Miracle (random) plastic restorer

[Daveymaclad]

The black plastic exterior trim on my Octavia vRS was looking very grey and tired and making the car look a lot older and tatty than it really is so I started to do some research as to how to restore the plastic.

I stumbled across an answer on yahoo answers or some such place and quite frankly thought it was a joke, so I did a little more research using this item in the search. Low and behold there were dozens of pages suggesting the same thing.

So sod it I thought I'll give it a go and if it doesn't work it's cost me nowt although I'll look a bit of a tit doing it!

first I tried the wing mirrors on my UR:

Before:


After:


Then I tried it on the Octavia (the rest of the car is filthy so bear with me!)


After:


The results on the Octavia were infinitely better than I was expecting and makes the black trim look pretty much factory fresh.


Now, have a guess as to what household product I used to achieve this at virtually no cost before you scroll down!






















































PEANUT BUTTER!!




If you don't believe me, I took a photo of the wing mirror smeared in smooth peanut butter:

[Tun]

It's also tip top at removing wax from plastic trim too

[spink]

A new one on me,I have heard baby oil being used aswell.Personally I have only used a paint stripper to basically melt the surface,worked really well on some cars and pretty shite on others.

[Daveymaclad]

Originally Posted by Tun

It's also tip top at removing wax from plastic trim too

Well yes that's all it's doing really as that's by and large what makes black trim look grey

Still, it's not the first thing I would have considered reaching for!

[quattrostyle]

Wow never thought of that, cool tip!

How do your cars smell now? I foresee even more bird doo on our cars after aplying peanut butter to the trims.

[S4_SAT]

It's the natural oils in the peanut butter doing the work. Boiled linseed oil works well too

[Hanuman]

has the added bonus of providing a ready snack in case you build up an appetite while working….

[Daveymaclad]

Originally Posted by The Real MSH!

has the added bonus of providing a ready snack in case you build up an appetite while working….

I did a sample with some american peanut butter we get in costco (amazing stuff!) but once proven I went and bought a cheap tub of smooth from the co-op, for some reason I felt compelled to try some before I started to use it on the cars, it was foul! There are tastier engine oils in my garage than this stuff!

[Hanuman]

i can imagine getting confused about where the peanut butter is meant to go, should a scantily clad tea making honey turn up.


ps. you're safe, Dave.

[b2_sport]

I used to use hot water and babyoil, but have switched to using WD40 instead, the shine will stay on the plastics for a longer time and its more weather proof than babyoil.

Yes I heard peanut butter works, but i don't fancy getting it into the tight spaces between the plastics that I cannot get it out of later that would annoy the buggery out of me. Good thing about peanut butter I suppose is you can lick it off lol, can imagine the look on the neighbors faces now!