Yes, due to a day off and boredom I figured since my front end was just redone, I would clean up my weather beaten plastic.
We all know that the plastic shell stuff on our trucks oxidizes, gets weather beaten and wind burned, and after a while (in my case 10 years) it really looks like ass. Some people are happy with just slapping some armourall (crap) or a good silcone based coating on it before they go out or on the next sunny day. I've never been happy with that. I like my stuff to look like new even when there isn't some kind of detailing fluid on it. I've done this to my wife's car and it's come out well, just never got around to doing it to mine.
Note: This also will apply to general buffing for clear coats, but you really need a buffer. A buffer, not an orbital waxer. I reccomend the Mikita buffers as they can go as high as 1000 rpm and as low as 10 rpm. Be careful though, you can burn straight through your clear coat. ORBITAL BUFFER/WAXERS WILL NOT WORK FOR PROPER BUFFING.
On to the pics..
Here you can see what I use. EZ1 Cutting gel (Blue) and 3M Foam Finisher polish. This is what most autobody shops use, (at least around here). Now, understand, the CRAP you would buy at Autozone, pepboys, or any other chain store is general consumer ****. To get this stuff you need to go somewhere that supplies automotive paint. (Real paint, not rattle can crap). I am a big believer in if you're going to do something, do it right. Consumer based crap is NOT doing it right...
Start with putting a couple of quarter sized drops on the plastic.
Next, using a SLIGHTLY damp cloth, rub in circular motions. You eventually will see the plastic shine up. Just keep on going and going and going. (about 5-8 minutes in constant motion)
Wipe off with a soft towel really well when done.
If you have any nicks in the plastic, simply wet sand the nick down with 1500 grit (not anything less) sand paper. Go back and reapply the cutting gel.
Now, you will have some swirl marks and or light sand paper marks after you're done. (Depending on how bad your plastic was)... So now we move on to the final step.
Use a dime sized drop of the 3M Foam Pad Finishing polish. (This is really powerful stuff, you won't need more than this). Again, rub in circular motions. Do this for another 5-8 minutes. You will see how the shine really comes out. You can see in this pic how well the cutting gel did.
When you're done, it should look like this...(you can see the stark difference)
And....
This will work for most of the plastic on your car. The rubber pieces obviously won't come out like this, but no harm in running some cutting gel over them just to get rid of some of the oxidation.
Hope this helps some of you in your next car wash...
