Martynn Randall is technical editor at Haynes and has been with us for approaching 30 years. He's written more than 60 Haynes publications and has owned more than 85 cars and 60 motorbikes... so far!
If you’re like me, you like to take reasonable care of your car. Okay, I don’t wrap it in cottonwool every night, but I do like to keep it in fine fettle, and give it a clean and polish on a reasonably regular basis.
However, the problem with being fastidious about looking after your car is that a lot of other people don’t take such care – a trait that extends beyond just basic cleaning to how they drive. And more pertinently, park.
Parking scuffs are becoming ever more commonplace, which has led to the rise of black plastic cladding on exposed area of cars, because it’s cheaper to fix than a painted panel. And the good news is that it’s a pretty easy job you can do yourself, at home. Which is what Haynes is all about. So, here’s how to get rid of unsightly gravel rash from your plastic trim.
Clean up and mask up
The first thing to do with any panel-repair job is to give the area in question a good clean. After all, there’s no point in making all the effort to get something looking like new if there’s ingrained dirt taking the shine off the finished panel. So, give the area a thorough clean, then make sure you dry it all.
After that, mask all around the area you’ll be working on. You’ll be doing a fair bit of sanding, and you don’t want to take the chance of scratching paintwork when the whole purpose of the job is to be removing scratches!
Start sanding
Once you’ve cleaned up the affected area, it’s time to start sanding. This is easier if you have some sort of sanding block to hand that you can wrap the sanding paper around, because it gives you more control, and also means you’re working with a flat surface. However, if you have an orbital polisher or sander, this will make the process a bit quicker:
- Start off with 120-grit sandpaper. This is comparatively coarse, but will allow you to easily remove the worst of the scratches.
- Once you’ve got the worst of the scratches out, move to 180-grit sandpaper, which will start to smooth out the surface.
- Then break out the 320-grit sandpaper, which will really smooth off the surface and allow you to tweak any moulded ridges on the trim piece.
- Finally, use some 400-grit sandpaper to finish off the surface the way you want it.
- It pays to take your time over each stage of the sandpapering process – you’ll end up with a much better-finished product if you do.
The heat is on
If the plastic is properly faded, this is the time to get out your heat gun. Hold the heat gun’s nozzle around 3cm from the plastic trim and move it around. This will remove the fading from the panel.
Just be careful not to melt the plastic!
Texture paint
Next job is to mask up the whole area with masking tape and paper, because you’re going to have to apply texture paint to give the plastic panel a factory appearance.
Then it’s a case of applying a light dusting of the aerosol paint to the affected area. Once you’ve applied the first coat, you can use your heat gun again to dry it quickly, before adding a second coat in the same way.
Finally, a quick and very light sand with some 800-grit sandpaper will give you the perfect finish.
There’s a Haynes Manual for that
If the damage to your car's plastic trim extends to the bodywork, there's still no reason why you can't carry out the repair yourself. You'll just need to take your time, do it a step at a time, and be careful.
And Haynes can be with you every step of the way. Simply invest in our Body Repair and Painting manual, and we'll gently guide you through the process. You'll end up with a high-quality repair at a much lower cost than if you'd paid someone else to do it.