veneering on plastic/car door panels

[beaver]

Hi Guys
Sounds a silly question, but i have a 97 Monterey 4x4 in mint condition with very low mileage, the only trouble is the doors have imitation walnut door inserts which on inspection are a 6mm plastic and very faded/worn, these are no longer available and in my quest to keep the car original i wondered if i could use a real veneer over the top of these. anyone know if this should be possible.
Regards

 

[adidat]

With the right glue, this should be doable. Something like the west epoxy system?? I'm not sure wether you would need to veneer both sides to stop it curling up.


Adidat

 

[powertools]

Have you tried to polish up the plastic with a fine compound this could give better results than veneer.

 

[twothumbs]

Not the answer you are looking for but you get spray cans to rejuvenate plastic parts , bumpers, etc (Halfords, etc) Garages and machine shops use it to freshen up parts. Works well on my plastic lawnmowers. Wellk worth a try first. It works on all colours so not restricted. Best wishes.

 

[marcros]

there is the stuff that jimi43 recommends designed originally for polishing fighter plane "windscreens". Was it Maas or Naas polish or something like that?

 

[Lons]

On the subject of polishing though it may not improve the fading it's worth a go.
You can buy Perspex "acrylic" polish in grades 1 and 2 which are intended for polishing acrylic edges to a mirror finish. Brasso is also an alternative.
it's a long time since I was in the plastics industry but I'm sure it will still be available though one of the distributors such as Amari Plastcs. I have some but you couldn't be much further away from me :lol:

Bob

 

[Roughcut]

There is another option that is available and it is called water transfer dipping.
Here is an example of what can be done: http://www.decordip.co.uk/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6gjArwuIWE

 

[yetloh]

I ame sure epoxy and real veneer will work just fine as long as the present pleatic surface is flat.

Jim

 

[adidat]

I ame sure epoxy and real veneer will work just fine as long as the present pleatic surface is flat.

Jim

with a vacuum press or the correct female/male moulds there is no reason you couldn't veneer on a curve, at least one axis, and if the curves weren't to large you could get away with both axis.

adidat

 

[andersonec]

Is this wood veneer going to be rain/ sun/ UV resistant?

 

[beaver]

Thanks for all the advice, i will try the polishing first before using veneer, I will let you know how i get on
Regards