DIY Dashboard restoration.

[kogeban]

Morning fellow scooterist. Just want to share a dash board restoration method I picked up from the internet.

 

I researched on the internet about restoration methods for vehicle bumpers as I realise that the material for my gilera's dashboard was quite similar to car's bumper. I found lots of methods including using heat gun, tyre dye (quite expensive) but the one most convincing have to be liquid kiwi. The condition for my gilera dashboard was quite "chui". Therefore I felt that there is nothing to lose and went ahead.

 

 

The kiwi comes with a foam head which is pretty good but it is best to buy a small foam brush to apply to hard to reach area and avoiding getting the kiwi on your painted body panels. However even if it gets on the body panel, I was still able to get them off just using cloth (best to use masking tape to prevent this mess but I was lazy).

 

This are the results:

 

Before

 

After

 

The post on other forums suggested 2 coats but I went ahead with more. Unsurprisingly, each additional coat make the result better. I applied 4 coats total with around 5 mins in between (it dries up pretty fast).

 

No Coat

 

2nd Coat

 

3rd Coat

 

Even after 4 coats I still have around half a bottle left and I went ahead and "kiwied" the floor mat as well.

 

The result is pretty good considering one tube only cost less then $5. Will probably apply one last coat tomorrow after it had really dried up evenly.

The end result is a little glossy due to the waxy nature of the liquid kiwi. It dries really fast and it doesn't stain my hand even when I rub on it.

 

But this is just preliminary and I am not sure how it stand up to the weather. Some forum claim that theirs lasted for months or even years as the waxy kiwi protected the colouration. Considering that I still have so much left, and its a simple job, even if it fades after a year, I can still easily restore it (hopefully it last longer).

 

So if you have a spare $5 in your pocket and want to do something to your worn out dash board (wanting to save some money in the process considering spray painting is so expensive), you can consider giving this a try.

 

***I take no responsibility for any adverse effect if you were to try. Just sharing ! Cheers !

[dzulraihan]

hey! awesome job man! but it would be nice if there are follow-ups on this. like after a few weeks after the process. just to know how it holds up. and most importantly after rain!

[naim]

great cheap way to restore the plastics! looks really even as well. please do update us on this. if it works and lasts, i tink all scooter owners will be smiling!