Heat gun?

[jpu471]

Just ran across a method of restoring faded black trim using a heat gun.

Old wives tale?  Or legit?

Its all over YouTube

[Chris@Adams]

I would proceed with caution........a heat gun around your car in the wrong hands could cause damage.

[LFairbanks]

I would proceed with caution........a heat gun around your car in the wrong hands could cause damage.

 

[Baron_Von_Awesome]

I wouldn't proceed at all.  Faded trim is caused by oxidation.  Want to get rid of it? Start scrubbing.

[ksell87]

How about just using Wipe New? 

[Team Adam's]

I'd avoid it at all costs, the risk/reward ration isn't in your favor at all.  WAYYYYY too much room for error.

 

The process is 2 simple steps:

• Remove surface oxidation with APC and a Utility Towel.
• Treat with Super VRT to protect from future oxidation.

 

Try this :

 

 

How about just using Wipe New? 

 

Or this. 

[ECaulk]

It's definitely a tall tail. Stick to apc and vrt

[Marylander]

Yea, sounds like realllllly risky idea. I'd stick with the more proven methods.

[Ricky Bobby]

Using the wipe down with APC method really does work to soak in the pores of plastic and pull out the oxidation.  Then you're just protecting the refreshed plastic, which SVRT does well.

 

Only thing the heat gun does is instead of reaching in the pores of the plastic and pulling oxidation into your towel, it burns it off with really high heat.  The SVRT step is still needed because then you need to protect that fresh surface.

 

Which would you prefer, to burn something off your car or scrub/wipe it off?

[Kingsford]

Rubber melts when it's heated... Just saying.

 

You'll need to scrub it good with some type of cleaner (I'd recommend APC diluted a little bit to prevent from drying out) and then go over it a few times with SVRT.

 

A heads up, if you scrub it and then put SVRT on it, it will soak up the VRT like a dry sponge so you'll have to do it a few times.