How to create a dark sheen on flat black plastic

[Mike Phillips]

How to create a dark sheen on flat black plastic

Flat black looks cool when it's used to accent components rear window louvers on this Mustang. There are two problems with flat black surfaces

1) Over time the the flat black appearance becomes dull and loses it's dark sheen.

2) There's nothing really on the market targeted and the variety of different flat black components to restore and maintain their appearance.


Part of the problem is the material or the coating that makes up whatever the flat black component is varies greatly from from a thin vinyl tape used for graphics, to flat black paint used to paint components and flat black plastic which is where the pigment is throughout the entire plastic matrix of the component.

Meguiar's doesn't make a product specific to flat black surfaces just like no one else does, at least at the time stamp of the post. When left without options, a car crazy enthusiast has to take what they can get if it's shows to actually help, (solve the problem, and not harm, (cause a problem).

Meguiar's Gold Class Trim Detailer is for restoring and maintaining rubber, plastic and vinyl trim, so while it's not specifically for these louvers and the material they are made out of, it does work pretty good.

The way to use it is to gently massage this product onto the surface using a clean, soft foam applicator pad, somewhat like you would rub skin lotion onto our face. Allow to penetrate for a few minutes and then softly wipe all surfaces down with a clean microfiber to remove any excess residue off the surface.

The results are a deep, dark black sheen...

[MrCLRider]

used product last friday on a 03 Focus. Used it on the mirrors and door handles, AMAZING stuff.

[ColonelCash]

Just curious, does this product wash off in the rain? I've tried similar products from other companies only to be left with black water streaks down my doors.

Would UQW also work on this type plastic?

[Mike Phillips]

Originally Posted by ColonelCash

Just curious, does this product wash off in the rain? I've tried similar products from other companies only to be left with black water streaks down my doors.

Would UQW also work on this type plastic?

It's not a perfect solution but as mentioned in the thread, there's not anything really made for this kind of thing...

Originally Posted by Mike Phillips

There are two problems with flat black surfaces

1) Over time the the flat black appearance becomes dull and loses it's dark sheen.

2) There's nothing really on the market targeted and the variety of different flat black components to restore and maintain their appearance.

Besides that, it also says,

Originally Posted by Mike Phillips

The way to use it is to gently massage this product onto the surface using a clean, soft foam applicator pad, somewhat like you would rub skin lotion onto our face.

Allow to penetrate for a few minutes and then softly wipe all surfaces down with a clean microfiber to remove any excess residue off the surface.

Microfiber is excellent at removing liquids off surfaces, this includes removing trace residues off the surface. If you apply this type of product heavily and don't remove all the excess residue then if it rains the excess will run off with the rain.

Again, Gold Class Trim Detailer isn't made specifically for this type of project so use at your own discretion. One thing for sure, the driver's side looks better than the passenger side.






The owner was happy too as he's been struggling with finding a product to do exactly what we did this night to his louvers... he has the paint covered, notice how glossy it looks? (NXT Tech Wax), so his car looked mostly great, there was just a few sections that needed to be amped up to to look as nice as the paint.

[Tuck91]

GC Trim Detailer is definitly a good product. How long do you think it will take until he has to re apply the product on his Mustang?

[Mike Phillips]

Originally Posted by Tuck91

GC Trim Detailer is definitely a good product. How long do you think it will take until he has to re apply the product on his Mustang?

Good question...

He's pretty passionate about his Mustang, he belongs to a local Mustang club...



My guess is he actively maintains his car and he'll be applying more dressing before the louvers degrade back to where they were in the before pictures. He'll probably apply a coat of wax before the other coat is completely worn off.

See the pattern?

[Poki]

How would the new Supreme Shine work for this application?

[BlueZero]

Great post Mike!

I've never used Gold Class Trim Detailer. Does it compare directly to any of the dressings in the detailer line?

[Mike Phillips]

Originally Posted by Poki

How would the new Supreme Shine work for this application?

Probably not very good. One of the things that's nice about the Trim Detailer for this kind of application is it comes in a rich lotion which makes it easy to apply and work in and then penetrate.

A spray on liquid is going to be harder to control and the chemicals are going to be different so to be honest I don't know if it would work or not but I would choose Trim Detailer for this types of applications first.

There's also an aerosol product like Trim Detailer in our Consumer Line called Exterior Trim Coating and we should have tried it too but once we got going with Trim Detailer that's the course we stayed on.

Originally Posted by BlueZero

I've never used Gold Class Trim Detailer. Does it compare directly to any of the dressings in the detailer line?

I'd have to check on that, you could probably use Hyper Dressing and get the same dark sheen.

[Honda Fit]

I have the aerosol Trim Detailer. Would you recommend spraying it on, then wiping off? Or should we also use an applicator pad to massage it in?