Restoring faded plastic with heat gun works! My review.

haha, I know... All i had and I have no patience. Looked real good though for a while.

I may just get a heat gun and try again.

 

Well I tried the power sprayer and it worked ok. Got the plasti dip off the back ones. Took a while though and wasn't perfect. I got too close to the little rubber strip that seals the top of the fender flare to the bed, and kinda melted a few etch marks into it. Not too bad though. But it is noticeable. Might see if I can get new ones for the back at least. Does anyone know if these strips are available to purchase? Like from the dealer? They seem to be glued on the lip so Idk what I'd use for that. Any suggestions on an easy method? Or maybe sand those spots down? Not sure what to do since its a hard rubber. The spots are very little and like 4 or 5 little etches on each side. Again barely noticeable but, looks tacky. I'm bummed... I shoulda just went ahead and used goo gone to begin with. I tested a spot and it dried pretty quickly and faded away, and looked clean. So I think I'll try that on the fronts and just wait a week for the oils to completely dissipate. The flares are kinda dirty and stained a little bit anyways so the goo gone should help them get really clean before I heat em up.
Another thing to note, is on the bottom front of the back fender flares, they are all etched up with little scratches all over from all the rocks hitting it from the front tires as mine stick out pretty good. Again I live on a dirt road so it's been pelted pretty good. I need to figure out what to do as far as mud flaps or something, but not too worried about it right now. The paint looks like it was sandblasted. Ha. Oh well. Getting a new paint job eventually anyways. Anyhow, would there be a way to smooth out those scratches from the rocks in the plastic? I would say fine grit sandpaper, but I've never worked with plastic before.. and I don't want it to be all scuffed up from the sand paper in just one spot of the flare either since I'm not coating/painting them therefore it won't be hidden. I was thinking that after I heat them up it probly won't even be noticeable anyways. I am not too worried about it because they kinda act as my mud flaps so to speak anyways so I'm not too worried about them being pelted with rocks. Unless there's an easy method to smooth it out and have it blend in with the rest. If not hen I'll just leave it as is. I'll take some pics tomorrow of them..

 

Same thing happened to mine. I've actually had fairly good luck with the Wipe New as seen on TV stuff, put it on 4 months ago and its holding up pretty well

 

Finally got around to working on this a little more!
Here's a daytime shot of the completed front bumper. Still lookin sharp!! I hope this lasts!!




And here's those spots I 'melted' with the power sprayer...
Not too bad I guess. As you can see it also stripped off a good chunk of paint there too. And the next pictures show the rocker panels in front of the back tires a lil. It's just been getting pelted for 3 years. It will be getting painted sooner than I had hoped. I will need to figure out what to do for mud flaps first. Then all that will be left for exterior is painting, and touching up anything else like trim pieces, wheel well stuff, and it'll all be lookin perty sharp and restored!





I also went ahead and bought the goo gone and used it today too. Didnt dissolve as good as I thought it would or how they show it on vids.. It also speckled that dissolved plasti dip all over the side of the truck so I had to buff the entire thing by hand with a wet rag to get off alllllll the little specks it left. Guess I shoulda taken the flares off. And it did seem to make the back ones a little darker seeing as I went over those with goo gone even though the plasti dip was gone. Just to get it off the edges and the rubber trim pieces, and to clean it. But it looks like its fading back away pretty quickly so it should be ready for the heat gun treatment next week.

Oh and here's the back fender flares. What I was talking about regarding all the rock chips/scratches. Think I'm just gonna leave it and heat it. Shouldn't be noticeable after that. I dont think there'll be an easy way to make it smooth again.




And last but not least, here's the front flares after I dissolved and sprayed off the plasti dip with goo gone. As you can see it looks pretty 'normal' as far as how it looked before the plasti dip and the goo gone hasn't really absorbed into the plastic. But ima wait till next week just to be safe.

 

^^^ the heat gun treatment should really make a difference especially on the black truck which makes the gray flares stand out more.

 

Welp, got the fender flares all done! Took me about 2.5 hrs, but was taking my time. And I went over them twice really good. Even got a bit of glare/reflection coming off them now as they came out a little bit shiny
Only thing I might add if you do this, is be careful when you are heating close to that tiny rubber trim piece on top of the flares. It started to deform and melt in a few spots on me. Had to go quick in that area, but it heated up really quick anyways because thats the thinnest spot on the flares. So be careful!

 

I think the Trim Restorer products just cover up stuff up and are a temporary fix. The fading on the fender flairs is actually layers of residue and soap and protector products. Its better to remove the residue film already on the fender flair and get down to the original black glassy color before putting more stuff on it.

 

What was the cost of painting the flares ?

 

Been doing the torch heat gun method on dirt bike plastics since the early 80's.

 

Since you have some history with the process, how long have you found it to last? Is it a permanent fix, or just temporary?

 

I had it painted with everything else - bumpers, steps, bull bar, and two-tone stripe on body. Paid $750 at a "backyard mechanic" friend of a friend. Not sure what a body shop will charge you for just the flares.

 

It lasts a few years most of the time. But not all plastics are the same compound or made of same materials. Like I said, I'm talking about dirt bike plastics which are smooth like glass with a high gloss finish. Some plastics are soft and some harder. The Tacoma plastics are textured with a matt finish. So I have no idea. You are melting the outer surface of the plastic with the heat method. Try a YouTube search on restoring plastics. Also try restoring motorcycle plastics. There's a ton of good video's on there about this. Maybe try a spot just to test.

 

That's a hero post right there. Beautiful.

 

Just did all 4 fenders in 30 mins. Works great!

Before


After


Short vid showing the magic:

 

Welp, completely forgot to update this thread when I had to redo the flares again. Didn't realize it was that long ago when I first did them. Ha. But, I wanna say I did them last summer. So they Probly started fading again at about 1-1.5 years later. And are faded again now at about (maybe less than) a year later as well. So the heat gun method does seem to affect the flares in a way that makes them fade more quickly after repeated treatments.

And I have only the flares and not the valence to report on. Since I had first done the valence and flares, I got a in a front end wreck and the valence was replaced(and just recently removed due to my new plate bumper), as well as the passenger front flare. So for a little update on the new flare as well; it's still like new at a couple years old now.

So all in all imo, heat gun method is still a pretty good solution to keeping the flares looking fresh. Needing treated Probly every year in the long run. Maybe sooner in climates such as mine. But I will be planning on a more permanent solution. Haven't even looked at how much new flares would cost as thatd Probly be the route I'd really wanna go. But also considering bed lining them. May do that first and see before I buy new. But for now I'll just keep maintaining them with the heat gun until that time comes.

 

Thank you for the valuable update. I'll spray mine with a UV resistant clear coat tonight.

 

Been doing this for 15+ years in the computer repair industry. Ive become a master at restoring faded, creased plastic. I can remold and plastic weld like a mad man.

 

Do you guys think this would work on faded headlights?

 

What kind of paint do you recommend?

 

Yes it can. So does baking them in the oven. But best results with be with a restore kit that has you wet sand and then apply a coating to make them shine again.