Great video, however I can save anybody watching this or reading this comment hours of time. All you need to do is get a wire brush and scrub all the oxidized plastic off and then get a heat gun and pass over it and melt all the plastic underneath back smooth for some cold water on it on your last pass to keep the shine
Good Job! I tried the sanding and didn't get good results! So after sanding I tried 000 extra fine STEEL WOOL with Johnsons past wax and rubbed off, then added more wax and buffed with the buffing wheel and got FANTASTIC results on my Honda XR200R!
If you have a look at my dirtbike on my channel you will see I have pretty bad plastics... I have some steel wool. I've heard this works pretty good. Any suggestions?
Thank you very much for this how to! I was wondering how to make my year 2000 Suzuki DRZ 400 look better, the plastics had gone all porous from the uv damage and this worked a treat! looks great already and I still havnt buffed them up with the polishing wheel. cant wait to see the final product. thanks again !
Dood! I wish you would've posted this before I went and bought new plastics! Haha. Definitely going to be trying that on the 86er's tank tonight. Might post up a video if I find a tripod.
Its got to be real smooth, 120 is going to be too rough to start with I think, also it seems not all plastic will respond well to polish, my gas tank doesnt work as well as my fender
I sanded the fenders on a IT 175 and they came out smooth, but i cant get a shine on them. I think ill try with a dry buffer like you did. Thanks for the idea and I cant wait to see your yz fully restored!
Thanks for sharing this technique! I also worked out, if you are moving along the plastic from left to right to have the drill spin in reverse or vice versa. You don't need to hold the buffing wheel at an angle either. Keep it 90 degree's. Just let the buffing cloth "kiss" the plastic whilst moving slowly down the piece giving it enough time to do it's job. Best to be in full sunlight to see better results! If you feel the buffing wheel grab slightly you're pushing too hard! Just lightly brush over it in one direction ONLY!! Not back and forth motion. If it grabs and leaves a mark hold the buffing wheel over the mark with very light pressure checking it until it's gone. To really make it shine, spray on Mequiars Ultimate Quik Wax - with hydrophobic polymer technology and let it soak in. Maybe a couple of coats. Then use a microfiber cloth ONLY to finish polishing! The end result will amaze you!! :)
haha thanks ,My step brother blew it up , but once I get her running again it sure will be a blast haha ,Been thinking about putting the 500 engine on my 250 frame kinda like you did with your Cr haha :D
Ive used just a medium grit emmory cloth and gradually going to a smaller grit untill the plastic turns into a clean smooth matte finish. then i took a propane torch and went across the sanded parts.It melts the face of the plastic very quickly and dries to a perfect gloss, a good wax after it cools makes it better even.Have to be very quick and even about it though, so you dont over do it, works well on black and coloured plastic. I found the heat gun takes too long. Your idea seams to work pretty nice.
I just purchased a 1980 YZ465. I'm 42 with three kids and thought this would be a good outlet for myself. I just created "The 1980 Yamaha YZ465 Rebuild Project" Facebook page for it facebook.com/1980YZ465 . Thanks for all the tips! I will look for more!
Where you see this discoloration is likely around the edge of the area that got heated, try heating from one end of your fender and work your way to the other end without stopping, it will be a lot of heat on the entire piece in a short time so it may distort, maybe test on a junk one first
I can't get this to work, I tried 120 grit and it scratched it really bad, and I tried 300 and 400 grit wet sanding and it didn't seem to fix it up. I tried using the blade and it really messed it up. Then I tried using one of those 3m head light kits and it seemed to fix it up but now I can't get the shine into it
I did some testing on my gas tank and it didn't respond nearly as well to polishing, on my tank I may resort to a combination of heat gun and polishing with more pressure, so not all plastics will respond the same
Hey I have a 1989 yz 125 I will post an befor and after video on my old account. I have everything new but the. Frame and and forks but painted the frame what year is this bike
Great video. This is exactly what I have discovered as well. Just wish I had seen this video a couple months ago when I had tackled an ATV plastic project for my son.
+I vote for truth democrats tab Thanks for watching, I have found not all plastic responds as well as this fender, also sanding is better than the blade to keep from damaging the plastic, thanks again
when i heat gun it leaves some traces that i don't like like white stains, like from dirty water and they don't clean up, what should i do then? Am i heating them bad? I need to polish my plastics..
the piston melted from being over heated ,I took it apart and looked down the cylinder wall and there are some pretty deep gouges ,and the crank doesn't operate as smoothly as it should ,So I'm gonna split the case and see if there ain't something getting caught down in the bottem end ,I just hope I don't have to replace the crank aswell as the top end haha
The gas tank on this bike also would not shine up like the fender, not all plastic seems to respond the same, I suspect plastic polish with the buffing wheel may help.
my point would be, why waste time with the silly blade, just sand it, even in a drill on very low speed would be a hell of a lot faster. I do that when I refurbish lawn mower covers, hoods, etc.
40% boiled linseed oil - 60% thinners does a very good job, just pour it on and rub off with a rag after 2-5 minutes does pretty much the same job to be honest
@@doi467 Wax likely won't stick to an oily surface. You're better off buffing the plastic itself because that actually permanently shines the plastic (until it fades from UV exposure or gets damaged again that is)
Great video. Have any tips starting a kick start 93 dr350 other that brute force? The carberautor fills up with gas and I believe it is flooding it if you kick like a mule it will start but im small....thanks
Damn, wish i would have seen this when i was rebuilding my 89 FL400 Pilot. I used the plastic renew clear and it wasnt all that great. and like you said it easly wears off. Going to try this on an old plastic roof panel i have. it was white when i got it lol. supposed to be red. May post this video on a forum if you dont mind!
It seems like u would get good results usingblike 150 to srart on realy bad places then 200 for not as bad then 300 then 400 then something crazy like 600 to make it smooth without a grinding wheel
Does this work on any type of plastic? I got an 2003 YZ 125 and it has pretty scratched up plastic, I might try it out in a place where it doesn't show, just to be sure it works on my type of plastic. Awesome video btw :)
I figured out that I was doing this all wrong, I didn't wet sand with 120 grit, so it really messed things up. I wet sanded with 220 for a while today and it actually turned out not too bad, gotta get some 320 and 400 grit waterproof sand paper soon, also I found the plastic on gas tanks is much harder than the fenders
Hey I have a couple of ATV"S I did that looked like that. What I did was 220 320 and 400. But after I did it in that step I took 1000 grit to it and it made it super smooth. you can find 1000 grit at any automotive place. ( all wet sand don't use to ruff of sand paper)
hey groutaone I just picked up a 1989 kx125.. the plastics are in good shape but could use a little shine . do you think a buffing wheel would work by its self... ill try to post a vid of it today,... I only paid $100 for it it sat for the last 13 years only needs a topend....... thanks for the vid
nice work man! im trying to hide a huge crack in a tecate 4 front fender. there is one only one on ebay and its 899! i work at a custom paint/ motorcycle repair shop and sand ALL day it seems on harley tanks fenders but i couldnt figure out a way to clean up a shitty repair job an this tecate i have. your video was golden! now i need to figure out how to get the soldering iron marks off it where he kinda welded it together. nice work tho!!!
Not that I got some immediate need for fixing plastic, but this is clearly something to keep in mind for when needed :) b.t.w. I mostly like tricks and "how x works" videos.
