Decraguard and "Back to Black"

[MikeMac]

For the old Classic owners out there still trying to maintain the Decraguard on your exterior cabin bulkhead, I may have found a new solution. Mothers makes a product for exterior plastic and rubber trim on cars called Back to Black. I recently tried some on the faded vinyl wheel lip flares on my Jeep Cherokee. They were originally black, but had faded over the years to a dull gray. Back to Black is a "restorer" that eventually after a bunch of rubbing with a terry cloth towel, and repeated applications, brings the offending plastic part back to it's original color. It isn't a colored wax or a dye, it seems to revive the original surface with some sort of penetrating finish that works on any color. I next tried it on a faded red plastic switch on my old BMW bike with pretty good results.

Anyway yesterday I was down at the boat and thought I'd try some on my bulkhead, since Decraguard is a vinyl polyester, and it seemed to bring back the color pretty nicely. I only tried a test spot so I don't have the whole bulkhead done, but it might be another option for the older boats. It's not a "wipe-on, wipe-off process", it really requires a bit of elbow grease.

Mike

[jimandlaurie]

And..
If you are in the Puget Sound area, I have contact information in case you would like work done on your Decraguard interior.
This young man was trained by Chuck, the Master interior designer and cabinet maker at C-Dory.
He now works at the custom yacht builder Nordlund in Tacoma, and let me know he would be happy to do some side work for C-Dory owners.