Hi All,
Can anyone help with the question I've asked in my title please?
I have bought an X reg, 3 dr, BMW engined TD4 Freelander1 for my wife to drive and for when we go away camping instead of my Golf etc.
The bodywork is in very good condition generally.
The "black" plastic exterior parts of the Freelander (as you prob already know!) consist of more than just a bit of trim on the front and
rear bumpers due to the Off Road type styling of the car.
They go round the side and over each of the wheelarches and are quite chunky, and because they've gone that horrible faded grey colour it's
really distracting from the rest of the exterior, which as I said above is really good...
I've had a look on ebay and the real cheapo stuff starts at about £3.50, Auto Glym comes in at about £6.00 and then Meguire's at approx
£9.00 (including P n P)...
It's not that I begrudge paying for the stuff (well, maybe a little bit), it's just that I don't want to waste money if it's not
going to make much of a difference.
So does anyone have any experience of a particular brand that gave good results?
On the flipside, does anyone have any "Locost" suggestions?
I've heard that Peanut Butter works well, but I'm really not sure that would be worth the effort, whether it would still cost loads, and
every time I walked past the car I'd get hungry!
As always, Thanks in advance for all constructive advice and suggestions you may have...
Cheers,
Steve.
try a heat gun first has worked well in the past for me, just don't burn the paint next to it.
I can get you a small tub of the professional stuff valeters use if you like? It's a gel that you rub in. Brings even the worst cars up to
scratch. The result tends to last unlike the spray stuff. It'll cost you a brew though.....!
Whoop whoop whoop...
Tanks v much BL!
You can have more than a brew matey!! (brew and a glass of water, summat along those lines etc 
)
The meguiars Ultimate Protectant is good and you don't need much.
[Edited on 26/6/12 by SeaBass]
i had a mate who used peanut butter on a corsa, it did the best job of anything i have ever seen, lasted for atleast 6 months at which point he sold
it on.
he said he read it on the internet somewhere, Ive never seen or heard of it since but thats what he did.
Steve, I will refrain from elaborating upon calling you more than a silly boy for buying a Freeloafer
One thing to do regularly is 'work' the viscous coupling in the middle of the prop by finding some loose surface and spin up all 4 wheels,
if this unit siezed then your whole world will begin to fall apart............
As for the trim colouring I bought a pot of plastic trim dye to do the plastics on the 205, they are renowned for the plastics going from black to
light grey, I am familiar with the well known 'freelander fade' and it will rectify it no problem. Applied with a brush and it permanently
'stains' the plastics.
I bought it from ebay, this is it Plasticare Trim Dye BLACK Plastic / Rubber Bumper Paint | eBay
Col
quote:
Originally posted by Steve Hignett
Whoop whoop whoop...
Tanks v much BL!
You can have more than a brew matey!! (brew and a glass of water, summat along those lines etc
looks like it works
Boiled linseed oil Pants....works well apparently. Cheap too.
Fading of the plastic body trim on Landrovers and Rovers tends to be a result of UV damage as Rover generally didn't bother with the effects of
UV damage. Later cars are better but if it's from the Rover era (derogatory tone of voice applied when ever the Rover name is used
)
If autoglym have a product to restore UV damaged trim then try that otherwise your only long term solution is replacement with new trim. Back to black
and all that other gimmiky rubbish is designed to part you from your cash! You'll be at it every week (ooh eer) just to keep it looking decent.
In fact mr sheen and other similar household polishes are better than that back to black carp.
Peanut butter and linseed..... Its just the oil content that temporarily darkens the trim, the freelanders go very light grey and I doubt it would
recolour that.
This theory is no different to squirting WD40 on it and it doesn't last long
We did a Corsa bumper with hot air gun and my Nissan van and it worked perfectly.
boot polish works great cheap and remains waterproof for a good long while
Heatgun is the only way to fix this on a semi-permanent basis, I've seen any of the trim polishes work for more than a few weeks.
quote:
Originally posted by locoboy
Peanut butter and linseed..... Its just the oil content that temporarily darkens the trim, the freelanders go very light grey and I doubt it would recolour that.
This theory is no different to squirting WD40 on it and it doesn't last long
Before I go out and destroy my plastic trim, any tips on how to use the heatgun method?
e.g. How long do you need to apply the heat for, do you need to heatmask surrounding painted areas or remove the item from the vehicle, etc,
etc......
My experience of black to black was it lasted until i washed the car next (early 90's citroen zx) at which point it faded to gray again.
Always used the AutoGlym bumper care which works well and lasts. Depending upon how faded it is, you might need two applications - leave at least a week between them but they should come up quite shiny and new.
I always found Carplan Black Trim Wax to be good. The first treatment fades in a month or so but 2nd and subsequent treatments lasts about 3-4months
A second vote for boot polish - I've always used it on my XR2 (plenty of black plastic there!) and it tends to last a fair while.
Interested in the hot air gun approach - whats the theory behind that?
The XR2 arches can go like sandpaper on the top edges (which nothing can rectify short of filling and painting which spoils the look), I'm always
amazed at what damage the sun can do.
I found that baby oil works well, my rover 75 has black plastic sill trims and I tried black trim spray with poor results.I then tried baby oil just
to see what effect it had and it gives a fairly long lasting finish.
Paul
quote:
Originally posted by GeoffT
Before I go out and destroy my plastic trim, any tips on how to use the heatgun method?
e.g. How long do you need to apply the heat for, do you need to heatmask surrounding painted areas or remove the item from the vehicle, etc, etc......