Options to Restore Plastic Panels

[cbuczesk]

46 minutes ago, KiraK said:

Hi fellow Zer's!

I have white interior in my 1972 z, that is very yellow from sun fade. Will the cleaning suggestions on this thread work to get them back to a more white color? 

I also have two interior panels in the back that are cracked. One behind left rear tail light and one that covers the antenna assembly. All very brittle, and were cracked when an attempt was made to get behind those panels.

Any options to try and repair? I am reluctant to replace with new panels as the new ones will be so much whiter than my old panels. I'd like to avoid a complete interior renew, as it would be expensive and the rest of my panels, dash are perfect.. Just old, yellow, and fragile.

Thoughts on how to get my girls interior as white and as close to perfect as possible, without a complete overhaul?

In closing, if anyone has original white interior panels (especially the ones I describe as cracked) that they want to part with, please let me know!

Your advice and experience always amazes, thanks in advance for any assistance!

Kira

The lil z lady

if there is an attachment, please disregard, I'm having trouble with posting. Thanks!

Some of my red interior panels had faded nearly to white. I took all of them out including the door panels, cleaned them very well, wiped them down with lacquer thinner and then applied SEM red vinyl dye. That was several years ago and it still looks great today. You can repair your cracked panels and dye them with SEM white or get some good used panels in any color including black and dye them white. I have a white rear side panel that after closer inspection I discovered was originally black. SEM products work very well!

Chuck

 

[KiraK]

Thanks much Chuck! 

Great info! Appreciate the post! 

Kira

The lil z lady

[gundee]

45 minutes ago, cbuczesk said:

Some of my red interior panels had faded nearly to white. I took all of them out including the door panels, cleaned them very well, wiped them down with lacquer thinner and then applied SEM red vinyl dye. That was several years ago and it still looks great today. You can repair your cracked panels and dye them with SEM white or get some good used panels in any color including black and dye them white. I have a white rear side panel that after closer inspection I discovered was originally black. SEM products work very well!

Yes, I have used the SEM Napa red on my red interior vinyl. It looks to be a perfect match. Good stuff.

[siteunseen]

My white interior was redone with SEM products (not by me LOL) and it looks as new. I only knew for sure when I removed the console and found the front corners on the vinyl covering the tranny tunnel up against the firewall were "antique white".  That stuff is great and holds up very well in my car. Not sticky in the baking hot sun, which was kind of a surprise to me. It has to lay on top of vinyl.  I wouldn't think vinyl would be  very absorbent. 

I put their rust inhibitor, which is clear, on the rusty spots of red car. It turned the rust black. Kind of like it has acid in it?

SEM; Good!

[grannyknot]

I used the ABS glue trick to repair my plastic panels before the colour change with SEM. After the ABS glue had hardened I applied two coats of adhesion promoter and four of colour.

 

[Namerow]

I took my Z's hard plastic panels from black to butterscotch using a vinyl 'die' produced by a Toronto-based supplier called Parasol.  They custom-matched the colour based on a sample from the seat covers that I bought from Banzai Motorsports.  Very happy with the results in terms of application, coverage, colour match and final appearance.  Cost was about $130 Cdn for a quart.  Applied with an HVLP gun.   I used the same product on the soft vinyl trim, too.  More difficult to get uniform coverage than for the hard plastic pieces (maybe because of 30+ years of over-zealous Armor-All applications on soft vinyl by PO's in an effort to keep them 'soft').  Still, I'm pretty happy with the results.  Bottom line is that you can re-colour a Z's interior panels successfully using SEM or other similar products if you read and follow the directions.  Only exceptions are the seats, where I wouldn't be confident about either coverage or longevity.  The vinyl die mftrs might choose to differ, though.  There are companies that seem to be making a make a good business out of re-colouring boat interiors (including seats) using the same stuff.