Paint basics

[Telegram Sam]

What paint should I get to rejuvenate matt black windscreen wiper arms? I tried Hammerite smooth on the headlight wipers, not a good choice.

[Telegram Sam]

I have sprayed the wiper arms front and back with Halfords Satin Black and this seems to have had the desired effect. Look more or less like new.

At the same time I hit upon Halfords Plastic Bumper Paint (Black), initially to rejuvenate the bumpers. I then realized that no matter how much elbow grease was applied to the paintwork (white), the overall effect was let down by the very faded anthracite grey of the door and tailgate handles. I have sprayed the lot and the car looks a lot "fresher" (even if to the purist the original grey colour has been lost). How durable this will prove to be remains to be seen. I might overcoat with Autobrite Trim &Tyre Gel.

[Robsey]

The trick with faded or "blooming" grey plastic trims is not to use paint, but in fact to use a hot air gun.

Used carefully, the grey will darken to its original colour and any white bloom marks should disappear.

It was a common trick on 80's vauxhalls where everything had the same style of grey plastic everywhere around the body.

[Robsey]

Regarding the black paintwork...

Halfords paints are quite durable.
And prices are quite "normal".

My black painted panels look very matt ( no shine whatsoever ), although satin may give a fresher darker colour.

Matt never looks "pure" black.

[Telegram Sam]

I would never have thought of that. I started work on the bumpers quite some time back so IF I'd had the courage to attack the handles with the gun, the black - grey discrepancy would have continued. As it is the final result is quite liveable-with so I will see how it weathers before resorting to Black & Decker.

[humbucker]

I use this on faded black plastics. The results are excellent. I'll post a pic of my Turbo later, you'll see what I mean. You'll be surprised at how far it goes. My bottle has lasted years, and the product is barely down to the top of the label!

[Telegram Sam]

Looks familiar - cos I got it on the basis of your or someone's previous recommendation! It's good but being transparent I find it needs also something else with a bit of colour if the substrate is well faded - like mine was in ignorance of Robsey's hot air gun approach.

[humbucker]

You shouldn't do. My plastics were light grey, now they're gloss black. I'll post pics later.

[Telegram Sam]

I suspect that the end results of the two treatments are very similar. Whether the benefits of a spray justify long term all the faffing about with masking tape and newspaper (masking the rear tailgate handle was a pain) will remain to be seen.

What is - to me - clear is in aesthetic terms the improvement of black, gloss or matt, door handles over the standard anthracite. And even more compared with colour-coded to match my bodywork white as per current fashions. I suspect that anthracite grey was trundled out in conjunction with umpteen colour schemes and models for reasons of production economics. I find the new match with the black bodyside mouldings and bumpers against the white backdrop much more appealing. May be the effect with other owners' colour schemes is not such a contrast?