I recently rolled my yfz450 and can not stand the scraches that it left on the left front plastics. Its bugging the hell out of me. I was thiking of using sandpaper starting with a rough and going to a super fine sandpaper. Please tell me if this is a good idea or give me alternatives than sandpaper.

 

If you look around, there are plastic renew kits out there. Personally, I don't mind a little character. I rolled my YFZ on it's side last year, and it has some scratches and stress marks(stinkin' blue plastic[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-tongue.gif[/img]) but I didn't buy it to be a trailer queen. Anyway, the real ugly part is where my boots rub on the rear fenders.

I know I have seen the stuff advertised in the mags, try Dirtwheels, they have plenty of ads, lol!

 

It's your lucky day! I have alot of exp. with fixing scratched plastic, and have tried almost everthing. Scratches bug me to no end too, makes me feel like I'm riding a very expensive peice of junk (Worse if it's new). First thing to remember when working with plastic, is that it's a lot softer than paint, and much different to work with. Patience and a good procedure is the Key.
You will need the following: 50 pack of utility style razor blades, Automotive Quality buffer w/ a very soft polishing pad, 320grit 400g 600g 800g 1200g 1800-2000g sandpaper, Very fine Polishing Compound (I Use 3M Finesse-it II) and Final Buf with Novus 2 Fine Scratch Remover. and of course a lot of Patience! Here's The Procedure !

1. Begin with a razor blade, make sure all debris is out of scratched area and start shaving the plastic with the blade at aprox. a 45 degree angle, tilted away from the direction your pulling it. and skive the plastic to a max. depth of around 3/32 of an inch. if theirs a scratch deeper leave it, and continue with the rest of this procedure you can always go back later when you've finished. The razor blade will save you tons of time, because the heavier grit sand paper takes a lot of time to sand out. I go from razor blade to 400 grit.

2. Sanding out razor blade marks. Start with 320 or 400 making sure everything is smooth before proceeding to the next finer grit. Sand with the other grits up to 1200 grit, making sure they don't load and rescratch the plastic. Make sure the plastic doesn't get warm or hot as you sand, this will compound the paper loading. Use the 1800-2000 grit wet and polish to a mat shine.

3. Polish with electric buffer, soft pad and EXTRA fine polish. The trick here is to keep the plastic cool. If you can keep it cool enough, and you have a fine enough polish you should be able to polish back to a factory finish. If you can not find the right polish try a wax cleaner polish as a final step.

This procedure works great for me and I am able restore plastic back to new factory condition. Good luck, I hope this helps.

 

I don't have that type of patience, I'll probably just by new plastic and try in keep the rubber side down [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

Great post though, thanks for all the usefull information.

 

I hear ya Happarap, at some point and time ya gotta ask yourself what your time is worth. I'm in the business of finishing, use to have a furniture MFG. company, and now I have a Cabinet MFG. company, been doing it all my life so it's easy and fast for me, plus I always have plenty of supplies on hand.
Checked out your picks, looks nice and green up there,,I'll bet your riding season is a lot longer than us So. Cal. Boys.

 

Riding season's year round, alot of mountain and trail riding in the winter, along with snow rides, then summer brings trips to the Oregon Coast along with the trail rides. We do alot of group campouts in the mountains and at the dunes. The Pacific Northwest is a great place to live and to own a quad, riding is endless [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

 

Stop! Stop! already! It was 100 degrees F. here yesterday, guess I'll spend the next 4 months talkin about ridden . Pacific Northwest sounds pretty darn doable. I'm real close to everything but our season is maxed a about 7-8 months I'm two or three hrs. from glammis and other major ridding areas and can still ride off my 5 acre ranch in So.Cal. which is becomming rare down here with all the development everwhere. So I guess it's conveinet for 8 months, but the grass overthere certainly looks greener![img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif[/img]

 

Fasterrap,

Theres a lot of good info in your post. I've always wondered if that would work. Where do you get the 3m Finese-it stuff?

 

Any Atuo Body Paint and Supply should carry it along with the finer paper. They may have something out now thats better, the finner The polishing grit the better, just keep that plastic cool and use the softest polishing pad you can find.

 

trailer queen haha so thats why nobody does what i do on my ride i never thought about that scared to scratch it hahahahah lol how funny . plastic nothing egine every thing