How do you get back plastic back to black?

As per the subject..

Years of washing and polishing has left some of the unpainted plastics (air tubes etc) more a grey than black.

Is there a side way of getting them back to black?

e.g. If I spray ACF50 onto a rag and wipe them over, would that make it back and keep it black?

 

Alternatively you can pop to Helfrauds and get some of this.

Halfords | Autoglym Bumper and Trim Gel 325ml

 

A car valleter I know uses a paint stripper gun, he obviously uses it very carefully, on the black bumpers from cars like mk4 escorts & vw golfs, before they started coming with body colour bumpers, they come up like new & stay that way for a long time (I had my escort done a few years ago)
Problem with sprays is once they dry out or see some water the plastic turns back to the grey colour, so it may be worth a go,but I'm sure you don't need me to tell you to try on an inconspicuous area firstly, just to check it works for the material you use it on

 

Plenty of sprays on the market that are durable, both in matt, smooth and textured. All made for cars and they work well. Base prep is 99% of your finish. Just clean with panel wipe or similar and don't get greedy and try and finish with 1 blast, several coats is best.

 

Hey,
There's been quite a few suggestions made to you already and just want to give my take on them.
Firstly plastics will dry out from day to day usage things like cleaning & washing, enviromental contamints such as muck or tar or petrol, being out in the suns UV rays among some of them.

The only way to try and limit these is to use some sort of protector on them, thee range from the cheap pound land trim sprays which tend to be water based and don't last very long and wash off either in the rain or next vehicle wash all the way up to newer nano coatings which create a nano coating on the plastic and can last many many months before any signs of diminishing and requiring reapplication.

A couple of these nano trim protector that are highly recommended are Wolfs Chemicals Nano Trim Coat
Wolfs Chemical - Trim Coat (150ml) - Clean Your Car
Or
G-Techniq's c4 perminant trim restorer
Gtechniq - C4 Permanent Trim Restorer - Clean Your Car

I have not used the c4 (have used other g-technic products) but have used the Wolf's trim and it has lasted almost a year on a vehicle that's also had other Wolf Chemicals nano products applied and along with there nano wash and nano reparation spray every 3 or so months everything has been on a year and still shows signs of beading water.

So if you are looking for a long term product look into these nano coatings as a possibility bit more expensive to buy at first but last and last.

Next up the heat gun solution, I have used this many times and it does bring the black back to the plastics but it leaves the plastic more shiny and can remove or minimise any texture that's on the plastic or melt it out of shape if not careful in usage!
I tended to used this technique more for damaged plastics that were scratched to help minimise the damage by melting the plastic slightly so it filled the scratches or gouges. It can take quite a bit of practise in order to apply the same amount of heat to the while plastic trim, if this is not done correctly it can lead to a patchy look!

The use of acf-50 or wd40 tend to leave a greasy residue behind and dust tends to stick to this while out using the vehicle, other products that are designed specifically can have static reducers in there chemical makup or that don't leave a residue means the vehicle looks and stays cleaner for longer.

Hope some of this info helps out.

 

I got some Autoglym trim and bumper gel, slapped it on and it did the trick

Amazing how much muck comes off the trim when it's cleaned with a proper trim cleaner.
I guess its built up limescale and old polish/wax, but it was a lot more than I would expect.

Looks ... damn good now though

 

Wd-40 every time

 

Some great advice from others, but to answer your question- yes, it's what I use