restoring bump strips
 

I want to Get the bump strips back to black as they look almost grey. I tried peanut butter which lasted about 2 weeks. I never found the back to black sprays to be any good at achieving a lasting finish. Has anyone got any products they would recommended

Paint.

Carplan black trim wax is good

Plast-X are the best product we use in the bodyshop trade. the texture paint is good for repairs and the colour is good for refreshing faded parts. But don't imediately go for black it can be a little agressive and a lot of cars actually have dark grey plastics

I saw a thread on the vw t4 forums when I had a camper - for the guys with black plastic bumpers, one guy got a heat gun and 'sprayed' heat all over the black plastic which made them turn rich black again (from washed out sun tainted grey colour). I'll see if I can find the thread..

"Clean it as well as you possibly can first, so that no grit or cr4p will melt into the surface.

Dry it too, so that the heat will be evenly taken.

Hold the heat gun about 20cm away, move it slowly, its just like colouring in."

+1 just mask up, bit of tape.. few newspapers and give it a blast of satin black.. or if your feeling crazy go gloss.

+1 on the heat gun

The heatgun takes a while but in my experience lasts longer than painting, and if you have a heatgun is cheaper :)

hmm id be a bit wary of painting tbh

it would probably start to flake off after a while if you dont prime it, lacquer it etc..

put on some meguiars trim detailer or tyre gel. Works really well

Doesnt autoglym bumper care work
Back to black stuff

Heat gun seems to work well as an initial 'get it back to good standard colour' provided that you take your time and don't get too close

After that it will still need to be maintained with some good bumper care products as its the drying out of the plastic which will in turn cause the plastic to fade, it does need a decent product applying to put some moisture back into it.

I've used megs trim restorer and auto glym equivalents recently and the auto glym seems better in the long run

groundnut oil from tesco's

1 litre lasts ages ! and is under £4

I really must suggest you use back to black bumper care by autoglym... Fantastic

dont use peanut butter/ baby oil/ wd40/ groundnut oil :homme: