BMW 328i: Hard plastic trim

[A4 1.8tqm]

I have finally started to work on my Dads 1996 BMW 328i. This is the car I reffered to the condition as "Makes me cry at night" in the thread http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/auto-detailing-101/19984-paint-hardness-log.html. This little adventure is one of many soon to come write ups involving this car. Today we get to see some stuff that didn't work and some stuff that did... Let's begin

The plastic door pillars on this car are terribly faded and gray looking. They are a hard and smooth plastic, I don't think I really have anything intended for this but we'll see what can be done.
Before:

WG on left pillar only, wasn't the results I'm looking for. If I remember correctly I had a really hard time getting a final wipe to be clean and streak free. (Time to move the dual 500w halogens back a few feet)

I grabbed a bunch of stuff from the "Good Products shelves" inside:
WG DGPS, Megs Cleaner Wax, Poor Boy's Trim Restorer, Chemical Guy's VRP, DoDo Red mist, Opti-Bond, XMT 360, AutoGlym HD Wax, Klasse AIO & SG, DP Max Wax and Pinnacle Souveran.

After applying and removing each product the only thing that really left the hard plastic looking darker was CG VRP. Until a quick clean-up wipe with a light dilution of ONR, after that all of the test areas lost most of any significant benefit to appearance.

Discouraged, I looked around for something else to try and spotted Megs Hot Shine tire spray on the "OTC Products Shelves" in the garage. I decided to give the pillars an IPA wipe down and try it. It looked great! and was easy to wipe streak free, but again a quick wipe down destroyed the results.

I'm looking for more permanent results, like you can achieve by polishing. I figured that I may as well try, XMT 360 says its for plastic so I went with it. IPA wipe down again then tape off a test section. Polish was used with a 6.5" LC White Flat Pad on my Flex 3401. Spread at low speed, work at high, finish medium.

50/50 shot... Of course

A nice close-up

From a distance

And a final shot dressed with my favorite, PB TR.

I will keep this updated with longevity results. Any recommendations for better products to dress this type of plastic is welcomed and appreciated, along with all constructive criticism. :dblthumb2:




Here's a teaser pic from the most recent work I've done on this car.

 

[rwright]

Big improvement! I used Meg's Ultimate Compound by hand with great results. I think using a PC XP or Flex would produce better results, but at the time all I had was a bottle of UC and a MF applicator pad. Now I have the CCS Euro Foam pads and need to try those.

 

[Shane731]

Big improvement! I used Meg's Ultimate Compound by hand with great results. I think using a PC XP or Flex would produce better results, but at the time all I had was a bottle of UC and a MF applicator pad. Now I have the CCS Euro Foam pads and need to try those.

Same here. I used UC by hand with a foam applicator on my uncle's Explorer's plastic trim.

Before:

After:

Foam applicator after:

Couldn't say about durability, as I only get to see his truck when he comes to visit, but I would think you would get more durable results by "polishing off the dead plastic" rather than just dressing it.

 

[LincolnZephyr2006]

Looks great man! But boy.... in that teaser pic thats a whole lotta orange peel! lol..... anyways I love those bodystyle Bimmers!

 

[A4 1.8tqm]

Big improvement! I used Meg's Ultimate Compound by hand with great results. I think using a PC XP or Flex would produce better results, but at the time all I had was a bottle of UC and a MF applicator pad. Now I have the CCS Euro Foam pads and need to try those.

Thanks! I have the Red Euro pads and love 'em, I'm sure you'll feel the same about white/orange.

Same here. I used UC by hand with a foam applicator on my uncle's Explorer's plastic trim.

I would think you would get more durable results by "polishing off the dead plastic" rather than just dressing it.

Hey nice results! You and rwright both used Megs UC on this kind of trim... I never would have thought it would finish so nicely. Haven't used UC, but I'm impressed with it. I also agree with both of your comments that polishing by machine will likely give better results, as shown in my 50/50 pic compared to the hand applied XMT 360 test section.

Looks great man! But boy.... in that teaser pic thats a whole lotta orange peel! lol..... anyways I love those bodystyle Bimmers!

Thank you. Yeah, previous owners handiwork... the hood and front passenger 1/4 panel were repainted, apparently out in open air from the amount of dust nibs etc. and obviously the person was not a skilled automotive painter. Oh well lots of wet sanding practice for me!

 

[LincolnZephyr2006]

Thank you. Yeah, previous owners handiwork... the hood and front passenger 1/4 panel were repainted, apparently out in open air from the amount of dust nibs etc. and obviously the person was not a skilled automotive painter. Oh well lots of wet sanding practice for me!

Def.... just make sure you have an idea how much clear you are working with. I would start out at 2000-2500 if you don't have a paint meter! Then after that... the rotary will be your best friend.

 

[A4 1.8tqm]

Def.... just make sure you have an idea how much clear you are working with. I would start out at 2000-2500 if you don't have a paint meter! Then after that... the rotary will be your best friend.

Well I don't have a PTG or Rotary but I'm pretty confident that I'll be OK. It looks to be sprayed very thick. The hood and 1/4 panel that were repainted (by previous owner) don't even match the rest of the car and will be repainted again anyway. :xyxthumbs:

 

[oscfit]

I just did a cavalier z24 that I have sitting in my backyard... The black pillars were dead. I used chemical guys vrp and after heavy rains including the shower we just had a few minutes ago, they still look good. What I did was basically, put a 1st light coat, massaged it in, passed a microfiber towel to then take off the 1st coat, then passed it a second time, did the same, and the third time was the same, except basically leaving the vrp on this time around. Worked like a charm, nice and black, and looking really good.

I guess you just have to take off the dead plastic 1st? Anyway, your plstic trim came out awesome, really good job.