I've done a alot of painting and body work in the past, but it seems every time I try to bring some life back to plastic I make it worse. I usually sand the plastics that I dislike, hit them with an adhesion promoter and spay them with whatevery color automotive paint.

I'm scared to paint this part for the fact that I dont want it to chip. So I'm wondering if a scotch pad and some water would bring the really faded black plastic back to life?

Any Tips?

 

If you want to keep it black, I would just remove it and spary it with trim paint.

http://www.autobarn.net/duptp70.html?site=google_base

Wash it and use adheasion promoter.

 

If I'm going to do that I will use automotive paint...

 

SEM makes a great trim paint

 

I have had painted cowls before and haven't had a problem chipping. Depending on how bad it is, I would be afraid that the cowl is going to be brittle and break or crack when removing or scotchbriting/sanding.

 

i use duplicolor high heat semi gloss black...works perfectly and never had an issue with chipping

 

Did you use adhesion promoter? If so was it a duplicolor brand?

 

If you're using actual trim black I would just scuff it with white scotch brite and comet ( use if you don't have sandfix at your local auto store) it will clean it good and give it a nice surface for that trim black to stuck too without adhesion promotor

 

Use trim paint or spend $120 at the dealer and buy a new one.

 

I've done a lot of computer moding in my day, and one thing a lot of people don't know is vinyl dye is amazing on plastic.

so when i had a issue on the side trim for my 91 CRX, i already had it sitting around and used it.

its been a year, and its still holding its dark gloss black color.

vinyl dye comes in spray cans at the part stores.
im trying to think of a way to explain how the vinyl dye works better, but every way i think of makes me sound like a total idiot ( stuff, thing-a-ma-bob, do-dad )
it just is very easy to work with, and very forgiving to over spray.

ps. every time i used it, i've done minimal prepping, just clean the part very well, let dry, spray, let cure.