How to Remove Hair line scratches on Wood Trim?

[benzer77]

How to Remove Hair line scratches on Wood Trim?


Hi Guys,

I have 2 cars, one with black ash wood trim, the second one with dark fake wood. Both have some hair line scratches, and I wonder if there is a way to remove or hide these scratches?


Also what do you recommend to clean and maintain Wood trim? polish/wax?

Your thoughts are greatly appreciated!

[Finemess]

I'd check at your home improvement store for a wood color pen. Should help hide it, not make it go away thou.

[reality33]

If the wood trim is protected with a clear coat, like most are, you can actually treat the trim like it were paint. I would start off with a light polish by hand using something like pinnacles paint work cleansing lotion. If it does not do the trick, step up to a little bit more aggressive cleaner. When its finished, You can put a light coat of carnauba on it to make it look beautiful!

[benzer77]

Originally Posted by reality33

If the wood trim is protected with a clear coat, like most are, you can actually treat the trim like it were paint. I would start off with a light polish by hand using something like pinnacles paint work cleansing lotion. If it does not do the trick, step up to a little bit more aggressive cleaner. When its finished, You can put a light coat of carnauba on it to make it look beautiful!

Thank you all for the replies, what do you recommend as an aggressive polish? I have Meg scratchX. Thanks again

[WestEnd]

I tried ScratX on my wood with the fine swirls and it didn't do anything to it.

I applied wax and it concealed it a little but I too would sure like to get rid of them.

I thought getting my DA after it would be good but without removing the panels it is pretty difficult to get around all of the buttons, etc on the center dash. I can imagine what a mess M105 would create in there. haha

[JC PAINT WORKZ]

I too have scratches on my Silverado Trim not really scratches just like bunch of swirl type marks on it. I'm thinking about masking off a section and working it and seeing how it goes with a few XMT steps

[Kurt_s]

Hey Mike,

This is a bit beyond my experimentation too. My 11 year old bimmer has a few hairline scratches, that I'd love to remove if it was safe and easy.

I've checked with a few other car people and most everyone kind of shakes their heads. Try a carnauba wax was the most common suggestion and one suggested suggested talking to a wood floor specialist.

I was thinking maybe a really fine plastic polish might work depending upon the trim. I'm not sure what is used on the surface of the wood trim so I am hesitant to use more than an interior dressing and call it a day.

Have you found anything that works well and consistently?

[ryanbabz71]

Originally Posted by JC PAINT WORKZ

I too have scratches on my Silverado Trim not really scratches just like bunch of swirl type marks on it. I'm thinking about masking off a section and working it and seeing how it goes with a few XMT steps

Let us know how it works out. My wife has the fake wood dash like yours in her Tahoe and it has the same fine scratches. I havent been able to get em out.

[Mike.Phillips@Autogeek]

The problem with working small trim pieces like you're talking about is that it's difficult to use a machine to work on these areas and trying to do so by hand requires skill and experience.

If you work by hand, then you need to be able to have enough room to move your hand back and forth with speed in a "polishing" action.

Do you have that kind of room for all the surface area of the trim with the scratches?

Or does the trim start to get around shifters, or blinker switches, or vents, etc.?


If you can use a fast, hand polishing motion, then you need good technique and after teaching people how to hand polish for years at Meguiar's using ScratchX and then after it was introduced, M105 and Ultimate Compound, I found that still... most people don't have the patience, nor skill and ability to,

Working below surface defects out of the coating and do it in such a way they they don't leave any scratches behind at the same time.


So it's kind of complicated to do and even more complicated to type about let alone teach using a keyboard.

Can you post a picture of the trim?

For example, I'm guessing this is decorative trim on your dash? If so, how about a shot of the dash, from back a ways, like the back seat etc...

Another option would be to tape-off and cover up any areas you don't want splatter and then use a tool like the Griot's 3" Mini Polisher to do the work by machine. This tool can remove swirls and scratches, but again it does take good technique because you need to maintain pad rotation and the pad won't rotate very well if you use too much pressure or not enough product.

Ultimate Compound may be required if ScratchX isn't working but just to double check, do you have "new" ScratchX that uses SMAT or the old ScratchX that uses DAT?


I have articles in my article lists on SMAT products if this is a new term to anyone...

[Mike.Phillips@Autogeek]

Also, one thing I've found is I'll often run into people trying to focus on little sections of their car like trim pieces wile the entire outside of the car is swirl city... that probably doesn't describe your two cars, but I've always found it interesting that some people will focus on the little picture, that includes really complicated work, while neglecting the big picture... how does the "car" look...