How to "age" plastic parts

[Bad Moon Guitars]

Is there a tecnique for "aging" plastic parts? I have some white "Strat" parts ( pickguard, knobs, etc.) that I would like to make look old . If anyone knows the process, please help.

Thanks,

Keith

[JohnJohn]

Check in with a place that supplies theater and movie places with stuff.Large costume rental places usually have stuff that may help.Also check local art supply stores.For adding aging to white maybe lightly and evenly sand with 1500 aplly some transparent yellow thinly and use a swirl remover to polish it back up.

[Brian]

Sure would make for a great tutorial if somebody was up to it

[butnut]

I had good results with Kiwi brown shoe polish. Most plastics have some kind of 'mold release' or wax that makes it kinda slippery...try alcohol, naptha or watered down lacquer thinner to wipe the plastic first (try any chemical in an unseen place first). Rub the Kiwi on with a rag and wipe off...if the polish 'stains' it and color does'nt come off (it will get a little lighter) you can go ahead and do the whole piece. I've found by leaving it on longer or repeated applications will make it darker. It may rub off some on high contact areas, but dark and light rubs look more authentic anyway...I just rub more brown on later.

[Lex Luthier]

I will be experimenting with this for my 1960 relic Strat project. What I'm thinking would work is scuffing the PG, and then re-buffing it, but less so in certain areas to absorb more stain. For the yellowing I've heard coffee works, I wonder if even just sticking the thing outside in direct sunlight for a week would work, or even sticking it in front of a UV lamp, not sure if you can buy those though. For the knobs I used perminet marker on one of my Strat's once. I colored one section at a time, like the top, then skirt etc., and quikly wiped it off, and it seemed to tint the plastic somewhat, probably not easy to do on an entire PG though. I wonder if with a perminent marker, you could open the thing up, smear the ink all over the PG, then QUICKLY wipe it all off vigerously, and if it was too dark in some areas, buff it lighter. Hmmmmmm...I may try that perminent marker thing on my relic Strat when I get to that point.

[DaveK]

I scuff it down with NAPTHA, then brush with steel wool & apply "strategic scratches"

After that I apply india ink & wipe it off

I then apply brown shoe polish in certain areas

Then buff it

Then airbrush tobaco brown dye

then buff out the areas that would be worn down from hanrd contact.

Just a heads up...White pickguards did not age & yellow NEARLY as much as the 3 ply green ones!

Be careful on how much you age them, a white one that is too old looking is a dead giveaway of a relicer that has not done their homework (I speak from experience)

Have fun...relicing is a BLAST

Dave

[ryeisnotcool2]

well also if you smoke or know someone who does buy them a few packs and have them chain smoke and blo it al on the plastic! that should help, i heard tea works well to.

[Drak]

On other sites, it's a very popular relic'ing technique to soak all plastic parts in 'hot' (maybe boiling, don't know) coffee or tea, they had their preferences, but that ain't my bag, I don't remember what variety works best...

They would know at the TDPRI and the WeberVST guitar forums, that's where those guys hang...FWIW...

[Snork]

i have u/v leds. they're mad cheap. you could probably do that and put them in a box with a bunch of burning cigarrettes. Leave em' in there for about a day. then try teh coffee thing. I'll most likely do that with my lace sensor p/us when they come....... ahhhhhhhhhh

[Guest AlexVDL]

sigarette smoke only works if you keep the sigarette as close as possible to the plastic part, so the hot smoke will burn into the plastic. Otherwise you just wipe off the brown nicotine.....

[iamlost]

don't old strat pickguards go mint coloured has anybody managed to do that

[Hotrock]

Check through the past threads of the finishing section. I'm pretty sure that there's a discussion about it. Possibly in the relicing thread.