Polishing a plastic smart car

[Vince70]

I just wondered if anyone has any experience of polishing smart cars and if there's a special type of compound I should use..

 

I tried mopping my smart 450 yesterday with a standard medium compound and although the tridion came up lovely and new the panels still look dull from years of sitting out in the sun and I can still make out a sticker outline on the panels from when it was used as a form of advertising..

 

I don't really want to change the panels as apart from the paint fade there's no damage to any of them or is it a case of repainting the panels as I guess the plastic must be coated in some kind of clear coat...

[loserone]

When we had that faded pogweasel Ginetta G26, no amount of polishing would make it look better.

 

Back-to-Black, on the other hand, brought it up a treat.

[Supernaut]

Taking into account loserone's anecdote about back to black...

 

Try using Mer bumper and vinyl gel. It does the same thing but the gel itself isn't black goop, it's closer to transparent so doesn't make such a mess.

[oldcars]

I use autoglym super resin polish on the grp reliant, works well.

[nacho man]

Yeah I used autoglym on my buffer on my old scim and it came up ace.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Vince70]

I've tried autoglym super resin polish and I've even given it go with autosol but with no luck... It has a nice shine in places but I was thinking about using some 2000 grade wet and dry...

[Kiltox]

Good old fashioned G3 and a firm pad?

 

Got to be worth a try before sanding is thought about

[purplebargeken]

Ask on Detailing World.

 

Seriously. Honest!

[beko1987]

The problem with polishing plastic is its different to polishing paint. Polishing paint removes a small layer of the clear coat to reveal a nice layer underneath, hence if you polish too much youll burn through the clear coat unto the paint below.

 

Plastic wont work like that, youll need special plastic products, and probably some wet and dry to level the place a surface down.

 

Id deffo go to detailing world with this question, itll be like headlight polishing but on a larger scale.

 

Plus you want to watch for heat on plastic panels more than metal