How to remove sun fade with baking soda

[Moab]

How to remove sun fade with baking soda.

These guys pulled a sun faded dash out of a barn. That had a ton of sun fade and dirt and grime. And hit it with baking soda and a scrub brush. The results are pretty amazing. And would work even better on a dark grey interior. I'm really surprised they got rid of sun fade with this process. I thought nothing but paint would work. But of course this baking soda method requires you remove the dash (or whatever plastic piece your trying to clean.) But still. A great way to remove sun fade. I'm going to use this on my seat belt covers and other trim pieces that have been sun faded from the PO's leaving it out in the sun with the top off.

I don't know what happens to plastic when it gets sun faded. Or how this process actually works to remove it. It's apparently more of a residue that can be removed. Rather than the plastic having the color permanently removed by the sun. Which is what I always thought.

And if nothing else this is a great way to prep for paint. It really gets into the texture and cleans out all the dirt and grime very very well. I'm going to use baking soda and some dawn next time on my plastic pieces.

 

[Chris]

Here is yet another use for baking soda I didn’t know about.

 

[fuse]

That's a lot of abrasive. They're probably just removing the top layer of plastic that had faded, which seems fine.

I wonder if that would work on older fender flares.

 

[jeepins]

Neutral abrasive.. would seem to work. Paint & Body shops have used barkeepers friend same way. Just a neutral scrubbing agent.

 

[Moab]

So I got my seats used from a junkyard. And they smell like old man's sweat. Makes the whole inside of my Jeep smell stale. So my mother researched what to do about it. And the answer was baking soda. You sprinkle the baking soda on the seat fabric. Let it sit. And then vacuum it up. Pretty funny. Baking soda for the win.

I'm also going to dilute carpet cleaning solution in a spray bottle. And use my shop vac to suck it up. As the seats are slightly dirty too. We had a carpet cleaner with an upholstery attachment. But the handle broke. Kind of wish we'd kept it anyway. Just to use the upholstery attachment. But I think the suction on my shop vac would rival any carpet cleaner.

 

[Reign Mack]

can turn cocaine into crack or clean your dashboard

 

[FishinSam]

Baking soda soak and shop vac killed a lot of the dank PO's 'scent in my 99 Sahara. For the sun fade, I'm gonna hydrodip the dash and doors after I make molds of the door panels (changing the pocket/pouch for speaker pods, embedded leds and a decent grab handles) for a fiberglass rebuild.
Isolation ain't a bad thing...

 

[TrueTexas]

Baking soda and a toothbrush cleaned the 20 years of dirt and grime off my frame remarkably well.

 

[Moab]

Baking soda soak and shop vac killed a lot of the dank PO's 'scent in my 99 Sahara. For the sun fade, I'm gonna hydrodip the dash and doors after I make molds of the door panels (changing the pocket/pouch for speaker pods, embedded leds and a decent grab handles) for a fiberglass rebuild.
Isolation ain't a bad thing...

I gotta do this. The junkyard seats I have smell like old man. BAD. Maybe that will get the smell out. That and changing the carpet.

 

[FishinSam]

I gotta do this. The junkyard seats I have smell like old man. BAD. Maybe that will get the smell out. That and changing the carpet.

Pull the covers right off the seats and powder the crap out of the inner foam layer - or replace it if it's moldy or crumbling. It will make a world of difference.