How do you whiten nylon plastic?

[3trxvintage]

Just curious on some ways on how to safely whiten nylon plastic. I have a few parts on my vintage vehicles that need whitening. Is peroxide safe to use? Any suggestions would be great thanks.

Will

[danielhr77]

Hydrogen Peroxide at 30 volumes, keep the parts soacked in it for many hours under the sun...



There are some parts, like the tranny case or the shocks on the SledgeHammer (and other trucks that use the same parts) that will become brittle, so, I don't recommend doing this to them if you're going to run the truck... Everything else is safe...

The parts will become yellowish again with time, you will start to see yellowish spots first and will lose it's whiteness slowly... So, it's nice to see a very white truck, but, it's also sad to see it become yellowish again after all the time and work to make it white...

Also, after doing this procedure, when you like how white they became, leave them soaked in water for a few days, if you can, change the water each day, the hydrogen peroxide will remove the anodize from the aluminum parts if not properly washed...

And, leave the parts alone for a couple of days until dry, water will damage your links and metal parts (pivot balls, screws, etc) if they are not dry...

[3trxvintage]

Thanks for the tips Daniel

[SRTracer121]

+1 to Daniels post. my experiences have been almost exactly the same using peroxide.

[dave00bear]

Peroxide and the sun are usually your best friends when it comes to the whitening process, I have done it several times with very nice results, There are some precautions to be taken (brittleness of certain parts of different material, etc. as Daniel mentioned. One thing to take note of, if you have any VTG RPM brand parts in white DO-NOT soak them in the H202, they will become even more yellowed!

Depending on the the amount of "yellowing" will prolong or lesson the time of soaking. I have also done this process indoors using a high powered UV light bulb (taking proper cautions) when sun and the heat was not available (winter time's here in Michigan) with very great results. I have used hair salon grade 30 vol. and also "brown bottle" H202 both mixed and alone.

A few key things in the whole H202 process is pre-washing/rinsing/drying the parts. Monitoring the "bath" and knowing when enough is enough. Metal/anodized parts can and will corrode/rust in the peroxide if not careful.

Just for example, I posted a few older pics of when I did my Hawk a few years back, (notice the tranny and shock colors vs the rest of the parts) But the final out come made them all look about the same.

[3trxvintage]

Thanks for all the tips guys. I am also curious if anyone has had any luck with whitening fiberglass in particular the SRT lower and upper decks. Would peroxide also work with fiberglass?

[danielhr77]

Good question! Winter is coming here, so, it's hard to have a good bright Sun to test it... I'm havinf a hard time trying to whiten the parts now...