Removing scratches/swirls from interior displays

[Pmach]

The day I took delivery of my car about a year ago I noticed that mostly likely during the PDI process the displays for my radio, HVAC and clock were pretty nicely scratched/swirled. I never bothered to complain about it since you typically only seem them in certain angles/lighting condition but they are starting to get me me. I have attached a pic (not of my actual car) to show you exactly what areas I'm talking about.

I haven't tried anything as of yet to try and remove/repair the displays since I don't want to creat any further damage. What would be the best product(s) and technique(s) to get rid of these scratches/swirls for this type of plastic/acrylic?

5901

[Pmach]

No one has any tips/suggestions?

[AdrenalineJunky]

I can appreciate what your going through. I'm sure someone will post in with their expertise.

In a previous vehicle I had a speedo cluster that I could not correct to my satisfaction. Luckily on this particular vehicle I was able to purchase just the clear cover and solve the issue reasonably.

Have you checked Dimonadite? I believe they had some products that claim to correct your sort of issue.

[JonMiles]

If your screen is not touch screen, then the cover is just a small piece of clear plastic that can be restored with clear plastic polish. The products I use are MEGUIARS #17 & #10 Auto Plastic Cleaner & Plastic Polish: Clean and clarify clear plastic automotive surfaces with meguiars plastic care detailing (http://www.autogeek.net/meguiars1017.html)

You can get some detailing sticks with a foam head to use for the smaller plastic pieces. It makes the work pretty simple.
The Edge Foam Detailing Tips, swab detailing tips, auto detail swabs, detail swabs (http://www.autogeek.net/edgefoamtips.html)

[Mike Phillips]

No one has any tips/suggestions?

Sorry for the late reply, your first post was on a Sunday, it's a good idea when possible to take one day off from your work week and recharge your batteries, working 7 days a week is something we all do at certain points in our life but it's not a healthy way to go through life.

Your follow up was yesterday, another Sunday.


My guess is on the first Sunday you posted your question, since it didn't get a response on that day it fell of the "Recent Threads" list on the forum homepage and I somehow missed it, sorry about that. Yesterday I was sanding and buffing out a truck from this class,

Pictures and Comments from April 24th Damp Sanding and Machine Polishing Class (http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/pictures-saturday-detailing-101/25109-pictures-comments-april-24th-damp-sanding-machine-polishing-class.html)


So when you bumped your thread, again... I missed it yet again, apologies...

Forums aren't perfect, we try our best to reply to questions in a timely manner but once in a while a post slips by us...


As to your question... working on plastic displays inside of cars is difficult because they are small. Usually what happens is someone tries to clean a display an through carelessness scratches the display. Most people don't understand that the plastic is easily scratched but the scratches are hard to remove, thus the problem.

Then next problem is in order to remove scratches you have ABRADE the surface and grind off enough plastic off the surface to LEVEL the surface with the lowest depths of the scratches you're trying to remove, this is difficult because the plastic is hard and you have a VERY small area to try to either,



Move you hand holding some kind of applicator pad back and forth in a polishing/abrading action.


Get a buffing pad on a machine of some fashion onto the plastic to let the machine do the polishing/abrading



Don't know if that makes sense but somehow you have to get "something" against the plastic that you can move quickly and somehow abrade the surface and level it and do it in such a way that removes defects, not just add more scratches.

Suffice to say.. this is harder than most people think...

I've had good luck using PlastX on "SOME" plastics by hand in small, tight, hard to reach areas but that's no guarantee that it will work on all plastics and besides product choice two other important factors HEAVILY influence your results and those would be,

Application Material - This is the material you apply and push against the plastic while applying the product
Your skill level - Working on a hard to reach, small, tight area and somehow moving your hand in a fast rubbing action to make plastic look good requires a little skill.

Here's the advice I've been posting for years... before rubbing whatever product you decide to use over the surface of the plastic, try to rub in just a small area and check your results, make sure your product of choice and your application material and your skill level are all working to make the plastic look better and not worse.

This is also hard to do because usually the gauges and plastic displays found inside cars are small and hard to work on easily and thus it's hard to test in a small inconspicuous area.

I met a guy that scratched up the faces of the gauges on his Ford or Toyota truck one time and he dismantled his dash to get to the plastic and then polished it. While he made it look better he could not get it to look like it was brand new.

PlastX, a soft, clean foam applicator pad and a clean, soft microfiber is usually your best bet.

Let us know how it goes...


:)

[Mike Phillips]

If your screen is not touch screen, then the cover is just a small piece of clear plastic that can be restored with clear plastic polish. The products I use are MEGUIARS #17 & #10 Auto Plastic Cleaner & Plastic Polish: Clean and clarify clear plastic automotive surfaces with meguiars plastic care detailing (http://www.autogeek.net/meguiars1017.html)

You can get some detailing sticks with a foam head to use for the smaller plastic pieces. It makes the work pretty simple.
The Edge Foam Detailing Tips, swab detailing tips, auto detail swabs, detail swabs (http://www.autogeek.net/edgefoamtips.html)

Just to note,

M10 Plastic Polish is non-abrasive, it is what is referred to as a pure polish. It can fill and mask but it will not actually remove any scratches in and of itself.

M17 Cleaner/Polish is a very light cleaning polish in all my life I've never found out if it actually has the ability to abrade plastic in and of itself. I know on softer plastics like Plexiglas it can be used to abrade the surface to actually remove scratches but at least in part the abrading action is being supplied by your application material.

If M17 does in fact contain a type of diminishing abrasive that actually gives the product real abrading ability, then it is very light in its ability and again its abrading ability will be a combination of,


The diminishing abrasives in the product
The application material
The "action" of rubbing the product against the surface with the material

I've removed scratches using 100% cotton terry cloth with M17 out of Plexiglas but never Lexan and probably never out of most hard acrylic plastics.

Something about "real" Plexiglas like from the 1960's and 1970's made it very soft and easy to work on by hand or machine.

The windshield on my 1967 Starline Deville Ski Boat is made out of Plexiglas and is easy to work on.


http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/762/1967SD072.jpg




M10 and M17 are very good at improving the clarity of harder plastics than Plexiglas but there's a difference between improving clarity and actually removing the scratches.

Again, I've had some good luck using PlastX which actually does contain a very unique diminishing abrasive unique to that product, but again... I can't emphasis enough to test in an inconspicuous area before rubbing ANY product over the entire surface.

Some plastics are just not very consumer friendly when it comes to removing scratches and I've seen plenty of complaints by people on forums that have scratched up their precious plastic displays and the faces of gauges due to no real fault of their own, they're just tackling a project that is hard to do successfully for the majority of people in this world.


I'm certainly not trying to be a Debbie Downer on fixing your scratched plastic but I've seen Customer Care departments deal with unhappy customers that have tried to fix plastic surfaces that are near impossible to fix in the first place and the product used gets the blame when it's the plastic that is the problem.


Hope this helps...


:)

[Mike Phillips]

Moving to "Hot Topics"

This type of problem on high end cars comes up often enough that I'm going to move this thread to "Hot Topics".


:)

[JonMiles]

Thanks for letting me know about the abrasive level on the mirror glaze stuff, I have used it on a lot of guage clusters, and a good number of scratched screens for radio and temp control. It does seem to make the plastic look worlds better than the starting point, I used it on my truck's radio screen and the screen looked better for about 6 months because I hardly ever fully detail my interior and strip old dressings and such.

I feel like a plastic "filler" is really great for people that have their cars detailed every few months because I can figure out a routine and just repeat when I see them again.