Gray fender flares.. seeing is believing

I painted mine with the krylon paint made for plastic. Can't remember the exact name. Used mineral spirits to clean them up real good first. Look like new. Did this about a year ago and they still look great. No fading or cracking.

Jerry S.

Good post!

They do look darker. Hmmmmm I wonder if that would work on the Ford cataract headlights. I suppose the reason it works is because it freshens the plastic by sort of re-melting it.

Now you just have to finish the job and get all of those little spots you missed.

I generally keep my vinyl parts from getting that way by keeping a conditioner on them. If something DOES fade, I have always used SEM trim paint on my rigs. Hopefully my TJ won't need any of that sort of thing for awhile.

Kate

Try this stuff; Mothers Back to Black (Formerly Bumper Black). I apply it with an old sock in the shade. With the wear and tear you may need two coats. Just keep applying as the plastic absorbs the fluid and starts to return to factory color and condition.

BACK-TO-BLACK®

As your ride's exterior ages, rubber, plastic and vinyl exterior hardware of all colors will dry, crack, flake and deteriorate. This oxidation can be stopped and reversed with Mothers® Back-to-Black®, our favorite auto-care concoction. This trim treatment is great for all sorts of exterior hardware in all colors-bumpers, molding, louvers, window trim, vents, seals, skirts, door handles, wiper arms-anything that's plastic, rubber or vinyl. Apply Back-to-Black® to sun-burnt plastic, rubber and vinyl to revive the factory-new sheen, then re-treat that exterior hardware regularly.

#06108, 8 oz.

Shop around as the price varies greatly.

Jerry Slaughter did pass the time by typing:

Krylon fusion

It works equally as well on interior trim.

I tested a spot on the mudflap of my ZJ. Spot's still there under the dirt. I'm sold on it.

KATE, TRY GOOD OLD RUBBING COMPOUND ON A LAMBS BUFFER PAD ON YOUR FORD PLASTIC LENS. aLSO, PERMATEX MAKES A $10 CONSUMER PRODUCT FOR CONDITONING THAT PLASTIC LENS. LASTLY, TRY FINGER POLISH THE PLASTIC LENS WITH WENOL POLISH WHICH COMES IN A TUBE....SEARCH FOR A LOCAL RETAILER ON THE INTERNET FOR YOUR TOWN. ALL DO GOOD AT "CLEARING" the yellowing and fogging. Good luck.

snipped-for-privacy@aol.com SHOUTED:

Owwwww, my EARS! Please, no shouting.

Depends on how bad they are Kate....

If really bad, you'll want really really fine wet sandpaper, 1600 grit or similar. Diamond paper is even better but a bit harder to find unless you have lapidary or plastic sculpturing supplies around. Tape off the area around the light with at least two good layers of tape so you don't accidentally scour anything. Keep that paper wet and wipe the abrasive side frequently so it cannot pick up debris and scratch the plastic.

When the cloudy layer is totally removed, carefully switch to a fine tin oxide [messy white] or rouge [messy red] on a heavy sweat shirt and buff any major visible sandpaper marks out.

Then polish with an optical PLASTIC polish. Easiest one to get ahold of is Meguiars PlastX You can use their power ball or a REALLY soft backing on a conventional polishing pad. You might be able to do the entire job with just PlastX if you have lotsa patience or the lights aren't that bad.

I then use a really fine lapidary polish on a soft felt lapidary polisher, but that is now taking you into the range of eye glasses or telescope mirrors.

Best to coat the lens with a good plastic protection afterwards and renew it every wax job. Works like a charm, also works on rear lenses, parking light lenses, and your neighbor's cheapo plastic windows.

The old standby was to rub them down with acetone-free nail polish remover.

I use the back to black aswell...but a friend of mine who is the Martha Stwarts of clean Jeeps swears the best way to make them look new and black is to use black shoe polish...

Shoe polish doesn't even work that well on shoes. Old honor guard tip was to use Fiebings black dye, then spit shine with Kiwi, then a thin coating of Klear floor wax. If shoe polish gets old or wet or both it displays whitish deposits. The black magicolor car wax works better, but not as good as plastic paint or mild heat.

: > They do look darker. : > Hmmmmm I wonder if that would work on the Ford cataract headlights. : >> Kate : : KATE, TRY GOOD OLD RUBBING COMPOUND ON A LAMBS BUFFER PAD ON YOUR FORD : PLASTIC LENS. aLSO, PERMATEX MAKES A $10 CONSUMER PRODUCT FOR : CONDITONING THAT PLASTIC LENS. LASTLY, TRY FINGER POLISH THE PLASTIC : LENS WITH WENOL POLISH WHICH COMES IN A TUBE....SEARCH FOR A LOCAL : RETAILER ON THE INTERNET FOR YOUR TOWN. : ALL DO GOOD AT "CLEARING" the yellowing and fogging. Good luck. :

Thanks :) I've been all the way down the road of Ford headlights, and back again on hubby's last truck. I have done it all and it DOES work but it is such a tedious process and so time consuming and it doesn't last for what I would consider a long time. I was hoping for a quickie. They aren't bad YET but are going that way. It's my husband's truck, so really.. if he wants the things cleared up, HE can deal with it this time.

Yea, I know that sounds mean but .. hey... I have my reasons.

K.

: : The old standby was to rub them down with acetone-free nail polish remover. : Seriously? Ever tried it? It has always seemed to me that there was some sort of film that was there on top that was clouding... All that sanding, rubbing and buffing removed it and gave access to the plastic underneath so it could be polished.

Oh hey, I found some PLASTIC polish. I may let him try that if he decides to give it whirl.

Kate proclaimed:

There is a multi-part kit available where all of the individual items are highly marked up and getting close to the price of new mail order lights. If the lights have that internal cloudy look and the faces are bright, the polish won't help unless you have really really tiny hands and can polish the insides. The sandpaper/polish is a lot faster but also requires a bit more skill.

Mother knows best. :-) It's $4.99 at K-Mart plus tax, tag and title. And Mother's Plastic Polish is great for the plastic windows on convertible tops.