Scratches in Plastic Cladding

[DasTurboWagen]

Hi, I’ve never worked with repairs on this type of material before and could use some pointers. How would you approach the scratches in the picture? This is on my mother in laws 2016 Cherokee which has a grayish matte finish on the plastic.

I’ve never had a car with these so I have no idea how to make it look better or if it’s possible to actually reasonably fix it. Any help is appreciated

Thanks.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180802/eaefdf551915df006a9419587ecbaa5d.jpg


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[TTQ B4U]

Hi, I’ve never worked with repairs on this type of material before and could use some pointers. How would you approach the scratches in the picture? This is on my mother in laws 2016 Cherokee which has a grayish matte finish on the plastic.

I’ve never had a car with these so I have no idea how to make it look better or if it’s possible to actually reasonably fix it. Any help is appreciated

Thanks.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180802/eaefdf551915df006a9419587ecbaa5d.jpg


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i've never repaired or attempted to but seems like the best you might be able to do is try and blend it with surrounding area if that. Just looking at the pic it looks like it could use restored so hitting it with something like GYEON's Q2 TRIM would certainly darken it all up and help blend the coloring nicely. Again, haven't played with anything like that but perhaps even a light sanding of the larger area to blend and hide any differences, then hit it with TRIM.

I may have to find a buddy with some damage like that to play with for no charge.

[Mike Phillips]

Clean it. Dress it and call it good.

You cannot fix damage like this the way you can fix car paint because you cannot abrade pebble textured plastic as it alters the appearance.

Solution Finish Fusion is gray in color. You can get it at Autogeek


:)

[DasTurboWagen]

Thanks to both of you. I guess I’ll just reattach the smaller bottom trim and go with some trim restorer. It’s low enough that it shouldn’t be terribly noticeable once I use the dressing.


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[Mike Phillips]

Just to add....


Here's an article I wrote I 2005 - 13 years ago on this topic. The info is just as accurate today as when I wrote it.


What it means to remove a scratch out of anything... (http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/ask-mike-phillips-your-detailing-questions/104333-what-means-remove-scratch-out-anything.html)



:)

[DasTurboWagen]

Just to add....


Here's an article I wrote I 2005 - 13 years ago on this topic. The info is just as accurate today as when I wrote it.


What it means to remove a scratch out of anything... (http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/ask-mike-phillips-your-detailing-questions/104333-what-means-remove-scratch-out-anything.html)



:)

Thanks Mike, I’ll take a look. I’m a huge fan and have been reading and watching your stuff for years. I’m pretty good with paint correction and care, it’s the other stuff I’m starting to work on. Lol


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[Belo]

send us some pics when you're done. I agree that you can't fix it, but may be able to hide it a little better with some trim restore and dressing. It's possible there's some paint transfer in there, and if a good cleaner/restorer can get that out, the scratches should be less noticeable.

[Paul A.]

Some posts here seem to be very timely for me!

I just had a scuff/rub for a customer that was partially on the painted panel and mostly on the plastic trim. The paint was not scratched too deeply but the plastic was scratched pretty good. I removed about 95% of the paint scuff and scratch and simply cleaned up the plastic and dressed it out. I failed to take a picture unfortunately but the customer loved it.

I agree with Mike, plastic is darn near impossible to "correct". I've tried before and learned it does alter the appearance of the texture enough that you can tell I tried to "fix" it. I now simple clean and dress.

[DasTurboWagen]

Well I gave it a quick shot today. The whole trim piece is about $130-140 so it didn’t make sense to go with expensive products. I got a bottle of Mothers Back to Black. Cleaned the area, sanded the deeper gouges slightly to get the rough and hanging pieces of plastic off and reattached the trim. Without direct sunlight it looks much better and I think it still looks pretty decent in direct light. I’ll probably go over it again in a few days and do the rest of the trim beyond the front, but not bad for $7 and 15 minutes.

Split before and after:
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180804/0bff1d599170b348ca7548c5d58f9c74.jpg

After with shade:
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180804/834f8ca94cda29ebbb9b2f41b3462cb7.jpg

Maybe 10 feet without direct sunlight:
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180804/7d07572d7b7236128282b61e27bfad39.jpg


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