Heat gun to restore faded plastic - before and after pics

[h7fal]

There was a thread on here recently that mentioned a heat gun could be used to colour black plastic trim back to black. I decided to give it a go and here are the pics to prove the surprisingly decent results.

Before:



Middle:



After:



And after a bit of trim gel has been used:

[skipunda]

I bet your quite pleased with that. One question- does it bubble the plastic, even if only slightly?

[h7fal]

Yeah, you've got to be quite careful not to heat it for too long. Best way I found was just to keep waving it past. I have a couple of slight burn marks on the corners but looks fine.

[skipunda]

Yeah, you've got to be quite careful not to heat it for too long. Best way I found was just to keep waving it past. I have a couple of slight burn marks on the corners but looks fine.

to be honest though, for the price of some second hand ones if you balls it up it's not all that bad ay.

well done

[bobbin1982]

I tcut mine and they came up a treat.But that method seems to have worked too .. Nice one

[grantfk10]

I'm sure I've got a heat-gun in the garage somewhere..........

[Alex]

i did the same on my corsa and made the light grey plastics go black again,

[ImysE30]

Is there a way of getting rid of deep scratch marks on the trims?

[Alex]

Is there a way of getting rid of deep scratch marks on the trims?

buy new ones

[ImysE30]

Is there a way of getting rid of deep scratch marks on the trims?

buy new ones

Are they expensive? Tried black to black for a short term fix

[Alex]

Around £20 each new from the dealers i think

[ImysE30]

Cheers Alex

[Alex]

might be a bit cheaper with cotswold discount

[richy187]

I used morrisons liquid scuff remover (shoe polish) works a treat and costs 88 pence. Did it once on my old golf as well, it lasted the remaining 8 months I owned it without the need to be re-done

[gareth]

i did the same on my corsa and made the light grey plastics go black again,

they're the worst for it! the bumpers end up grey and splotchy, the arch trims almost white!

[Alex]

i did the same on my corsa and made the light grey plastics go black again,

they're the worst for it! the bumpers end up grey and splotchy, the arch trims almost white!

terrible arnt they, luckily mine wasnt too bad to start with, some had been changed by the previous owner

[gooner1]

H,mm wonder if the heat gun would revive the red plastic in the seat belt holders............

[Alex]

H,mm wonder if the heat gun would revive the red plastic in the seat belt holders............

good idea, will try that tomorrow if it stops bloody raining

[gooner1]

H,mm wonder if the heat gun would revive the red plastic in the seat belt holders............

good idea, will try that tomorrow if it stops bloody raining

Good man Alex, let me know how you get on...... no point in both of us buggering up our seatbelts.....

[Alex]

H,mm wonder if the heat gun would revive the red plastic in the seat belt holders............

good idea, will try that tomorrow if it stops bloody raining

Good man Alex, let me know how you get on...... no point in both of us buggering up our seatbelts.....

or seats haha might try it on a spare, ive got an odd beige comfort seat in the attic for some reason

[asmith88]

i used black trim wax, worked a treat

[h7fal]

H,mm wonder if the heat gun would revive the red plastic in the seat belt holders............

I did actually try it on my old seat belt holders just after the success in the photos. It does work (sort of) but not sure I'd want to do it attached to the seats.

[DaveM42]

I gave the heat gun treatment to my old D-plate Jetta (sorry non e30) and it looked like I had got new plastics.

[Martinaston]

So does it work on the facelift bumpers and wingmirrors ?

[Simon13]

dunno but i'm going to try my headlamp grills!

[E30Mark]

Worked lovely on my T4 van too!

[scootlife]

Do you reckon a hairdryer on max heat might do the trick ???

[lenny-d]

there's an old fella near my mum and dads and he had this same problem with his 200 year old Passat, the cure... 1 tin of black paint and a big fook off paint brush, didn't look bad from 50 yards