Restoring faded red switches

[kpke]

Does anybody have a solution for restoring the finish on the faded red switches?

I'm kind of hoping for a chemical restoration process. The sanding and other methods I've tried so far are going to take much too long.

Other than that I am ready for reassembly.

[rlgrantjr]

There are restoration products you could try but I don't think they would work for really heavily oxidized plastic. I'm not confident there's a way around
mechanically removing that thick oxidation layer.  There are probably chemicals that would remove the layer, but you may be left with a melted, uneven surface that does not look good.

[Striker1423]

is there an aftermarket rocker switch you could buy?

[m in sc]

soak it in red dye or food coloring? would require to disable it but worth a shot. 

[rlgrantjr]

A different situation entirely but I restored my XR500 plastic tank many years ago that was heavily oxidized. The oxidation was just stupid thick. It was a lot of scraping and sanding through finer and finer grits, then polishing and finishing.  A lot of work but it came out great.

[oxford]

 I idea if it would work or not but I've seen videos of guys bringing back the black on faded bumper covers and wheel flares with a heat gun.

[kpke]

Thanks for the replies gents. I tried a few different things and then...the heat gun. I'll be damned. I did one set and the results were quite good. It's very tricky. I'll do a video on this process.

A friend notified me of replacement switch blocks also from AUS. I had no idea. They might have some AC stuff too.

https://www.japbikespares.com/yamaha-rz350-style-handlebar-switch-block-assy-start-headlight-indicator-horn

[m in sc]

i'll have to try the heat gun, i have one that's pretty pink. interesting. 

[irk_miller]

WD-40 and steel wool.  I use steel wool bits and a dremel.

Here is an example of some Skyway rims I am restoring:

[Striker1423]

Worked in plastics for years. Any time we re-melted plastics the color would be just a slight shade lighter, but hardly noticeable. Oxidized plastic becomes shiny again as you apply heat because the plastic is remelting at it's outer molecules and reflowing to itself. The colorant never leaves the plastic, but slowly degrades unless more is added to the mix.

Nylon is hard to burn, but only requires low heat to melt. Acetal (ABS) is hard and good for crunch zones on cars, but lights on fire quickly past its melting point and stinks like acetone and formaldehyde. Good to breath that in haha. Polycarbonate hold moisture content and requires the lowest melting point. Makes for tough parts with good flex (think shock tower covers for toyota, etc.).

Those switches are either poly or nylon.

[rodneya]

This guy 3d prints all kinds of RD bits. He may be able to make you some RZ stuff. Just join the Yamaha RD Air Cooled facebook group to contact him.

[kpke]

More smart replies. Thanks fellas.

I have no idea what material these red switches are made of. But it was quite interesting using the heat gun. Using the high heat setting, applied the heat momentarily, then removed it, and kept doing it. Then on corners and edges the color starts changing. Keep going on the process trying to direct the heat to the center portion which is basically impossible. But eventually the "new" color just starts magically appearing and takes over. I would agree that it's not as brilliant as the original color but a huge improvement over the white or pink color. Thanks again!

[m in sc]

this is some fantastic advice here in this thread. well, not mine, but everyone elses. 

[msr]

This guy 3d prints all kinds of RD bits. He may be able to make you some RZ stuff. Just join the Yamaha RD Air Cooled facebook group to contact him.

Semi-relatedly, I have high/low beam switch parts for my '73 RD350 coming from this guy - both the internal and external parts. I'll be interested to see how well they work.

[kpke]

11/23/22

I went into production on my best attempt at restoring the plastic switches on the handlebar switchgear. I was mostly successful and most of the red plastic switches came out looking fairly good. Certainly a whole lot better than the whitish pinkish faded parts they were. The process is extremely sensitive and it is quite easy to melt the plastic with a heat gun. It also took way too looooooooong. The gray plastic switches I was able to get away with just scraping it with a razor blade.

First I purposely set the heat gun down on one of the parts I was going to restore just to show you what would happen if you fucking do this. This did not help much.




I found that razor blade scraping first then using the heat gun worked best.




Before and after shots.










Video here.