What's some good tricks to restoring faded and oxidized ATV plastics?

I've heard sanding and buffing, sanding and "flame polishing", rubbing on a mixture of paint thinner and boiled linseed oil. Anyone ever tried one of these techniques out, or have any other techniques?

I acquired an 04 Bruin some time ago. Today I gave it a good wash and scrubbing, and now that it's actually clean for the first time I've owned it lol you can REALLY tell just how bad the plastics have weathered over the years. It's had to have been kept outside in the sun all it's life... Would like to try and rejuvenate it a little, because aside from the plastic's coloration and a couple small splits in the plastics, it's in really great shape.

 

It won't be a one and done...once you get it looking good you will need to keep after it or it will turn again quickly. There are a couple products that you can buy to being back the finnish, but it will need to be done on a regular basis. The most permanent job will be a sand and paint with plastic paint. Many new machines use painted plastics and they look great.

 

We've got the information you seek on the ATV Connection homepage, here:

https://atvconnection.com/articles/a...uads-plastics/

 

Cool, thank you!

I actually tried a heat gun on a small portion of the fender today. It worked to an extent. It seems like when using a heat gun you have to concentrate the heat in one spot too long to get the result, so the plastic starts to get soft. I think that with an open flame you can graze over and don't have to stay in that one spot for as long to get the desired result. So I'm going to pick up another bottle of map gas (the one I have now is just about out...) and give this a shot!

I think that if I go through the process of removing the racks and plastics to do a thorough job, I might even give the metal racks a sand and paint while I'm at it