rejuvinating elderly plastics

[schmanman]

today, I tried to rejuvinate my plastics. being faded, scratched, and painted over many times since 1979, they needed a bit of help.

after stripping off all the paint, I used a sander, and went over it with progressivly finer grits. after that, I went over it quickly with a heat gun, which got rid of all the tiny scratches!

ta-da! beat up plastics no longer! :cool:

 

[gregorious77]

Any pics?

 

[schmanman]

sure, tomorrow!

 

[SMMWest]

today, I tried to rejuvinate my plastics. being faded, scratched, and painted over many times since 1979, they needed a bit of help.

after stripping off all the paint, I used a sander, and went over it with progressivly finer grits. after that, I went over it quickly with a heat gun, which got rid of all the tiny scratches!

ta-da! beat up plastics no longer! :cool:

What a great topic. Thank You for sharing. I think this could help a lot of people save their tired looking plastics without having to fork over big bucks on replacements.

 

[TRexRacing]

Pics!!!!!!

 

[2strokerfun]

I read one on here about a year ago from a guy who sanded like this poster suggested and then used a propane torch he kept in motion above the plastic. He said it really brought out a nice finish. After reading that post, I wondered about using a heat gun instead of a torch. I have a couple of fenders in the shed I might try this one.

 

[schmanman]

haha, pics!

once all the paint was stripped off....

halfway done! look at the corners, those are the parts i got to. I'm putting a black number plate backer over the oval part, so I didnt sand as much...

finished! (I might go over it another time)