Clay, Cladding, Pinstipes ,OH MY

[steve wc]

Two Part question:

The pinstripe is after market. It is actual paint and not vinyl. When I run my hand across I can feel it is slightly raised. Can it be cleaned, clayed, polished and waxed or should i stay away?

Can I use all my products (cleaner wax,clay,polish) on the gray (feels like painted plastic) or do I need to pick something up? (By the way do you know what it really is)?

Thanks,

Steve WC

[twinkride101]

Steve,

Yes you can wax, polish, etc to the stripes. Those kind of pen stripes were all the rage in the 90's, done by hand. I'm not into custom rides much anymore so I'm not sure if it's still a fad or not.

But simply yes you can treat it as your cars paint with one expection. Take car how long you buff it. Unless a coat of clearcoat was applied to the finish after the pen stripes were painted on then they are subject to high speed burnoff. I would immagine the PC would be fine. If you were using a orbital buffer I would take care near them.

Oh, and the other parts. Most front and rear bumpers on newer cars ARE painted plastic pieces. The paint has an additive that helps it not to become too rigid so that it can flex as the plastic molded bumpers will tend to do, otherwise you'll have many chips of paint coming off them. All my years in a body shop, I hated painting damn bumpers. Wet sanding them was even worse.
But to answer your question, you should be able to treat them the same way as the rest of the paint system on your ride. If indeed it is not a painted surface (can't tell from your pics) make sure you read the labels on your products to make sure they can be safely applied to plastic with no ill affects.

Hope that helps.