Mopar Muscle Association UK

What’s the best way you have found to restore interior panels?

Mine are, for the most part, in good overall condition. No lumps out of them or significant damage, but they are faded and have “ugly spots” and some swirls and surface scratches.

I’ve used autogym sprays with some success, which brings them up shiny and black for a while, but more slippery than a greased up stripper and doesn’t hide any of the surface damage.

Interested to know if there is a way of bringing these up that doesn’t involve flaky paint or owt like that.

Here to learn, hit me up!

The pictures would’ve helped…

I had special interior paint made to the colour (by sending sample in) and sprayed mine, and it looks new.

i must admit
i have used spray smoothrite like hammerite but not hammered
(mine is easy its all black.....)

on a range of things it should never be used on.... like the inserts for my inner door handles. i.e the sponge vinyl covered handle like parts

its surprisingly flexible and robust if you don't clagg it on. and when dry reveals the grain.

the only time it really comes off is if you inadvertently gouge at it with your keys or wedding ring. (i.e when you drive off with the door open and have to grab it before it takes out the gatepost)

vinylcoat may also be a contender....

i have used black boot polish as well... not very successfully


however
for 1970s interior plastic you can use the following to create a temporary illusion for approx 2-3 months


WD40
peanut butter
cooking oil
3 in 1 oil
any of the trim restoration products from halfords all of which are oil or silicone based

all of them make a mess and also make any future attempt to paint almost impossible, but it will look good for a while
the issue really is you can not put back the evaporated plasticizers that were part of the plastic 50 years ago which slowly evaporated from its surface ever since.


everything else is just a coating


you'd need to stick them through the dish washer on a medium heat to get the oils and silicone greases out of the surface again for painting


heating with a heat gun raises the plasticy oils left inside to the surface and works ok but increases brittleness every time you do it.


Dave

cadboy wrote: Fri Jan 17, 25 6:45 am I had special interior paint made to the colour (by sending sample in) and sprayed mine, and it looks new.

Thanks Ali. What brand / company did you use? How long has been on, has it held up ok?

Dave999 wrote: Fri Jan 17, 25 9:53 am
for 1970s interior plastic you can use the following to create a temporary illusion for approx 2-3 months


WD40
peanut butter
cooking oil
3 in 1 oil
any of the trim restoration products from halfords all of which are oil or silicone based

For a second there, Dave, I thought you were giving me a mental recipe… I’m not even going to ask how you discovered the Peanut Butter application.

Yes, I’ve tried stuff that brings it back to life for a while, but keen to try and find a more permanent solution.

What about a vinyl wrap. You can get stuff with a grain in it?

Easy enough to sample and not permanent.

Stu wrote: Fri Jan 17, 25 10:59 am

cadboy wrote: Fri Jan 17, 25 6:45 am I had special interior paint made to the colour (by sending sample in) and sprayed mine, and it looks new.

Thanks Ali. What brand / company did you use? How long has been on, has it held up ok?

I have to have a look as it was a few years back, and it is holding very well.

I’ve used a Wurth black dye on plastics that are discoloured,it’s applied with a sponge and I’ve had good results.

Damaged areas I’ve sanded and filled with variable results,I used a plastic paint that had a good stipple finish on other trim.

Cheers all

The more I look into this, the more it looks like I need something that soaks in, rather than coats. Appreciate the suggestion of a wrap, but not the sort of look I’d be happy with, I don’t think.

Narrowed it down to a couple of options, but not sure how to tackle the scratches, so it doesn’t accentuate them, rather than hide them.

id clean em with a nice stiff washing up style brush and have a good look when slick and wet get an idea of what they look like with a gloss finish
the scratches may not be as evident as you think.

amazing what solid colour does, once the white witness marks from scratches is covered, i'm sure they will look pretty good


Dave

After a lot of investigation and video watching, I’ve decided to give this stuff a try.

Rather than just adhere and stick on top, it’s supposed to soak in and retain the original look, just back to black.

I’ll do some before and after and see what it looks like. Decided not to go with the textured version, as I don’t want it to look different to the original texture.

I used to use something similar in the ‘90’s Black plastic external trim would always turn grey after a few years, the stuff was almost like an oil you rubbed on and it did the trick. It would go grey again after a couple of months and you’d have to do it again. I’ve seen videos online of people warming up discoloured plastic panels to supposedly bring the oils in the plastic back to the surface and the original colour appears before your very eyes. I’m very sceptical that it actually works, it’s liable to be a crock.

Yes, I’ve seen the heating tricks, but it looks like it’s just temporary.

There is a particular video that swayed me towards this stuff, because it looks to be long lasting.

Time will tell, once I get chance to get it done, but I’m going to wait until it warms up first.

A tip I picked up years ago as a model maker, good old WD40. Always do a test area somewhere that you won’t see and keep in mind that if you use this then sprayi painting later won’t work as it won’t stick. If you either spray directly or via a cloth apply WD40 it will clean off a lot of surface staining and it sinks into the plastic and darkens and re sheens the surface. Makes sense really as plastics are petro chemicals. I’ve used it on all sorts of plastics, I even sprayed up my anthracite plastic gutters that had been badly scratched up and faded in the sun, they came up looking like new.

Something else that’s useful is Milliput now make a black plumbers putty. It’s basically an epoxy 2 part dough, mix it together and use it to fill holes etc. Because it’s for plumbers it’s workable with water, so you can apply it and then use a palette knife or finger dipped in water etc to smooth it or if you want to stipple it you can dab it with a damp sponge. It dries jet black, however as I found the other day if you sand it it pales up a bit. But a bit of WD40 darkens it back up. It can be sanded, polished drilled, tapped etc.