Those grey plastic handles and table trims


 
G

George in NJ

TVWBB Member
So curious what's the best way to clean the grey plastic parts? Is there a way to keep them from fading? Also is there any way to keep the oil from staining them? I know wishful thinking it's only a grill ya know. Might as well not cook on it LOL. I've just saw Rick W dye his which is quite interesting too. Thanks in advance!
 
Yah, I dyed the lid handle and knobs on my latest rehab. They came out great. The side handles were already black. But I did dye a set of the gray handles as well and they came out great as well.

But, here is how I clean them up for my rehabs.
I get a green 3M scrubby and douse it with straight bleach. Then wet down the handle and start scrubbing it with the green scrubby while keeping the scrubby soaked with bleach. I have found very few stains that I couldnt remove this way. Then, simply rinse it with water and let it dry. When it is dry, spray it with some kind of vinyl protectant. I use Aerospace 303 protectant as it has very good UV protection properties. You could use Armor All or a number of others as well. This will bring back the new sheen to the plastic. It might take a second coat of the protectant as the plastic tends to soak it up. You can use the same method on the Thermoset tables and the Durawood slats. Sometimes #0000 steel wool works better than the green scrubbies too.

Here are some handles I did that way prior to dying them.
handles.JPG

madison.craigslist.org

***SOLD***Weber Genesis Silver C - 3 Burner w/side burner LP gas...

***SOLD*** I have a completely refurbished three burner Weber Genesis Silver C propane gas grill...
madison.craigslist.org
 
Bruce said:
Yah, I dyed the lid handle and knobs on my latest rehab. They came out great. The side handles were already black. But I did dye a set of the gray handles as well and they came out great as well.

But, here is how I clean them up for my rehabs.
I get a green 3M scrubby and douse it with straight bleach. Then wet down the handle and start scrubbing it with the green scrubby while keeping the scrubby soaked with bleach. I have found very few stains that I couldnt remove this way. Then, simply rinse it with water and let it dry. When it is dry, spray it with some kind of vinyl protectant. I use Aerospace 303 protectant as it has very good UV protection properties. You could use Armor All or a number of others as well. This will bring back the new sheen to the plastic. It might take a second coat of the protectant as the plastic tends to soak it up. You can use the same method on the Thermoset tables and the Durawood slats. Sometimes #0000 steel wool works better than the green scrubbies too.

madison.craigslist.org

***SOLD***Weber Genesis Silver C - 3 Burner w/side burner LP gas...

***SOLD*** I have a completely refurbished three burner Weber Genesis Silver C propane gas grill...
madison.craigslist.org
Click to expand...

When you say 3M scrubby are you talking about the Scotch-Brites? I would think that they were too abrasive and end up roughing up the surface.
1595125876062.png
But then again you indicated #0000 steel wool so I guess the plastic can handle it just fine?
 
George in NJ said:
So curious what's the best way to clean the grey plastic parts? Is there a way to keep them from fading? Also is there any way to keep the oil from staining them? I know wishful thinking it's only a grill ya know. Might as well not cook on it LOL. I've just saw Rick W dye his which is quite interesting too. Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
George,
My experience with dying the plastic parts got the same great results like Bruce did. I did the two plastic ends and the handle and they came out perfect. Just to clarify, referring to Bruce's cleaning process, I you are thinking about the dye technique, then you would not proceed to put on the vinyl protectant.
My recipe for the black dye was 3 gallons of water to which I added about 2 cups of acetone while the water is still cool, then heated it up to about 200 F, added one bottle of the Rit Dyemore Graphite color , then added the pieces and cooked them for about 20 to 30 minutes.
Is this similar to what you did Bruce?
One final note that I think has been stressed already, I would do this outside, preferably on a single element electric hotplate, I got mine at Walmart for $13. Avoid open flames if at all possible!
After seeing these results, I am going to go back and dye my knobs and switches on the Silver C that I just completed.
Good luck!
 
Rick, that is a good point. Don't put on the protectant if you are planning to dye the parts after cleaning them up.

I believe I used a lot more dye than you did. I used dye a 12% ratio to water and acetone at a 5% ratio.
 
Bruce said:
Rick, that is a good point. Don't put on the protectant if you are planning to dye the parts after cleaning them up.

I believe I used a lot more dye than you did. I used dye a 12% ratio to water and acetone at a 5% ratio.
Click to expand...
Just curious, where did you get those ratios? And what was your volume of water, how many bottles of dye and total volume of acetone?
for me, the hardest thing was finding an appropriate vessel to use that would accommodate the long handle.
 
Rick, I bought a SS steam table pan or salad bar pans. The kind that sit recessed into a buffet at a restaurant. THey come in a lot of sizes but I still had to do one end at a time on the lid handle. It holds the frame end handles just perfectly though.
I used 40 cups of water, 5 bottles of dye and about 2 cups of acetone.
 
Bruce, I am no expert, but that sounds like a lot of dye for 2.5 gallons...go big or go home I guess!
I am assuming it was the Dyemore product?
 
Rick W said:
George,
My experience with dying the plastic parts got the same great results like Bruce did. I did the two plastic ends and the handle and they came out perfect. Just to clarify, referring to Bruce's cleaning process, I you are thinking about the dye technique, then you would not proceed to put on the vinyl protectant.
My recipe for the black dye was 3 gallons of water to which I added about 2 cups of acetone while the water is still cool, then heated it up to about 200 F, added one bottle of the Rit Dyemore Graphite color , then added the pieces and cooked them for about 20 to 30 minutes.
Is this similar to what you did Bruce?
One final note that I think has been stressed already, I would do this outside, preferably on a single element electric hotplate, I got mine at Walmart for $13. Avoid open flames if at all possible!
After seeing these results, I am going to go back and dye my knobs and switches on the Silver C that I just completed.
Good luck!
Click to expand...
I don't think im going to dye mine at the moment. I did power wash them them once but yes probably would be a good idea to use some sort of vinyl/plastic protectant like ArmorAll so it has that coating on it. I will definitely keep the dye recipe for when I am ready to go that route.
 
You can also try vinegar. Or grill cleaner (aka sodium hydroxide, or lye). Or a combination of the above, but separately. Don't mix chemicals! I worked with a guy whose father ultimately died because he mixed bleach with some other household cleaner.

Be sure to test on a small area first, but I think plastics are generally resistant to these chemicals.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

 

Back
Top