Discolored plastic.

[DougLas]

Boats with plastic through hull and grill fittings. Or any other plastic that is outside exposed to the elements and ends up becoming discolored. Rather then replace them this is what I did.

The local body shop supply store will have a color match chart that can be used to match the color of the hull, "if that is the color that needs to be matched."
After the hull color is matched they can mix the paint to match the chart sample. Some of the bigger body shop supply stores can also put the paint in bomb cans. This makes it a lot easier for doing the job.
They will also have a plastic etch in a spray can to spray on the plastic parts so the paint will adhere to the plastic.

After sanding and rubbing out my 1990 39 Express last year I could not stand to see the yellowed, discolored through hulls and side air intake grills. So I took the intake grills off scrubbed them thoroughly with a scotch pad. After they were dry I sprayed them with the plastic prep then sprayed them with the paint that had been matched to the hull
For the through hulls I cleaned them on the boat then masked and painted them.
What a big difference that made in the look of the boat.

 

[chuck1]

Ok, maybe a dumb question, but why would you not replace the old thru-hull fittings. I can see painting the air intake grills. If the plastic thru-hull fittings are deteriorating that bad wouldn't it mean they need to be replaced?

 

[DougLas]

They were not bad or I would have replaced them. I did replace some bad ones though. The problem was they did not match the boat and had gotten stained.

 

[chuck1]

Gotcha, Sorry I misunderstood. I thought the sun/age had changed the color. Did you do any before and after photos?

 

[Skuza]

I woulda said the same thing about replacing them. If they are old enough which they definately are to be yellowing than they are probably getting brittle. You wouldn't want one of those cracking off under the wrong circumstances. Think of how much leverage is on them things with some of the big rubber hoses yanking on them.

 

[Quint4]

I used rustoleum for plastic on my engine room vents...not a perfect match but looks way better than the faded yellow.