Polish Hard Black Plastic

[philliptmurphy]

I would like to polish the hard black plastic between the windows on the door frames. When I search, the polishes for plastic are either for soft black plastic, or clear plastic. I am not sure what to do with this and afraid of making things worse.

2012 BMW 328i.

Here is a picture in case my description is not good. Thanks for any suggestions...


http://www.autopia.org/gallery/data/500/medium/Window_Trim.jpg

[blkSRT]

Start least aggressive first. Try a light polish on a finishing pad if you have it. Do a test spot.

[Setec Astronomy]

As blkSRT said, least aggressive first, use a paint polish, not one for plastic, those pillars frequently have a clearcoat on them, anyway.

[ShaneB]

From my experience the paint on the B pillars are typically VERY soft and often a single stage paint. A light polish may be all you need to correct it. Be gentle especially with wipe off if it is indeed soft because I`ve marred up a B pillar before just by drying

[Stokdgs]

Ive polished a million of these B pillars on Bimmers with a Rotary and a small pad and most of the time they come out great. It will be clearcoated..
I know you dont have a Rotary - use what you have..

Its called Shadowline trim..

If its the stock color (it looks like it is stock) and has never been messed with by a paint shop you will be fine..

As has already been said, polish with something less aggressive lightly, stopping frequently to check how its coming out..

Need to tape up the rubber next to it and in between it so you dont damage it or get compound all over it..
I like to use 1/4" painters tape on the rubber.. it fits in perfectly and is easy to work with..
If you dont have it, that`s ok, use what you have..

Use softer microfiber to wipe off and put something (LSP) on it to help keep it nice..
Dan F

[philliptmurphy]

Awesome - thanks for the tips. I will give this a try!

[Beemerboy]

I have done countless plastics like this with great success with PB PP by hand. That plastic is very soft and using a machine IMO can be somewhat risky

[Accumulator]

Guess different plastics are different (no big surprise, huh?).

As people have already posted with BMW-centric info, the following is just general FYI in case people with othe vehicles check out this thread:

The ones on my vehicles were never clearcoated. Yes, they have always been rather soft.

Some were actually painted, even though they felt/looked/seemed like they were just black plastic. This paint was *EXTREMELY* thin, as in "one gentle correction and no more".

Some modern polishes with "sharp" abrasives, even though they were gentle finishing polishes, left not-so-micro-marring that required a different approach to correct. Old-school diminishing-abrasive polish solved the issue.

In a similar vein, M205 left things looking great, even after an IPA wipe (that stuff just isn`t right for this...) but they looked *terrible* a few days later after the Trade Secret Oils dissipated. Had to redo with something else.

The black plastic pillars on older Audis have withstood numerous polishings, by hand and machine, with zero trouble. But that sure doesn`t mean that more modern Audis would be the same way.

Might want to LSP with a coating for marring resistance, though I do fine with heavily layered KSG (get over six coats on and the KSG will take the abuse, not the pillars` finish). Conventional LSPs can be OK if the material isn`t too soft and you do the wash/dry carefully.

Much/most of my other black exterior plastics are the same sort of situation, though on some vehicles I just maintain them with ValuGard`s Fast Finish, a product that somehow seems to give me the *exact* look I want on such materials.

Textured black plastic trim is another topic altogeter.

[Ronkh]

PB pro polish with finishing pad always worked for me

[ShaneB]

You could always pickup some carbon fiber print vinyl and slap it over the B pillars. It`ll add like 10hp too!

[Ronkh]

You could always pickup some carbon fiber print vinyl and slap it over the B pillars. It`ll add like 10hp too!

bwahahahahahaha