Or you can buy Autoglym Bumper Care. It works a treat every time, brings them back to new. My mate uses it on his Elise and recommended it highly...if its good enuf for an Elise....lol

I just use some bumper trim polish. Works like normal polish, only its black so makes the plastic darker. Application is like normal polish, and it doesnt matter if you get it on the poaintwork, as it'll rub off when dry. Also seems to last ages, and comes up when you wash the car normally.

Takes longer than back to black, but i dont have to polish the car so often now to get all the streak marks left by the back to black off :D

in my position i am just going to buy a full body kit including the arches so i wont have to worry about the fading of them, but i think the best thing to do would to be just colour code your bumper and arches it might cost a few hundred (unless you do it your self) but it saves all the hassel of re polishing once a month and worrying about ur paint work getting polish on it,
-myk3

but isnt there a change of heating it too much and melting it?

thats what they do in the trade when selling corsas

Might give that a try somewhen then.

eh if you go over your arch with a heat gun it restores the natural color

Gets no more dirty than it would normally but I don't drive it that often at the moment so doesn't really get dirty but haven't noticed it to get any dirtier. I buff it in well and since I have been doing this it doesn't seem to rub off at all.

but when u wash ur car next time, dont u get the black shoe polish on your nice new sponge? and doesnt the shoe polish attract dirt so after a while it looks all yucky?

I have got the perfect answer to those of you with wheel arches which are no longer the same colour as the bumpers. If you have black bumpers and grey coloured wheel arches on your car try this:

Buy some black shoe polish and a stiff brush. Firstly wash your car including all your bumpers and arches and dry them. Put the shoe polish on your bumpers and wheel arches and buff it a little. If you get any shoe polish onto your paint work try and rub it off as soon as possible so you do not mess ruin your paint finish.

I have done this on my car and it looks great. As the polish it waxy the rain runs straight off. You might need to redo it once a month or so to ensure it stays looking good or if you wash your car quite often then maybe every 3 weeks or so (you'll have to judge it for yourself and do it when you think it needs doing again).

This is a very cheap way to keep your car looking good if you are short of money. It is time consuming to do but the results are worth it in the end and it only costs a few quid for all the items you need.