Rubbing scratches/marred marks out of unpainted plastics...

[Spincykle]

Hey guys, well I am not NEW persay to Meg's Online, just a lurker, and I have a dilemma...

I had a garage door open onto my New Yamaha R6 mirror and it marred the underside of the mirror, pretty much scratched it. Even got part of the ferring (body) but THAT came out with rubbing compound quite nicely no harm no foul there. HOWEVER, the mirror is NOT fiberglass/normal plastics, its more or less what black plastic REAR VIEW mirrors are made of? (Especially in a GM vehicle...).

Is anything available to rub this out? I tried generic rubbing compounds, those didnt work... as its not paint... i do NOT want to sand it... since its just injection molded black plastic...

I dont have any pics of the damage,but heres one of the bike, gives you an idea, of where the damage is at.

[Mike Phillips]

In the Hot Topic forum.

(There's so much information in there)


While the below article references a scratch in paint, the ideas and principals apply to scuff and mars also, and it also applies to these types of defects in any type of material, coating or surface.


Read the words carefully and let them sink in.


What it means to remove a scratch out of anything...


In order to remove a scratch out of anything, metal, plastic, glass, paint, etc. You must remove material around the scratch, (or scuff or mar), until the surface is level to, or equal with, the lowest depths of the scratch or scratches, or scuffs and mars.

The below diagram is for paint, the the same thing applies to just about an surface material or coating.



In essences, you don't really remove a scratch, you remove material around a scratch.

Then the big question becomes, is the material or coating workable, as in can you abrade small particles of it and leave behind an original looking surface. For example, some things you can abrade, (remove the scratch), but you can never completely remove all of your abrading marks, thus you can't really fix the problem, all you can do is exchange one set of scratches of a different set of scratches.

The next questions is, how thick is the surface material you're working on or the coating. You are limited to what you can do by the thickness of these to things, (surface coating or surface material), and whether or not this surface is workable.

Sometimes you don't know what you can so until you try. It's always a good idea to test your choice of products, applicator materials and application process, (By hand or by machine), to an inconspicuous area. If you cannot make a small area look good with your product, applicator and process, you will not be able to make the entire surface look good. It's always a good idea to test first and error on the side of caution, versus make a mistake you cannot undo.

[Mike Phillips]

I would also add that in the case of pebble textured black plastic, like you find with so many components on a car, truck, s.u.v. and in some places on a bike, that once you mar, scuff or scratch this texture, further work on the area, for example sanding it, will further remove the texture, thus even if you can remove the defect, you cannot do it in a way that leaves the surface looking original because now you will have a flattened area surrounded by textured areas.

Does that make sense?

This is why you'll often times see me post the little catch-phrase,

Some materials don't lend themselves well to abrading


One of the reasons for the above includes the reason that to abrade the surface in an attempt to remove the defect may in fact remove the defect but it alters the look of the material.

You're best bet might be to clean the area really well perhaps with a scrubby cloth like a wash rag using a vinyl and plastic cleaner like our M39 Vinyl Cleaner and then condition and protect the surface with our Trim Detailer. The Trim Detailer will go a long ways as to make the entire surface look rich and black, and thus mask or hide any scuffs or mars.

#39 Heavy Duty Vinyl Cleaner
Gold Class Trim Detailer

[Mark2]

I've heard that a heatgun can be used to remove sratches on plastic. It somehow melts it back to like it was before. I have never tried this, but it would be interesting to see if it works.

[quikzilver]

These mirror caps are most of the time made of ABS plastic. Unless the cap is non-textured and just as smooth as your bikes bodywork, that the cap has got no clear coat or anything, just plain basematerial plastic.

You could use Trim Detailer to get rid of the color difference. Sanding would only make things worse.