Plastic Restoration - Hoggwood Style

[Hoggwood]

I thought I'd share my technique for bringing back those faded black plastic airbox covers on the XL-12/SXLAO series.  It works well.

Looking at samples of "faded" or chalky plastic under a 10x scope show that the colour tends to change the most on the outside facing surfaces of the quite rough/ porous material.  The inner valleys fair much better as they are somewhat more protected from the "elements".  I think much of the colour loss is due to repeated micro abrasion at the immediate surface from cleaning (polishing) contaminants away .  Cleaning and cleaning will actually worsen the condition.  It produces poorer transmission of colour below that surface and even more diffuse reflection of incident light. You need something transparent, that will fill in the abrasion, and remain in place afterward.  You want something natural looking and something that is easy to reapply if needed. 

I know you can paint/clear coat/oil/linseed/plastic restore etc.  This wins in my books.  

I use simple candle/crayon wax, toothbrush, heat gun, and cloth to buff.  The idea came from something we did decades ago playing hockey, actually.

Original plastic:







 

[Hoggwood]

I usually just use a regular tea light candle, but you can pick your favorite colour wax crayon from your collection.  Maybe even black in this case.

Rub it onto the surfaces.

[Hoggwood]

Or black, to keep it real.



Fill it all in.  The crayon is nice to get between the raised details.  Not to worry if you can't get it everywhere. 

[Hoggwood]

I heat on low until it melts and then a few moments longer to heat the body of the plastic up.  Make it hot.  It will soak in immediately and I use a toothbrush to insist that it gets everywhere it needs to.  I heat a couple more times and brush until there is no remaining wax build up.  Use a clean towel to buff it down to that matte finish. The nice thing about it being a hard wax, is it can easily be reheated manually (or by the sun) for self preservation.  

One side, one coat.  




Finishing it up.

[Hoggwood]

[Hoggwood]

Looking better...

[xl130]

Pretty cool. My XL-12 has the same weathered look. I’ll try this out to freshen it up. The old WD-40 wipe down only looks good for abut 10 minutes.

[rowdy235]

Very cool. I am going to give this a shot on my SXL. I used a product sold to restore car bumpers and what not, it looked good for about a week but then right back to the old faded plastic.

[sawnami]

Looks very good!
My Avalanche has the plastic cladding that gets a chalky look after time in the elements. I've found that 50/50 boiled linseed oil and acetone makes a quick dressing. It lasts about 8 months on the Avalanche through the weather and car washes.

[sweepleader]

These look like good solutions.

Has anyone tried the made for plastic spray paints? (of course they you would have to redo the white stuff.)

[ronaldt]

I use a Wizards product called black renew. It works pretty good for all colors of chalky looking trim. It needs to be reapplied every so often but it's very easy to work with. Included a picture of before and after.

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