Heat gun plastic restoration

[Nicad]

Just happened across this. Quite surprised that you can restore the look of (some) plastics with a heat gun. Not sure how long that would last.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7vS6F8EHxI

 

[Stevehose]

Wow that is amazing

 

[rsporsche]

truly cool. had no idea that would work so well. also saw a piece (shown on the right side of the page) a link to recovering a dash board that was pretty neat.

 

[Ed G]

There isn't much that doesn't affect plastic in a negative way. Even chemicals that protect plastics from UV light are a trade off. I can't imagine how much life you'd be sucking out of your plastic dash/console by heating them up in this manner.

The look is impressive, but IMO will do irreparable damage.

 

[Peter Coomaraswamy]

Petrochemical engineers please chime in-

 

[e30strube]

I did this on the fender flares for my old Jeep Wrangler. It was hard to get a consistent appearance. I had a bit of "tiger striping" once it was completed. The plastic did revert back to its normal black color, but it only lasted a short time before turning colors again. This method may work for small pieces, but for anything large, it will be hard to maintain a nice even finish.

 

[Brendan]

Also on old Wrangler flares, I learned to love Krylon's Fusion plastic paint. I did a couple coats of that, and they stayed black and looking good for years. The stuff is super thin and 'fuses' to the plastics like nothing else.

 

[Peter Coomaraswamy]

Brendan, I used the same on my hood grills and front fender gills and I agree, it makes them look like new- going on about a year now!