refurb of plastic front

[Don S.]

The nose of my 1982 vette shows discoloration of the plastic front. Is there any method of refurbishing this plastic section other than painting., and if painting is the only way what is the best way to paint the section--take off the nose section or leave it on.Also is it hard to remove for painting.

Thanks in advance guys

Don Steele

[Donald Brunswick]

Re: refurb of plastic front

If you are speaking of the front bumper, the only way to do it to re-paint. You can try some 3M Polishing glaze, but typically they are faded beyond repair. Best way is to take it off, but speaking from experience it is not that easy, some of the nuts are hard to get to and hard to turn. If you re-paint the bumper chances are it won't match very well to the rest of the body, of course it didn't match well from Bowling Green, but it probably will be much more pronounced after a coat of paint.

If you opt to go with the 3M Foam Polishing Pad Glaze... see following tips...

3M Foam Polishing Pad Glaze use By hand:
Simply apply a small amount (about the size of a quarter) to a cotton
diaper or piece of cotton towel and rub back and forth into about a 1' X
1' section using light to medium pressure until it starts to dry out.
Then take a second towel and lightly rub back and forth until the polish
residue disappears and the gloss comes up. If there are still some
swirls visible you can repeat this step until they are minimal. I prefer
using a less aggressive product a couple times instead of using a more
aggressive product once.

3M FoamPolishing Pad Glaze use By orbital:

Use a 100% cotton bonnett or a foam bonnett and apply the polish in a
thin lined growing circle starting from the center and spacing the
growing line about an inch from the last round all the way to the edge.
Place the bonnett flat on a panel and activate the polisher and begin
working the entire panel using light to meduim pressure. When you have
worked the panel thoroughly then take a clean towel and wipe the residue
off in a back and forth motion using light pressure. Then simply move to
the next section.

donald