Discoloured grille

[MPS]

Hi

I have a problem with my honeycomb front grille (the bit with the gti badge on) in that it seems to have discoloured from the normal black colour to a sort of bluey grey colour, has anyone else had this problem? Really odd and it stands out a mile compared to the lower grilles which are still black.

I think it may be down to the previous owner living near to the sea and the sea air / salt, that and sunlight that has degraded it.

Finally does anyone know of a decent product that will restore the original black colour to the plastic?

Any thoughts / suggestions gratefully appreciated

Cheers!

Matt   

I'll get a photo up to show the discolouration in a bit once its stopped blowing and raining outside (nesh-boy, lol)

[stealthwolf]

(Black) plastics naturally discolour and fade over time. This can be accelerated by various processes/chemicals eg strong traffic film remover. Fading black plastics are easier to restore. There are a zillion threads on this subject. Discoloured areas are a bit more difficult.

Pics would be immensely helpful.

[MPS]

Just had a look at G-Techniq's site, looks like their C4 Permanent Trim Restorer would do the trick, not cheap though!

[RedRobin]

.
I had that problem a long time ago and it turned out to be the cleaner I was using. IIRC it was a bug spray/cream at fault. I think I restored it with elbow grease and Back-to-Black and now only use Meg's shampoo or Quik Detailer on the grills.

[MPS]

Thanks for the replies guys  I think I've got some back to black in t'shed so I'll try that first! Resent forking out loadsamonies for this problem!

[RedRobin]

^^^^
Thanks for the thanks 

Let us know if Back-to-Black does the trick. It's a loooong time since I did it but I recall it took some persistence.

[ub7rm]

Failing all that take it off and use a heat gun, not so close to melt it obviously but just enough to get the plastic to turn.  Best trying it out on a mates car first  

edit:

Like so,

http://www.eastsidevw.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2309&p=25008&hilit=heat+gun#p25008

guess it depends on if the plastic is suitable for this treatment.

[VC]

Failing all that take it off and use a heat gun, not so close to melt it obviously but just enough to get the plastic to turn.  Best trying it out on a mates car first 

edit:

Like so,

http://www.eastsidevw.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2309&p=25008&hilit=heat+gun#p25008

guess it depends on if the plastic is suitable for this treatment.

well i never... clever trick that 

[apollo13]

When I did my front end conversion to the facelift GT Sport style grilles I bought the lower 3 grilles new from the stealer and the main grille from ebay.

When I had them all together the main grille was noticably lighter in colour. I rang around a few places and did a bit of reading (mostly on US forums) and the product they all raved about was SEM Bumper Coat. SEM is well known in the SMART repair world apparently.

Its a spray but not paint, more like a dye. It was easy to apply and the grille matched the others perfectly. 10k miles on and a pretty bad winter it looks just the same as it did the day it was sprayed.

I think it was about £12 a can but I only used half a can at the most.

I had trouble getting hold of it as its a US product but it does come up on ebay now and then or try somewhere that supplies SMART repair consumables.

[stealthwolf]

Using a heat gun is fine if the plastic has faded, but am not sure how it would affect the discolouration.

[RedRobin]

^^^^
Personally I wouldn't be inclined to trust a heat gun on any bodywork cosmetics.

[craigy123]

Autosmart smart trim, it's an aerosol. Simple and effective and cheap as chips. It's what I use on mine anyway.

[MPS]

Hi Guys, a few weeks on and I've fitted my black badge which really makes the fading plastics stand out really bad!!   



Horrid isn't it!

The SEM bumper coat sounds good, does anyone know of a UK stockist of this product?

[keith]

For that you want something that has an oil in it as sprays may not last that long, something like Valetpro Trim Glitz, would be a bit of graft getting on those honeycombs.

[apollo13]

As said before this is what I used on mine

http://colourmatchcentre.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=33&products_id=248

Its used for greying bumper plastics but i found it matched my oem fog grilles perfectly.