Black trim restore?

[Brett Dikeman]

At 8:10 AM -0500 7/13/04, Matt Suffern wrote:
>Anyone have any recommendations as far as a product that will 
>restore the black rub strips around my '86 4kq?  They're beginning 
>to fade noticeably--you
>can see it on the rear bumper in this picture, in spite of the fact 
>that the car's just been rained on:
>
>http://www.unc.edu/~msuffern/audi/audi11.jpg
>
>I've heard of stuff that sprays on, and stuff that rubs on, but no 
>one I've talked to has had personal experience with the products. 
>Any BTDTs would be very
>helpful.  Thanks!

I found the "Back to black" stuff to be very messy; it instantly 
stains -anything- it comes into contact with(hands, clothing, you 
name it), and it'll dry rock hard on the paint in under a minute if 
you're not careful.  It just didn't look very good to me, being 
essentially a flat black paint; I like the teeniest hint of gloss.

I use Lexol Vinylex, and while it doesn't last forever on exterior 
bits(nothing really does) it works nicely to clean the bumper/trim 
plastic and rubber on the 200q20v.  Two applications are sometimes 
necessary, as the first time, you lift a ton of dirt/grime.  If the 
plastic is very dirty, use the stuff with a small scrub brush and 
then wipe it down, then wipe/spray on fresh stuff.  Repeat until the 
cloth comes away clean.  I recommend after the first application 
leaving the surface wet for a few hours, then coming back and wiping 
it down and reapplying- Vinylex actually seems to loosen up crud as 
it sits.

Curiously, the Vinylex took off the back to black stuff, and the 
bumper looks all the better for it.  It also made the rubber wing on 
a 944 turbo look absolutely gorgeous.  I've cleaned up electronic 
test equipment covered in years of grubby-finger grime, rosin and 
smoke- it's amazing how good a -cleaner- it is for plastic-ish 
surfaces.

Interior-wise, on both the 944 and my car, Vinylex lifted enormous 
amounts of grime off the dash and even the side panels, grime which I 
could see in places that were protected from cleaning, such as under 
the lenses of the interior lights.  If you have a non-black interior, 
such as the grey in the 100/200's and noticed it looks pretty 
dirty/gross- buy a bottle of Vinylex and go to town on all the 
surfaces.

Pretty unoffensive smell, and it's nice that you can buff it off as 
much as you like for a rather subdued look; part of it is that the 
stuff is partially water-based, or so they say.  A few seconds with 
some hand soap and your hands are clean, unlike the silicone stuff, 
which you just can't seem to get rid of.  Errant spray is easily 
taken care of with a damp cloth.

As one lister mentioned, I've heard of the hairdryer trick, but had 
no luck with it myself...and I didn't feel like using the heat gun 
and melting my bumper by accident.

Brett
-- 
"They that give up essential liberty to obtain temporary
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