DIY black plastic “restoration”

DIY black plastic “restoration”

The original black plastic body panels on my 2006 Silverwing were badly faded, with gray streaks all over. I tried Armor All spray but it did very little. I researched “black plastic restoration” products to improve their appearance. There are many on the market, with lots of YouTube videos comparing them.

But I stumbled on videos where the user was employing common household oils to do the same thing. Surprisingly peanut butter was mentioned as often as the others. Second most common was a combination of mineral spirits and boiled linseed oil, then olive oil, then basic vegetable oil, and baby, mineral or paraffin oil, with at least one mention of Vaseline.

Obviously the “active” ingredient in peanut butter is peanut oil. And I have paraffin oil for my oil lamps and olive oil for cooking. So I made a mix of 1/3 each of peanut, paraffin and olive oils and grabbed a couple cotton wash cloths.

I soaked one corner of one wash cloth in the oil combination and thoroughly wiped down every piece of black plastic on the Silverwing including the handlebar covers and dash, the cvt cover and the Kappa top case, then thoroughly rubbed clean all these areas with a clean cotton wash cloth.

The first two images are the plastics prior to treatment with these oils. The second set of images are after.

Various videos had follow ups as long as seven months, and the results of various household oils actually fared fairly well over time. This might need to be repeated once or twice a year.

(I also applied a generic spray “wet tires” product on my tires.)

I saw videos up to seven months after various household oils were applied to car bumpers and it actually did fairly well.

I might need to repeat it once or twice a year.

Plus my bike smells like a pb&j sandwich crossed with Italian cooking by candlelight.

Great restoration Brian. Thanks for the tip.

Just a caution: critters sure do like peanut butter so, even though you’re only using peanut oil, you might want to discourage their curiosity by placing a couple of chunks of Irish Spring hand soap on the footboards and maybe around the tires too. Critters really don’t like the refreshing aroma of an Irish Spring morning.

It's not just critters, during a long ride when hunger strikes I might be tempted to nibble the bike myself.
It looks like a good result though, I might have an experiment along those lines myself.

That greying is of course ageing and UV damage which makes the plastic brittle. Peanut butter is also a very good mousetrap bait which may attract these rodent pests that mark their presence by ****ing everywhere.

I'ver never acquired a taste for the classi PB & J sandwich myself, especially that claggy mouth feel. However I recently tried Marmite with Crunchy Peanut Butter, didn't think I like that either, but I've already finished the jar.

Meldrew wrote:

Peanut butter is also a very good mousetrap bait which may attract these rodent pests that mark their presence by  ****ing everywhere.

I'ver never acquired a taste for the classi PB & J sandwich myself, especially that claggy mouth feel. However I recently tried Marmite with Crunchy Peanut Butter, didn't think I like that either, but I've already finished the jar.

I didn’t have any bottled peanut oil.

But I do have a big jug of all natural, fresh ground, no additives added peanut butter from a Mennonite country store up in Pennsylvania. When it sits unused longer than a week, the peanut oil settles out on top of the peanut butter.

So this is what I used for this episode of “custom cooking and cleaning with your favorite cuddly curmudgeon.”

Come to think of it, I think I got my paraffin lamp oil from the Mennonites too. I wonder if they can cook Italian…?