I noticed today that the the plastic by the wipers has faded really bad. Anyone else have this problem?

I think the popular ways of restoring plastics are to use a heatgun (thread here somewhere) to "burn off" the faded/oxidized layer.

Or repaint them (threads abound on this like this one (http://www.clubxterra.org/forums/showthread.php?t=18586)). I went with the latter.

Yep! I took the cowl off and cleaned it real good and painted it with Krylon Fusion Satin Black.

I used a heat gun, but it doesn't "burn off" anything. There was no oxidation on my cowl; it was simply faded. The heat gun brings the injection-molded plastic up to a near melting temp and renews the color. See below:
Restored my sun faded wiper cowling today. It's looked bad since I bought the X in December of '08, and I never got around to doing anything with it, but since I recently bought a heat gun to do the melt mod in preparation for my new tires, I figured now was a good time to restore the cowl. Thanks to mbrown7292 for posting a video of the technique (http://www.clubxterra.org/forums/showthread.php?t=11443&highlight=painting+plastic) a while back.

http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l311/evolucion7/Xterra/Cowlfaded.jpg
http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l311/evolucion7/Xterra/Cowlrefreshed.jpg


And yes, that bolt cap on the wiper arm has been missing since it was new. :)

Thanks for the heat gun tip! I am going to try that before i repaint it.

u could also try this product called bondo restore black if u dont feel comfortable painting it, its like 9 dollars from walmart, i put it on mine a couple months ago and its still holding strong....its just a gel like substance, you just brush it on let it sit a couple minutes and wipe off any excess and it looks great

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emlrb38YHgI&feature=related

"back to black" works ok, but is not a permanent fix, "trim shine" is ok too

Someone at Autozone told me about Back to Black, and I rushed out and got it. It made my bumpers and other plastics look better, but after I while I just went back to my regular Armorall. I always get great results with that stuff.

I've never heard of painting the plastic until I joined here. I like the idea of never treating these parts again (it's a never-ending job).