E30 Zone

the black heck spoiler on my e30 is somewhat worse for wear, very faded in places, anyone got any suggestions how to get it back to life?

Shoe polish?

Blitz wrote:Shoe polish?

wont that just run when it rains?

I've the same problem with my feckin heck!! I've used loads of back to black and no real difference. Might try the shoe polish!

Tedswagon wrote:I've the same problem with my feckin heck!! I've used loads of back to black and no real difference. Might try the shoe polish!

me too ted, nothing seems to work

Autoglym to a trim polish, its basically a green gel and has always done the trick for me.

My old dear used to have a citroen ax gt and that thing was half plastic, but it used to look like a new car after slapping some of that on it with a bit of elbow grease!

Stifla wrote:Autoglym to a trim polish, its basically a green gel and has always done the trick for me.

My old dear used to have a citroen ax gt and that thing was half plastic, but it used to look like a new car after slapping some of that on it with a bit of elbow grease!

Autoglym snot will work a treat

is it expensive? dont want to buy it if it doesnt work, plus the spoiler is rubber, will it be ok to use on rubber?

does shoe polish run off your shoes,
i'd give that a go 1st,

perfect on rubber .

it's about a £5 and will last ages
also works very well on all other black plastic on your car.. I use it to clean window rubbers too

magpie wrote:does shoe polish run off your shoes,
i'd give that a go 1st,

i dunno i never polish them thanks guys for the info, much appreciated

autoglym vinyl and rubber care is also good stuff for rubber spoilers

Useful thread - I'll have to try some of that before I throw my spoiler in a skip!

djk wrote:Useful thread - I'll have to try some of that before I throw my spoiler in a skip!

haha i was thinking the same thing

I was shown that using t-cut on the shadow trim and window rubbers, Bought them back to life, Try it on the heck spoiler. You have nothing to loose.

My spoiler went the same way,and i've found the best way to restore it is to wipe it liberally with oil and let it soak right in.

I used 3 in 1 oil,but i presume engine oil would do the same job. I took mine off to do it and soaked both sides for a good few hours whilst i polished the rest of the car.

After giving it a damn good wipe off i refitted it, and so far it's lasted much longer than the green snot did that i tried before...

Surely the heat gun trick would be perfect on a heck. I've got one in the garage that's been painted white. I plan to remove the paint and bring it back to a strong black with a heat gun. I'll let you know how I get on (probably get round to it in 2011 though !!)

Topblag wrote:Surely the heat gun trick would be perfect on a heck. I've got one in the garage that's been painted white. I plan to remove the paint and bring it back to a strong black with a heat gun. I'll let you know how I get on (probably get round to it in 2011 though !!)

So with a heat gun you can get a painted spoiler back to its original rubber? Because I have one in my garage that has been resin coated and painted... I was going to try and get it back to its former rubber glory, but not sure how to go about it. Any tips would be much appriciated.

Cheers

I checked the heat gun concept with my bodyshop dude and he says it's the best way forward to restore and maintain the original rubber appearance. I have a badly painted spare heck which I'm going to try it on (none of my E30s have a heck spoiler), I'll have to buy the heat gun first though ! £10 from Machine Mart IIRC.

i think it may be cheaper to buy a new spoiler lol, suppose i might try some of the tips on here first

try some peanut butter, I heard it works a treat on soft top rear windows, maybe it has more uses?

I feel I should finsh with a disclaimer in this space

Topblag wrote:I checked the heat gun concept with my bodyshop dude and he says it's the best way forward to restore and maintain the original rubber appearance. I have a badly painted spare heck which I'm going to try it on (none of my E30s have a heck spoiler), I'll have to buy the heat gun first though ! £10 from Machine Mart IIRC.

I'd be interested to see how you get on....

Heat gun, worked a treat on my old corsa make the grey bits turn back to black and they stayed that way

I'm sure part of the reason my spoiler has lost some of it's lustre i because something like T-cut has been used before - they have a sort of 'sheen' to them which appears to have been rubbed off in areas on mine. I'm always wary of using anything with any abrasive quality on something that appears to have a 'finish' - it'll be the absolute last resort on mine.

3 in 1 oil.

Autoglym Bumper Care is the green gel stuff. I use it on my show car. I find it sticks and shines better than the Autoglym vinyl and rubber care stuff which is yellow and p** thin.

The other stuff to try is Meguiars trim detailer which is a thick white gel and works as well as the Bumper Care.

Autoglym V&R care is ok for dashboards,consoles and seatbacks...but that's about it.

Oil is the best thing for uncoated old rubber. Rubber is an oil based product,therefore oil feeds it and stops it cracking.

Green snot cleans,and does this very well,but it's better left for hard plastics like bumper trims and wing mirrors...IMO.

tried shoe polish today,didnt work, next

Oil!

It wont cost you much to try....but you might have to clean the boot polish off first.

which oil will be best si

I used 3in1 oil,but normal engine oil should do the job the same.

My old man uses tyre wall polish on my spoiler. It's a lquid which he uses a paint brush to apply and leaves to dry. In the summer he had to put a few applications on before it kept and nice even finish but it also helps treat the rubber.

jaymos wrote:i think it may be cheaper to buy a new spoiler lol, suppose i might try some of the tips on here first

It certainly will be! I looked at getting a new one as my rubber is cracking (although the colour is ok) - Cotswolds quoted around the £100 mark as it has to come from Germany

Tyra wrote:

jaymos wrote:i think it may be cheaper to buy a new spoiler lol, suppose i might try some of the tips on here first

It certainly will be! I looked at getting a new one as my rubber is cracking (although the colour is ok) - Cotswolds quoted around the £100 mark as it has to come from Germany

think i might just get a spoilerless bootlid, try and restore the spoiler and sell it, might make a nice profit

The paint below the spoiler will be a different shade when you remove it. I'd be trying the heat gun option, making sure there's some heatproof material on the paintwork. It's only £10 for a heat gun, and if it doesn't work, you could sell the heat gun on here !