How to Restore Faded Plastic Bumpers and Trim [3 Proven Ways]
How to Restore Faded Plastic Bumpers and Trim [3 Proven Ways]
Over the last thirty years more and more plastic has been used to produce vehicles. As plastic ages the sun and external elements degrade the plastic causing it to fade, making bumpers and trim look old, tired and ugly.
As a result, i searched the internet looking for solutions and there are a lot of options out there promising to fix our faded plastic bumpers and trim. Unfortunately, some of the solitions are nothing more than snake oil. At least that was my experience with some of the products.
How do I restore faded plastic bumpers and trim? Faded bumpers can be fixed using a heat gun, transmission fluid, or a chemical application.
In the rest of this article, I will share with you what I found and what worked for me.
How To Fix Oxidized Rubber and Plastic With A Heat Gun
I was a little shocked to learn the use of a heat gun will restore a glossy black color to faded plastic trim pieces. So shocked in fact, I was in disbelief. Yes, I was a naysayer. I did not think it was possible.
As you can imagine since I am listing this first, my experience was a 100% success in bringing back the shine to my plastic trim and I don’t expect it to fade again for many years.
To help illustrate how well this works, I make a YouTube Video of my trial.
Let’s take a quick look at the video using a heat gun on a 2006 Jeep Wrangler seatbelt cover. You can see how this has been severely sun faded.