I love to teach my son how to ride and repair stuffs the old fashion way. Here I will share some of our cheap DIY projects and repairs. I will also share some of my experience as a biker and as a pro mechanic. I am not a mechanic anymore but I still do repairs but mostly for my own machineries and this is why I try to keep everything easy and cheap. I also don't race anymore but I still love riding up the mountains where there is little or no help and all I can rely on is my small tool pouch and my monkey repair skills to bring me home whenever my bike or my friends bike breaks down.

If you are a tech-wiz or some kind of high-tech repair guru who likes spending too much $$$s buying stuffs and spends most of your time at a coffee shop posing your best biker battle gear clown costume and talking how great a biker you are then THIS IS NOT FOR YOU... Here we seriously ride our bikes and we try to keep everything simple, easy and cheap. Most of what I will share here are intended for riders who usually break their bikes to peices and may not be needed by other bikers.

I will also be sharing some cheap ways how I repaired my cars and computers. And for laughs, I will also add some weird / funny / odd stuffs that I or we did that worked and didn't work. Sorry about this blog's style, set-up or whatever you may call it, I'm an old school biker and its easier for me wrenching cars and bikes than typing on my keyboard...

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

How to make plastic shine again

My son bringing back some sexiness to this old scoot. 
Notice the shiny rear fender and compare it to the step.


This is very good for scooter's plastics. I'm talking about the step, side cowl etc. but not the painted plastic like in your front fairing (please see picture). Scooters plastics turns white as it ages and if you want them to glow back to life, this is for you. Use a torch and rapidly pass the flame on the plastic. The plastic will turn black again BUT DO NOT OVER DO it because it will melt the plastic. At first ALWAYS try to heat areas that are less visible so that if you ever had a mistake, your mistake wont be visible.

I also use this technique for bringing back some shine on cheap car's bumpers. Bumpers that are plastic, black and not painted. Works well for the same cheap plastic car side mirrors, black plastic mudguards, etc... Do this at your own risk.

After heating up the plastic, you can wax it using car wax to give it an extra shine. Because I'm too lazy, I just spay WD-40 or leather wax on everything. It'll look good but just don't touch it :)

Posted by iWrench at 1:27 AM

4 comments:

  1. ZezebelOctober 5, 2010 at 8:35 AM

    I am just curios, What will happen if we touch the plastic spray with WD40?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Heavenly Handmade CraftsOctober 5, 2010 at 9:25 AM

    You know, I own a scooter and I ride is all summer, so this is a really great idea. I hope you keep coming back with tips for scooter riders!
    And I like how you let your son be so involved.

    ReplyDelete
  3. iWrenchOctober 5, 2010 at 3:29 PM

    Angela's Blog,
    I'll surely post more about scooter/bike care and maintenance tips and will also be showing more photos of my son repair scooters and motorbikes.
    Many thanks for visiting.
    Cheers!

    ReplyDelete
  4. iWrenchOctober 5, 2010 at 3:32 PM

    Zezebel,
    Touching the plastic sprayed with WD-40 or leather wax spray wont harm you in any way but it's just yucky! It's like touching an old man's hair covered with pomade... hahaha!

    ReplyDelete

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