E36- grey valance under the bumpers

On my 94 325i, there is a body colored strip under the rear bumper,
and below that is a grey panel, which I assume is some kind of
plastic. It wraps around to the read wheel wells. I've done a lot to
work to get this car looking pretty good overall, but that grey panel
had some tar and goop on it and might also be a bit faded. I was using
some J-Wax Scratch Out on another part of the car, so I tried it on a
bit of the grey panel, and it seemed to clean it up to look like new.
When I cleaned it with the Scrath-Out, quite a bit of grey came off on
the applicator, making me think that maybe it the color goes all the
way through the piece and I had just polished away the top layer. Now
I'm wondering whether I should wax it, or use something like Armour-
All, or just leave it like is. Any suggestions?

Thanks,

David

On Jun 16, 5:43 am, John Burns <j... DeleteThis @unixnerd.demon.co.uk> wrote:
> > On my 94 325i, there is a body colored strip under the rear bumper,
> > and below that is a grey panel, which I assume is some kind of
> > plastic. It wraps around to the read wheel wells. I've done a lot to
> > work to get this car looking pretty good overall, but that grey panel
> > had some tar and goop on it and might also be a bit faded. I was using
> > some J-Wax Scratch Out on another part of the car, so I tried it on a
> > bit of the grey panel, and it seemed to clean it up to look like new.
> > When I cleaned it with the Scrath-Out, quite a bit of grey came off on
> > the applicator, making me think that maybe it the color goes all the
> > way through the piece and I had just polished away the top layer. Now
> > I'm wondering whether I should wax it, or use something like Armour-
> > All, or just leave it like is. Any suggestions?
>
> On my 93 I had it painted to match the rest of the car, I think that's
> the best idea.
>
I thought of that, too, because I just painted the strip above the
rubber insert, which is body color on my 94 (but grey on my wife's
92). I ordered a spray can of Boston Green online, and it was a
perfect match. I was doing the final polish on that with the Scratch
Out when I tried it on the grey, but it looks so good that I abandoned
the idea of painting the grey. since I just refinished the rocker
panels in grey, I'll probably just leave it for now, but if either one
doesn't keep it's "like new" look, I might do all the grey in body
color.

Thanks for the reply.