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Found 'the stuff' on Amazon for $89/30ml ... is this about the right price?I promised some more info on another use I found for the Ceramic coating liquid I applied to the exterior paint..
It turns out - it also works great on plastic surfaces, in particular faded black plastic, and shows promise of being a very long lasting, non-greasy, no-fumes coating.
I started out with this when I was coating the lid over the convertible top well. On the 987 (and I expect 986 since they're basically the same) there is a hard plastic lip on the inner edge of the lid. Over time this plastic had faded and while applying the usual coatings seemed to work for a while, it was rare that it looked good even a week after application. I ended up coating this plastic with the ceramic since it was hard not to do when putting the ceramic coating on the painted lid. I was a bit surprised and quite pleased to see the plastic go from a faded slightly gray color to a deep glossy finish black.
It's been over 3 weeks since I did this job, the car has been washed a number of times and that plastic remains looking like new..
So - I decided to play a bit more with the plastic. One common complaint on all the 987 Boxsters/Caymans (and likely all Porsches of the era) is the black plastic cowl at the bottom of the windshield (where the wipers come through the body) with age turns porous and dull gray in color. I decided to try the ceramic coating on it and see what would happen. I did the usual prep of cleaning the surface well with a water/alcohol mix and then gave it three coats, rubbing it out between coats and waiting about 30 minutes between coats.
This is the result:
View attachment 283461
And
View attachment 283462
It basically looks like new. And I expect it will continue to look like new for hopefully a long time. Since it's not greasy at all it's way easier to apply than the usual plastic trim goop. And it forms a hard layer coating over the porous plastic - the porosity of the plastic likely allows it to adhere better.
Since this all went well.. I went back to the inside of the car. My interior is a dark blue (looks black in some light conditions). It is 13 years old, and the plastic seemed to have faded a bit with age and sun exposure. The panels on the doors tended to get white marks on them if I rubbed anything hard against them. The dash was clean, but looked dry - a very dull finish with no gloss.
So - I decided to try the ceramic coating again. I tested in an inconspicuous spot (not-), the center of the dash panel. I cleaned the entire dash with my usual water/alcohol mix than using the applicator from the kit applied the coating, using a cross-hatch pattern. At the junction of the dash and windshield, I needed to remove the foam block and just used the applicator cloth with some coating fluid on it - and fingers. After about 1 minute of dry time, I buffed off what was remaining then did a second coat (and buffing).
How'd it turn out?
View attachment 283463
I think it turned out pretty darn good for a 13-year-old dash. It has a nice subtle shine to it, the color is deeper and more uniform (bluer too..), and given the properties of the coating there shouldn't be outgassing depositing a film on the inside of the windshield (an issue with any silicone based coating.) I also did the door panels - with similar results. It seemed 2 coats were good since that made sure there were no missed spots.
I see one or two vendors are selling ceramic coating kits specifically for trim/dash/plastic surfaces. In this case - I have to suspect it's exactly the same stuff they sell for paint, just rebottled.
Good stuff - I hope it holds up as well as I expect it to. I'll try to remember to report back periodically on how it holds up. One big plus for it - it's dead simple to apply. It literally took about 2 minutes per coat to do the cowl plastic, and not a lot longer to do the dash.
The stuff I used: https://a.co/d/dJ95VNU
