restoring oxidized plastic

[cjo4x4]

I have a 2000 yamaha big bear 400 4x4. The plastic is in pretty bad shape. oxidized and getting worse since i live in Florida.

I have been doing some research and have read of people trying everything from using a variable speed orbital polisher with great wax to spreading peanut butter over it. (lol...i know).

But I was wondering if any of my fellow atv-forumERS have found any tricks to be worth the effort.

One product i found and wonder about is Plastic Renew. Plastic Renew for Motorcycles & ATV's

Here is a before picture of my project....

[oxidized_black]

in my opinion, a time and money waste. in my opinion. other people might have had good luck with small sufaces, but not a whole bike. its alot of work and you'll won't be completely satisfied with the end result i bet. again, in my opinion. the black plastic on bikes, don't replace if not broken, new black plastic will end up looking like that the first 3 or 4 rides out. if you want to try something inexpensive first, try pledge furniture polish. this might amaze you. LOL. it did me...

[Planner]

The pledge is a good tip. after i read it i thought what the hell..I give it a try on an old polaris i keep around for grunt work. It actually works pretty good...and cheap. nice tip..thanks !!

[oxidized_black]

hahaha. cool. most car dealerships will use pledge on the interior plastics rather than amour all. pledge doesn't seem to be as sticky so the dust won't adhere to it as quickly...

[50bmgshooter]

The Pledge trick works as good as any I have ever used and is cheap. From the pic of the unit you might need more help, it's work but it can make the plastic look better. Get some 4O steel wool and buff the plastic with that, it won't look like new but it get the oxidized layer and ugly stuff off. BTW it's 4 OOOO steel wool, that's very fine, used to polish wood furniture. Good luck!

[guido]

Use a heat gun and go lightly over the discolored portion. Not 100% but makes a huge improvement.