I had some kind of weird epiphany today when I was brainstorming a way to restore my plastic pieces. I was starting to think I would be ordering new ones because mine were really disgusting. The immaculate polished paint made the plastic stand out even more. I tried Back to Black in the past and didn't like it and constantly coating the plastic with greasy Armor-All or Formula 2001 is annoying and last about 2 days.
On a whim, I decided to rub down the mirror with Bleche White just to see what happened. I know it's caustic enough to eat anything of the tires without even having to rub, so why not plastic too? Holy crap, that stuff rocks. With the ratty terry cloth I had, it just rubs the oxidation right off the plastic.
I then went to town on the whole car. All the rubber trim and window seals look like new now, along with the plastic rear bumper piece and cowl cover. The badly oxidized plastic is now kind of matte in appearance (see mirror pic), but it doesn't look bad since it's uniform. I suppose I could put oily goop on it, but I hate that stuff. I might be taking the Bleche White to the plastic on our Xterra now
To get it perfect, I eventually had to keep going at it until the rag came up clean after rubbing. It takes some iterations with 'clean' rags or rinsing. Otherwise it leaves streaks on the plastic. You can kind of see the streaking in the picture, but it's gone since I took the pic.
On a whim, I decided to rub down the mirror with Bleche White just to see what happened. I know it's caustic enough to eat anything of the tires without even having to rub, so why not plastic too? Holy crap, that stuff rocks. With the ratty terry cloth I had, it just rubs the oxidation right off the plastic.
I then went to town on the whole car. All the rubber trim and window seals look like new now, along with the plastic rear bumper piece and cowl cover. The badly oxidized plastic is now kind of matte in appearance (see mirror pic), but it doesn't look bad since it's uniform. I suppose I could put oily goop on it, but I hate that stuff. I might be taking the Bleche White to the plastic on our Xterra now
To get it perfect, I eventually had to keep going at it until the rag came up clean after rubbing. It takes some iterations with 'clean' rags or rinsing. Otherwise it leaves streaks on the plastic. You can kind of see the streaking in the picture, but it's gone since I took the pic.