That's pebble textured plastic.... the WORST type of plastic any auto engineer ever invented.
"I always say, whoever invented pebble textued plastic never detailed a car"
If it were me, I machine scrub it like I show here,
How to restore exterior black plastic trim
Question: But what about exterior trim that's been neglected and now looks horrible?
Answer: Well in some server case nothing you pour out of a bottle, scoop out of a jar or spray out of a pump spray is going to perform a miracle and undo years of neglect. The question I ask is who did the neglecting?
If you're detailing cars and a customer has neglected their car's exterior including swirls in the paint, water spots on the glass, brown tires, brake dust a 1/4" thick on the front wheels and of course exterior plastic trim that no longer looks like exterior trim, then the first thing you do is educate the customer and point out that it is due to neglected that the trim is in it's current condition.
Next, you
under promise and over deliver. Let them know that you'll do your best but again, you're not a
miracle worker and also consider what your customer is willing to pay for your services. Time is money and you can easily invest a lot of time into just trying to improve exterior trim for not much money. So educate your customer on the reality of the damage at hand and simply state that you'll do the best you can.
It's important to document on your
Vehicle Inspection Form the condition of the trim and even take
one or two before pictures so after the work in case your customer forgets how horrible the trim looked
BEFORE you started you have documented evidence to set the record straight.
When trim has been neglected to the point that it is turning white, this is a sign of oxidation and just like car paint in order to restore the original black color you need to safely remove as much of the oxidation as possible.
Machine vs Hand
Now you can scrub the trim by hand using a brush, a wash mitt or even something more aggressive but here's a way to use a tool you probably already own and let the machine do all the work.
Here's is the plastic after just machine scrubbing... note by removing the dead, oxidized plastic it already looks 100% better, this is your goal. Try to get the trim looking better by cleaning first.
Here's the plastic trim after applying a trim sealant. Not I used a hand scrub brush to work the sealant into the cracks, crevices and the pebble textured surface.
Before
This is what oxidized black plastic looks like, the upper surface is actually turning white do to both exposure to the sun and breaking down. You need to remove this before applying a dressing or a sealant.
After
Compared to how this plastic trim started it is now 100% improved and will add the overall appearance to a freshly detailed car instead of distract from it.
Trim like you find on the back of a bumper is usually in pretty bad shape due to wear-n-tear and also exposure to the sun since it's a horizontal surface. For surfaces like these, machine scrub them using your favorite APC before you wash the vehicle and that way you can thoroughly rinse off the APC and dirt residue after scrubbing.
