hey as some of you may have seen i've recently bought my second 214SEi (r8) - i am trying to get it back to mint condition which to be honest aint that far fetched an idea. i would like to get it to show quality.

Im putting the car into the body shop at the beginning of next month to have a couple of rust spots on the back arches and a few dints (mainly asda rash) sorted out and then a full blow over respray in its original metallic British racing green. All that for £300 and i supply the paint (they recently sprayed a vr6 golf for my brother and did an amazing job).

Now it will be a shame to have all this work done and have it all let down by the plastic trim having faded in the sun. I asked the people at the body shop about spraying them up for us in gloss black - but they told us that the paint wouldn't last all that long on that type of material. Yeah i know i could just use back to black or tire black on them.

A friend of mine in the car trade has told me when he valets his cars to sell he uses a heat gun on the plastics to melt the top layer and this restores it. I'm a bit skeptical as i know this guy likes to joke around and i don't want to be damaging my plastics as i know how hard they are to come by now.

Has anyone ever tried this technique before? does it work?

the heat gun method does work. you dont want to be melting anything though. the heat seems to bring the colour back quite well. other than that i use auto glym bumper gel and get good results.

painting the plastic parts is not that difficult, its just that the prep can be a pain. sounds like the body shop dont want to do it cos of whats involved and seeing as they are only charging you £300 i cant blame them. painting the plastic bits will probably take as long as the whole car. do it yourself before it goes into the body shop. give it a good key and make sure its completely free of silicone and then give it a covering in plastic primer. all the body shop have to do then is flat it back then paint it.

Yeah using a heatgun works but you need to be careful not to damage anything else, and it probably only lasts for 6 months or so.

Apparently peanut butter works well.

I've painted my side trim and i've got a set of bumpers in the garage waiting to be painted to match.

214cab wrote: Apparently peanut butter works well.

As long as you use the smooth stuff.

I did the trims on my old Sierra 1600L like this:

Good scrub with plastic scourer side of washing up sponge, with washing up liquid and hot water. This removes any polish products that may be on there.
Once dry, mask off the trims - obv. you could remove them, but I couldn't be bothered.
Give them a light dust with plastic primer, just enough to provide a uniform and even coat.
Allow this to dry, then dust with satin black. Usual technique of multiple thin coats until even black shade is achieved.

This worked really well, you could even still see the graining on the plastic. A pleasent 1-day task and makes a massive difference for the cost of 2 aerosols, some masking and a day.