem to give a good uniform color with some areas taking the applied solution better than others. I like the painted idea as it is permanent. Permanent until it flakes off, but if properly cleaned and prepped this shouldn't happen. A lot of cars have painted plastic bits these days and they are durable enough.

 

IMO on older cars paint is the way to go, ive been using this paint for years on other projects and seems to last a long time. I actually painted my paintball gun a few years back and it lasted years of hard abuse before it started to wear. I have no doubt this will last a long time, and looks really good.