Black Plastic Trim Question

[helvetical]

I am new to this forum and have a question about how to remove or reduce the appearance of scratches from glossy black plastic trim.





Like a bezel on a Flat Screen TV , the FJ Cruiser`s high mount brake light is mounted in the center of a plastic trim panel just above the rear window. This plastic in not painted but rather like the "piano black" plastic on electronics. This is a very soft plastic and impossible to not scratch.





My question : what is the best product and method to repair these scratches.



Any feedback would be greatly appreciated and if this material has been addressed in another post, as it is a popular choice for trim on other vehicles, please reference a link to the original posting.



Thank You.

[imported_dirtdiggler]

I have an FJ in silver as well and what I use to remove the scratches is my Porter Cable polisher with white pad and meguiar`s 205

[ten39]

An OTC plastic polish should take care of your issues. Mothers makes one, as does Meguiars. You should be able to find either one fairly easily.



Meguiars also has a two part system as part of their professional line, but that might be harder to locate locally, depending on your location.

[Accumulator]

I have an FJ in silver as well and what I use to remove the scratches is my Porter Cable polisher with white pad and meguiar`s 205



He has the same vehicle, so he oughta know :D



FWIW, on my Yukon`s black plastic, M205 left a finish that was *initially* very nice. But overnight the polishing oils/etc. dissipated and the resultant finish looked pretty bad the next day. I redid it with ZAIO (coulda used KAIO instead) and that fixed things. Just thought it might be worth mentioning.



helvetical- Welcome to Autopia!



I`ve gradually come to the conclusion that, most of the time, plastic polishes don`t really work much, if any, better than polishes made for paint. There are always exceptions though....

[MSOsr]

I used a hand glaze to get rid of my minor scratches (CTS-V dash). What do people recommend for finishing the job after the scratches are gone? Do you put a sealer/wax/or anything to protect the piano black?



Mike

[Ron Ketcham]

He has the same vehicle, so he oughta know :D



FWIW, on my Yukon`s black plastic, M205 left a finish that was *initially* very nice. But overnight the polishing oils/etc. dissipated and the resultant finish looked pretty bad the next day. I redid it with ZAIO (coulda used KAIO instead) and that fixed things. Just thought it might be worth mentioning.



helvetical- Welcome to Autopia!



I`ve gradually come to the conclusion that, most of the time, plastic polishes don`t really work much, if any, better than polishes made for paint. There are always exceptions though....



The ETR handles this, simple as that, and it last, when properly applied for years.

AI has a video on the product and how to apply on their web site.

valugard.net will get it for you.

Grumpy

[Accumulator]

Ron Ketcham- I`ve been lucky so far; I`ve done OK with the polish/AIO/LSP route on my exterior plastics, always got `em back to OK, at least once I found the right polishes and AIO for the given material.



BUT.. the current beater-tahoe has rubber strips on the roof that are beyond anything I`ve tried, utterly oxidized from its years outside in hot climates. They`re not crumbly or anything like that, the damage appears to be purely cosmetic. The ETR sounds like a possibility for them, should I ever get sufficiently motivated that is ;) To be honest, they`re a good example of "out of sight, out of mind" :o Only bother me when I wash the thing.



MSOsr- Since the glaze is presumably filling the flaws (as opposed to having mechanically/abrasively corrected them), I`d seal the glaze in by applying a wax or sealant over top of it.

[MSOsr]

I actually was able to remove the scratches with the 3M Final Glaze. It was almost like using jeweler`s rouge it had so little cut; took a number of passes to remove anything.



I`m going to put some Zymol over it, just because Zymol smells so good.



Thanks again.



Mike

[Ron Ketcham]

One of my neighbors has a Ford F-150, 2006, silver grey, perfect paint wise, however the cowl, mirrors, top rails of the bed liner, fender flares and mirrors were greying out.

He applied a OTC dressing each week as he washed it.and like everyone else watched as it just went away in a few days.

I was doing another guys F-150`s cowl and mirrors here at Grumpy`s Garage and he came over.

Asked if what I was doing would hold up for a couple of months at least.

The fellow who owned the truck I was doing was there and I had done the mirrors on his wife`s Hyundia last year and without hestitation jumped in, "Hell yes, wife`s mirrors were done over a year ago and still look like they just came out of the box."

(I charged him the good buddy deal for the car of $30.00) and was charging him $75 to do the truck.(mirrors are easy but the cowl takes a lot more time)

My neighbor had me just do the bed liner rails and back latch molding, charged him $60 and after two weeks now wants the mirrors and cowl done, as well as the flares.

That will cost him a "good buddy price of $100. Still a deal since the parts will be looking just as good two or three years from now and at a hell of lot less cost than replacing the parts.

One kit will do 50+ vehicles, depending on what parts are done.

Which is why many vehicle manufacturers either require or recommend the ETR for warranty repairs, saves a lot of warranty dollars.

For professional detailers it`s a money maker, all they have to do to sell it is have a couple of old trim parts around to show where they have done half of them.

It`s fun to watch people wet their fingers and rub on the parts, expecting the black to come off or the shine.

They can`t seem to grasp that ETR is a Permanent Coating, not a "dressing" until they actually come in contact with it.

I may be retired, but I sure ain`t gonna turn down easy money when I don`t even have to break sweat.

Helps pay my bar tab at the club.

Grumpy

[MSOsr]

ETR? What is it?



Mike (checked the decoder ring and there was no "ETR")

[Accumulator]

MSOsr- It`s this stuff: Specialty Chemicals (http://www.valugard.net/cms/SpecialtyChemicals/tabid/85/Default.aspx)



Ron Ketcham- What`s the shelflife on the ETR? Hopefully "indefinite"....heh heh, if I were a bit farther south I`d just pay you to do those roof strips :D

[Ron Ketcham]

Keep the lids tight on the bottles, I got some bottles that are 5 years old.



Some more "inside info" on the ETR.



The ColorGard was originally all there was, it was made for Hertz rental cars back in the late 80`s to do minor touch up`s on those Ford bumpers of the time.

Remeber the "black" line on the T-Birds, etc bumpers?



It did not hold up more than a couple of months.



When I joined AI, knew of the product, and since I have a basic understanding of paint coatings, etc. decided to try a little experiment.



I took the Leather Vinyl Protector product we made for our line, that we also privated label for Chrysler`s MasterShield, Nissan, Saturn, etc, and added additinal UV blockers (needed to do that, since the product was designed for interior use) and did some test cars, cleaning with the New Car Prep, applying the ColorGard, letting it dry for 10 minutes or so, then a coat of -now called UV Gard- to the black finish.



Ta-Da!!! Base coat/Clearcoat!



As you know Cincinnati has some pretty tough winters, lots of salt used on roads, high UV in the summer, rain etc.

After 6 months I knew we had a winner, but just to be sure sent the system off to a private test lab as well as a couple of vehicle manufacturers labs that I had connections with.



Also passed some test bottles out to a few really professional detailers and reconditioning shops I knew for their feedback.



An example of the results was what Hyundai found when they placed new parts and old parts(old ones coated with the ETR) in an accelerated weathering chamber for a time equal to 5 years of real world exporsure.



Their reply was that the old parts treated held up for the entire cycle (5 years), while the new parts failed at 2 to 3 years.



Same with Mazda, same with Ford, etc.



These companies don`t make those parts, they source them from outside Tier 1 vendors.

The parts met the engineering requirements of the companies, so they buy the parts.



The only failures have been due to incorrect applications or attempting to apply it to some odd, really smooth plastic or ABS parts made with an internal release agent used in manufacturering. Nothing will stick for long on those kind of parts.



After over 13 years of being out in the world, used on a few hundred thousand vehicles, I would have to say it does exactly as advertised.



Grumpy

[Accumulator]

Ron Ketcham- Glad to hear it`ll stay OK (eh, most of my detailng chemicals do). And I always enjoy hearing about how stuff was developed, especially when you had a hand it in :D



And yeah, AI/VG stuff generally works the way it oughta, huh? ;)

[[SS]Shooter]

I also have a Caddy CTS-V with the `Obsidian Black` glossy plastic console. This stuff has ZERO hardness. You can scratch it by touching it.



I`ve been waxing with Megs 26 remove the minor scratches, but the waxing has created swirls/holograms. When tried FPII it got all milky and I had to buff it with the 26 to get it back to normal... still swirls though. I`ll post up pics at some point.



I`ll try an OTC plastic polish.

[MSOsr]

Shooter:



I used a minimally abrasive polish to remove the scratches (actually 3M Final Glaze) and then followed with Zymol just to put something over the plastic. Seems to resist the tendency to scratch just by breathing on it.



Mike