Scratches on black window trim

[rlestra5]

I was cleaning bird droppings from the black window trim around one of the windows on my car. I used a terry cloth towel with some water. Afterward, I saw scratches on the trim where I had wiped; I couldn`t understand how this happened. Now I`m looking for a way to get these scratches out, not just hide them. I`ve made this post in a few other forums and apparently it`s important whether the trim is textured or hard plastic. It doesn`t look textured, it just looks like the standard plastic (painted?) black trim that lines most of today`s cars. The scratches are a few inches long vertically and don`t look incredibly deep (I can`t see through to metal or anything like that). How can I fix this?

[Grimm]

Sounds like my car. What does the trim feel like? Mine has trim around the door windows that looks like painted plastic, but it`s actually pretty soft and I have marred it rubbing too hard with a mf. Nothing so far has helped fix it, but I found using Collinite 845 wax does make it look better and shiny again.

[Accumulator]

rlestra5- Welcome to Autopia!



The black plastic trim around some of the side glass on my Audis has to be abrasively polished just like paint. You can only do this to a certain extent, however...some damage is just too bad. If you correct deep problems the plastic seems to lose its UV resistance and it just oxidizes right away (gotta replace in those cases).



The same approach can sometimes be used on soft rubber trim, but you gotta be *very* careful to use the right product (lest you leave white stains) and/or make the problem worse. Not sure what currently-available product to recommend for that :think: