Cleaning up black plastic?

[Randyjaco]

Damn, dropped my bike today and scratched up mirror plastic. Anybody got any recommendations on removing the road rash from the black plastic?

PXL_20230903_183643090.jpg (288.17 KiB) Viewed 906 times

[Doctor T]

The same happened to me. It's easier to replace than rubbing it down and filling it with plastic filler. For cheapness, i wrapped both of mine in satin black semi.

IMG_20230902_132452~2.jpg (243.88 KiB) Viewed 874 times

[Randyjaco]

Thanks. So you used some plastic wrap? How difficult was that to apply?
I was hoping that there might be some way of sanding them down and coating with some magic black product. I checked eBay and a used mirror is going for over $100.

Yes, it's the same stuff you use for wrapping a car. Am not an arty person but i found it quite easy. Best to remove the panel and a warm day helps, if not a heat gun/hair dryer just to warm up the wrap

[burridge01]

I'd go down a light sanding then ẅurth bumper dye.Used it for years on plastic trim,T4 and motorcycles, gives a great finish and a little goes a long way.Other makes are available,I can only speak as I found

Few on the T4 forum are using this stuff with good results
https://www.vinyldye.co.uk/

I'm going to try it on me T4 door cards at some stage.

[Randyjaco]

As I said earlier, I have some pride in my bike and I really didn't like the road rash look, so I attempted a fix. The fix could have gone better, but it doesn't look too bad for now.

It was easier that I thought it would be. I only had to remove a dozen screws, a hidden plastic rivet, 2 pieces of Tupperware, a speaker assembly and a speaker cover 
As suggested, I sanded the plastic down and covered it with Black Magic plastic conditioner. 

What I learned was, unless you have black filler, don't use any. Plastic conditioner seldom has any tint and is clear. So my red body filler is quite evident, even though I used a Sharpie to color it black. At the beginning and the reason for the query was the black plastic itself. I wasn't sure the plastic wasn't laminated, foam filled, etc. I now know that the black plastic can be treated like any other paint surface.

Now I still have the option to do a wrap or paint