Restoring my plastic fender flares with a heat gun

[effjay76]

So i bought my truck in 2006. it came with a set of new bushwacker fender flares that the po bought to replace the ones already on it but he never installed them. I installed them and drove it with those on since then. After a couple years they got ugly and faded. I tried that "back to black" stuff. But they went "back to faded" pretty quickly. So i was about to get some rubbing compound and go at them when my coworker suggested i use a heat gun to bring back the black. I was skeptical of course. But i figured why not give it a shot. I already have a heat gun so what do i have to lose? Well looks like i owe him a beer because the results are pretty impressive. it took about 10 minutes to do both. Probably less time than writing this will take.

i was worried about deforming them but it wasnt an issue at all

 

[effjay76]

Forgot this picture

 

[DSRTRDR]

 

[antFJ]

About what temperature did you have the gun set at? That is a Pretty neat trick

 

[effjay76]

I had it set to high. Its a dewalt heat gun. You can see it change color pretty quickly. My coworker said it works on pretty much any of the black plastics used on vehicles. Ill probably try it on my corolla bodywork before long

 

[Efjay]

Well......I'm impressed.

What a great little trick. They came up really nice.

Thanks for sharing.

 

[roadstr6]

Did mine the same way. The flares on my 40 are from a Heep TJ. My Dewalt heat gun worked great as well!

 

[Howard705]

I like that. My 20+ year old ones are really showing their age. I'll try it.

 

[JohnVee]

I've gotten pretty used to the gray color. The Back To Black type stuff stopped working for me last year. It only lasted a few weeks at most, anyway. Might have to give this method a try next time I wash the 40.

 

[Wes]

Does this work for only black plastics? What about colored and hard plastic?