Heat Gun vs. Products for Trim - Risks?

[courtdale]

10 year old Black BMW, trim is awful. I've seen both methods mentioned above (heat gun, C4 etc). I'm pretty set on trying the heat gun method first. I've seen some posts from people mentioning the heat gun, and talking about "risks", but not what they are. Two questions:

1. Heat gun risks - are we talking about damaging the trim, or the surrounding body paint/CC?

2. Are all heat guns created equal (for this job anyway)? i.e. - could I get away with a $25 model from Lowes?

[Flash Gordon]

The Heatgun works, and will last alittle longer then Dressing, but it takes much longer and is near immpossible to keep an even flow

[vinyldoctor]

Interiors sometimes use stuff that high heat can damage.
i.e. flockbacked vinyl instead of clothbacked vinyl. different leathers.

[Flash Gordon]

Interiors sometimes use stuff that high heat can damage.
i.e. flockbacked vinyl instead of clothbacked vinyl. different leathers.

I was hoping the OP was talkin exterior trim :o I wouldn't recommend using a heatgun on interior panels ;)

Thanks for clarifying that vinyldoc :props:

[courtdale]

I was hoping the OP was talkin exterior trim :o I wouldn't recommend using a heatgun on interior panels ;)

Thanks for clarifying that vinyldoc :props:


I am talking exterior. Heat gun really takes that long? I watched someone hitting an older Jetta on a YouTube vid, and it looked like it was almost instantaneous. Maybe strength of gun?

[IOMCAMARO]

I am talking exterior. Heat gun really takes that long? I watched someone hitting an older Jetta on a YouTube vid, and it looked like it was almost instantaneous. Maybe strength of gun?

The heat can cause damage to the surrounding paint. You still need to seal the trim after your restore it with the heat gun.

[Jimmie]

Yes, the heat gun can blister your paint. 3M makes an eraser wheel that can be used with your battery operated drill that works great. The guy at the auto paint supply told me 3M was the only one he felt confident wouldn't harm paint. A little costly (35), but I'm glad that I bought it. 10X faster than a heat gun which we used for some of the job.

[courtdale]

Yes, the heat gun can blister your paint. 3M makes an eraser wheel that can be used with your battery operated drill that works great. The guy at the auto paint supply told me 3M was the only one he felt confident wouldn't harm paint. A little costly (35), but I'm glad that I bought it. 10X faster than a heat gun which we used for some of the job.

Nice. Just looked it up. I may try this instead of the gun, only concern would be eating too much of the trim up while grinding??

I have 2 nasty gashes (one rear bumper, one side door trim), hoping I might be able to smooth them out a little with this.

Thanks

[Jimmie]

Nice. Just looked it up. I may try this instead of the gun, only concern would be eating too much of the trim up while grinding??

I have 2 nasty gashes (one rear bumper, one side door trim), hoping I might be able to smooth them out a little with this.

Thanks

It will eat the trim. It will leave a jagged edge. You won't be able to smooth trim with this tool.
I'd caution against something like an exacto to change shape, and make the edge look more smooth. That has always been a temporary fix for me that looks worse later.
Better IMO to remove old, and buy new trim/striping.

[Mike Phillips]

10 year old Black BMW, trim is awful.




When you say the trim is awful do you mean,


1. Lots of polish and wax residue that has turned white and unsightly

2. Black color of trim has faded to a light gray



:)

[courtdale]

When you say the trim is awful do you mean,


1. Lots of polish and wax residue that has turned white and unsightly

2. Black color of trim has faded to a light gray


:)

Hard to say Mike, most descriptive term I have to offer is "faded". If I was forced to choose, based on the condition of the rest of the car, I'm going to say that this car was rarely polished and occaisionally waxed... at best.

[Jimmie]

Whoa! If you are talking your black plastic trim I've given you the worst advice ever. When you mentioned heat gun my thoughts went to decals/vinyl stripes type. If it's the other disregard everything I said.

[courtdale]

Whoa! If you are talking your black plastic trim I've given you the worst advice ever. When you mentioned heat gun my thoughts went to decals/vinyl stripes type. If it's the other disregard everything I said.

Hah. Yes. Talking exterior plastic/rubber, sides, bumpers etc. Guess we're back to the heat gun??

[tuscarora dave]

If you don't like the way the trim product works you can clean it back off with some good APC. If you don't like what the heat gun does you can't undo it with APC. I have used a heat gun to darken some old grayed trim pieces on an old beater car and it looked better but like Flash said, it was not as even looking as I would have liked it to be. I placed 2 layers of 2" blue painter's tape over the paint on either side of the trim to keep the paint from getting too hot and it worked well. If you do this you may want to have some 3M adhesive remover handy as while the tape did protect the paint from getting too hot it did leave some adhesive behind on the paint that easily cleaned up with the adhesive remover.

I suggest (if you use the heat gun method) that you first use some undiluted APC on a cotton terry towel and really scrub the heck out of the trim to get all the dirt and old wax residue out/off of the trim and it will look better after heated.

[WEST SIDE]

C4,yea it's pricey but it works really well and you don't have to worry about any damage.

Ken