Polishing up my faded plastic trim in front of the windshield

Like all Leaf owners, the plastic trim in front of the windshield on my Leaf was stained and faded. I don't know what they make that out of, but it does not age well and nothing seems to clean it up or keep it nice.

As a part of doing the ceramic coating on my leaf, this thread: https://mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=31058 , I did some work on the hood plastic trim piece (I think it is called the 'hood cover').

I used a dual action polisher with a microfiber finishing pad and first used Meguiars Ultimate Compound for two passes and then three passes with Meguiars Ultimate Polish. It was super easy to do and the result was shocking:

Before:


After (this is the bare trim after polishing and wipe down, no water, protectant, wax or sealant of any kind), it looks better and clearer than this picture suggests:


I treated it was a ceramic coat afterwards and it looks even better.

wow nice!

that looks really good. i almost wonder if i could do something similar with plastic polish and a microfiber towel and some elbow grease.. might have to try. mine is slightly faded looking too.

I also polished that plastic trim on LEAF when it was new. I used Liquid Glass polish I bought off of AMZN. I put on 10 or 12 coats over a couple of days. Its held up and still looks really good - no fading or cracking.

estomax said:

that looks really good. i almost wonder if i could do something similar with plastic polish and a microfiber towel and some elbow grease.. might have to try. mine is slightly faded looking too.

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If you have a Harbor Freight nearby, they have an electric hand polishing tool for $20. I think it comes with a pad, but assuming it has a hook and loop backing on the pad holder, I would get the blue foam pad for another $7. Sorry I don't have more info on the tool - I have the multi-speed DA polisher instead (which is a bit more expensive).

estomax said:

that looks really good. i almost wonder if i could do something similar with plastic polish and a microfiber towel and some elbow grease.. might have to try. mine is slightly faded looking too.

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I think you could get excellent results by hand. It won't hurt to try, just get a good compound and go for it.

It took me maybe 10 minutes with a machine to get the result, I suspect you could get a similar result in under an hour by hand.