What's too aggressive for plastic panels?

[mcpp66]

I want to polish some fairly deep defects out of the plastic bumbers on my '07 silver Impala. My plan is to use my PC and start with Meg's SwirlX and a white LC pad. Then if necessary step up to UC. Then if that's not enough I'll step up to an orange pad, finally going to a Surbuf if the UC on orange isn't strong enough. My question is, in your experiences, are orange pads and surbuf pads too aggressive for plastic bumpers?

[Midnight1700]

You need to proceed with caution on heavy defects on plastics. The paint that's applied to plastics contain an different additive (can't think of the name of the additive right now, it's still to early yet, not enough coffee this morning). If you heat the paint up too much, it will bubble and peel like a snake. Take baby steps and take your time corrrecting painted plastics.

[SeaJay's]

Be very careful on plastic bumpers. They tend to heat up very quickly as plastic doesn't dissipate heat like metal.

[mcpp66]

Yeah, that's why I'm concerned about being too aggressive. I'm new to Surbuf pads but they seem to work great. Do they generate more or less heat that foam pads?

[Silverstone]

I can tell you that I polished my metal gas door with menzerna intensive polish, micro polish and later PO85rd - before I realized it was really PLASTIC. :o

I went over it with 5.5" pads as abrasive as orange and white pads, and even let each pad sit and rotate on the 5.5" round door for a couple seconds (just because it fit). All I got from it was a nice shiny gas door. :xyxthumbs:

I only realized my mistake weeks or maybe months after the fact, and so havent tried them on my bumpers yet, but I will.
I have used Klasse AIO though, and it shines them nicely - but I don't think any of it would take out any serious defects though.

On my car the plastic is pigmented, not painted as someone mentioned, so they cant really be corrected AFAIK.

[mcpp66]

I just used my PC, a white LC pad, and some Meg's UC. Lot of little defects still there, but it looks better so I'll probably just leave it at that.