[garydee]

I finished up my Dad's 1641 quite a while ago, however, I came across this thread today while checking out this and that...
As it turns out, I decided not to paint the "plastic" after experimenting with various automotive polishing compounds to bring up the gloss and improve the overall look of the hood and side panels.
There is one other thing I tried that actually improved the color and the gloss as well...I used two solvents to clean and polish the surface. First, I used a clean white rag and quickly wiped a side panel first, with denatured alcohol, followed by a fast wipe (surface still wet with alcohol) with a fast lacquer thinner. I did this a few times to clean and gloss up the surface of each piece until I saw an improvement depending on the condition. I was quite satisfied with how this turned out and glad that I did not paint or clear coat any of the the "plastic".
The lacquer thinner was a bit too "hot" to use directly on the surface, so by applying the denatured alcohol first, it diluted the strength of the thinner...the results were very satisfactory...especially the color.