Making plastic shine?

[korniev]

So when I apply 1500grit sandpaper to my plastic, all the scretches more or less disappear but the color becomes pretty f*** up. How do you make it shine again??

[korniev]

Anyone???

[Trevor]

I herd that you can heat it up with a heat gun or torch but I havn't done it before. You would likely have to be verry careful and make sure that you didn't touch it after till it cooled!

[300exOH]

A heat gun will work well. I used a cheap Wagner heat gun on my wifes 250ex and it brought the shine back. Mine is not a real high temp one so I was able to use it with no problems. I found that if you work on an area it will start to melt and become shiney and then you just move on to another area. The plastics do get hot but not enough to melt them completely. The heat gun basically just melts the surface of the plastic. After you get it the way you want with the heat gun then you can apply some mop 'n glo or tire dressing and it will really shine. Armorall works okay too.

[ohsobad_chevy]

Doesn't the plastic have a clear outter coating that they spray on it. You may have taken that coat off. Im not for sure, just a thought.

[300exOH]

Theres no clear outer coating on the plastic on any of my quads. I haven't seen any plastics that are that way.

[korniev]

Just rolled over on my quad and scratched my new maier front a lot! Damn! I sandpapered the scratches but you can really see the difference! If only I could make it shine again!

[static_usa]

wd40 and baby oil work good to make it shine again.

[NPelletier]

yah, wd40 makes it shiney, but i dont think it prob wont be permanent

maybe, spray some wd-40 on it, then light it on fire, itll burn for a few seconds and make it shiney, ive nver tried it though, i think it might work, and itll be cool to watch ;)

[static_usa]

LOL if you going to use fire might as well use a heat gun or blow torch you'd have more control over that :p, wd40 and lighting a match next thing you know your whole quad is burning down :eek:

[polakmike7]

tire grease/shine works great

[Flaherty91]

Try PC Plastic Renew. It is a kit that has you sand down the scratches and then you coat them in a liquid that comes in the kit. I used it on my black 400ex plastics and they look great.

[firefighterjosh]

Armorall works great!

[ill_lil_romey]

Armor all will not bring the shine back after you sand it down. Like he said he sanded the scratches out. Sanding the scratches out gets the plastic really smooth, but takes the shine out. I sand them out, wet sand and then spray a couple coats of clear on them.

[pitchblack400]

The solution in the PC Plastic Renew kit will make plastic shine like new, i used it on my yellow rubicon that had very very shiney plactic, not faded at all, but it was scratched in a few spots, so i sanded and put that solution on it like it says, a couple coats of that and it will be as good as new. Everything matched up good.

That and most car detail shops should be able to get you some stuff called auto spray and shine, its hard to find, but its really good stuff, i use it to spray on my black plastic on my 400 where my boots rub it when i ride. Makes it look as good as new again, it comes in a black aresol can.

[Iliketogofast]

Originally posted by NPelletier
yah, wd40 makes it shiney, but i dont think it prob wont be permanent

maybe, spray some wd-40 on it, then light it on fire, itll burn for a few seconds and make it shiney, ive nver tried it though, i think it might work, and itll be cool to watch ;)

That's a good way to blow a garage up. ;) (GASOLINE)

What you wanna do is sand it with the finsest grit you can find and then apply a heat gun (not a blowtorch, it will burn and leave marks if you don't do it perfectly) What will happen is that the heat gun will melt the tiny ridges and imperfections down to a thick liquid that will fill in any holes.

After that a number of chemicals can be used to shine it up. Mop N' Glo, Black Magic detailing spray or tire wet, Armorall, or F21 (My favorite, comes in a green bottle)