Heat Gun vs. Products for Trim - Risks?

courtdale

courtdale

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10 year old Black BMW, trim is awful. I've seen both methods mentioned above (heat gun, C4 etc). I'm pretty set on trying the heat gun method first. I've seen some posts from people mentioning the heat gun, and talking about "risks", but not what they are. Two questions:

1. Heat gun risks - are we talking about damaging the trim, or the surrounding body paint/CC?

2. Are all heat guns created equal (for this job anyway)? i.e. - could I get away with a $25 model from Lowes?
 
The Heatgun works, and will last alittle longer then Dressing, but it takes much longer and is near immpossible to keep an even flow
 
Interiors sometimes use stuff that high heat can damage.
i.e. flockbacked vinyl instead of clothbacked vinyl. different leathers.
 
vinyldoctor said:
Interiors sometimes use stuff that high heat can damage.
i.e. flockbacked vinyl instead of clothbacked vinyl. different leathers.
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I was hoping the OP was talkin exterior trim :o I wouldn't recommend using a heatgun on interior panels ;)

Thanks for clarifying that vinyldoc :props:
 
Flash Gordon said:
I was hoping the OP was talkin exterior trim :o I wouldn't recommend using a heatgun on interior panels ;)

Thanks for clarifying that vinyldoc :props:
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I am talking exterior. Heat gun really takes that long? I watched someone hitting an older Jetta on a YouTube vid, and it looked like it was almost instantaneous. Maybe strength of gun?
 
courtdale said:
I am talking exterior. Heat gun really takes that long? I watched someone hitting an older Jetta on a YouTube vid, and it looked like it was almost instantaneous. Maybe strength of gun?
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The heat can cause damage to the surrounding paint. You still need to seal the trim after your restore it with the heat gun.
 
Yes, the heat gun can blister your paint. 3M makes an eraser wheel that can be used with your battery operated drill that works great. The guy at the auto paint supply told me 3M was the only one he felt confident wouldn't harm paint. A little costly (35), but I'm glad that I bought it. 10X faster than a heat gun which we used for some of the job.
 
Jimmie said:
Yes, the heat gun can blister your paint. 3M makes an eraser wheel that can be used with your battery operated drill that works great. The guy at the auto paint supply told me 3M was the only one he felt confident wouldn't harm paint. A little costly (35), but I'm glad that I bought it. 10X faster than a heat gun which we used for some of the job.
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Nice. Just looked it up. I may try this instead of the gun, only concern would be eating too much of the trim up while grinding??

I have 2 nasty gashes (one rear bumper, one side door trim), hoping I might be able to smooth them out a little with this.

Thanks
 
courtdale said:
Nice. Just looked it up. I may try this instead of the gun, only concern would be eating too much of the trim up while grinding??

I have 2 nasty gashes (one rear bumper, one side door trim), hoping I might be able to smooth them out a little with this.

Thanks
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It will eat the trim. It will leave a jagged edge. You won't be able to smooth trim with this tool.
I'd caution against something like an exacto to change shape, and make the edge look more smooth. That has always been a temporary fix for me that looks worse later.
Better IMO to remove old, and buy new trim/striping.
 
courtdale said:
10 year old Black BMW, trim is awful.
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When you say the trim is awful do you mean,

1. Lots of polish and wax residue that has turned white and unsightly

2. Black color of trim has faded to a light gray
​


:)
 
Mike.Phillips@Autogeek said:
When you say the trim is awful do you mean,

1. Lots of polish and wax residue that has turned white and unsightly

2. Black color of trim has faded to a light gray
​

:)
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Hard to say Mike, most descriptive term I have to offer is "faded". If I was forced to choose, based on the condition of the rest of the car, I'm going to say that this car was rarely polished and occaisionally waxed... at best.
 
Whoa! If you are talking your black plastic trim I've given you the worst advice ever. When you mentioned heat gun my thoughts went to decals/vinyl stripes type. If it's the other disregard everything I said.
 
Jimmie said:
Whoa! If you are talking your black plastic trim I've given you the worst advice ever. When you mentioned heat gun my thoughts went to decals/vinyl stripes type. If it's the other disregard everything I said.
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Hah. Yes. Talking exterior plastic/rubber, sides, bumpers etc. Guess we're back to the heat gun??
 
If you don't like the way the trim product works you can clean it back off with some good APC. If you don't like what the heat gun does you can't undo it with APC. I have used a heat gun to darken some old grayed trim pieces on an old beater car and it looked better but like Flash said, it was not as even looking as I would have liked it to be. I placed 2 layers of 2" blue painter's tape over the paint on either side of the trim to keep the paint from getting too hot and it worked well. If you do this you may want to have some 3M adhesive remover handy as while the tape did protect the paint from getting too hot it did leave some adhesive behind on the paint that easily cleaned up with the adhesive remover.

I suggest (if you use the heat gun method) that you first use some undiluted APC on a cotton terry towel and really scrub the heck out of the trim to get all the dirt and old wax residue out/off of the trim and it will look better after heated.
 
C4,yea it's pricey but it works really well and you don't have to worry about any damage.

Ken
 
WEST SIDE said:
C4,yea it's pricey but it works really well and you don't have to worry about any damage.

Ken
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I did check that out too, but can't find it anywhere continental. Only two places to get it are HAwaii and the UK??
 
courtdale said:
10 year old Black BMW, trim is awful. I've
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Ah... the good old days when trim was either real chrome on steel or stainless steel...




courtdale said:
Hard to say Mike, most descriptive term I have to offer is "faded". If I was forced to choose, based on the condition of the rest of the car, I'm going to say that this car was rarely polished and occasionally waxed... at best.
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Wax stains would look like splotchy stains, fading would cause all the horizontal surfaces to have a uniform faded look. If they didn't wax it often, or at all then there's no chance of wax staining so the problem is like you think, faded trim due to exposure over time to the sun.

Not perfect solution outside of replacing the trim with brand new trim. Be sure to take some before and after pictures for whichever path you decide to take to try to restore the trim.


:)
 
Mike.Phillips@Autogeek said:
Not perfect solution outside of replacing the trim with brand new trim. Be sure to take some before and after pictures for whichever path you decide to take to try to restore the trim.

:)
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This is a DIY car, Replace = Defeat :). Definitely fade, not wax. After considering all of the above, I'm going to give the heat gun a trial run, if I don't like it, I return it and wait for some C4 to arrive. Will definitely post results from both (if I need both).

Thanks all.
 
I have a 99 BMW with a few splotchy spots on one corner section of the front bumper. Drives me crazy. By the way, IPA and MS made the trim look worse for me. Peanut butter didn't work. Zymol Seal Conditioner didn't work. I thought that it was wax but I can't figure out what is really in the trim.

Try OPC full strength with a tooth brush to remove any wax or polish in the pores. Rinse well with water.

Then try a little plastic polish to clean and darken the trim. I've used One Grand for years but others have used Megs PlastX.

Then use something like UTTG or WETS to seal the trim. The UTTG treated section did lose its darkness after a few months but it lasted a lot longer than the plastic polish alone. Reapplying UTTG didn't bring the black color back without the plastic polish. I received WETS a couple weeks ago and will play with it over the coming months. I have not tried C4 yet but it is supposed to be good stuff too.
99_BMW_trim_reduced.jpg

The picture above still shows a little whitish splotch on the corner that didn't disappear when I just reapplied UTTG without reapplying the plastic polish again.

I have not tried the heat gun but I was told to tape off the paint and to hold the heat gun about 5" from the trim. The color should come back quickly according to one detailing specialist. If you give the heat gun a shot, I would be interested to hear how it works for you.

Good luck!
 
courtdale said:
This is a DIY car, Replace = Defeat :).
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I hear you on that... plastic trim was invented by people that don't detail cars...


That's one of the reasons I like classics... all the trim is either real metallic chrome over steel or stainless steel,

From our TV Show, What's in the Garage?

1954 EMW 327/3 - Probably the only one in the United States
This car is #144 of 152 coupes and was built at the old BMW factory in Eisenach, East Germany.

It’s actually a 1937-1939 BMW 327 but was built after WWII from pre-war parts and tooling. The car was completely restored in 2006 in Europe and is believed to be the only 327/3 with an EMW (Eisenacher Motorenwerk) badge in the US.

TVshowSample20.jpg




Keep us posted...


:xyxthumbs:
 
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