Scratches on chrome plastic trim

[09TSX]

Hi,

I am new to detailing and this forum. After washing my brand new car I discovered a scratch across the chrome plastic grill on by car. Doing a stupid thing I polished it with some polishing compound in which actually took out the scratch but introduced fine scratches on the surface. Should I use Meguires Plastic X to try to buff out the fine scratches out of the "mirror plastic grill surface" or will a good detailer take it out for me?

Thanks
Donald

[ajb39oh]

Re: Scratches on chrome plastic trim

Plast X would be a good place to start. After that, you could coat it with NXTv2.0 or whatever you like to use for wax.

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Scratches on chrome plastic trim

It might be that you cannot fix this at least in a way that it's going to look original or new/better. It depends upon the how the surface of this is actually made, that is if there is clear plastic over chrome 'look' actually is the exterior or most outer surface of the component.

The point being is this plastic surface might not lend itself to being abraded with the end result having it look good, that is no more scratches.

This article kind of goes into depth on what you're up against.

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


I'll send an e-mail to Mike Pennington as I think he's had some experience with removing scratches out of plastic chrome.

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Scratches on chrome plastic trim

***Update***

Checked with Jason Rose, Tom MacDonald and Mike Pennington and they all concur that this type of plastic doesn't like to be abraded with the end-result having it look good and or back to its original look without any scratches.

You can abrade it as you've found out and remove scratches but you leave new scratches behind. That's the reason for the link to the article we posted it, it explains that some materials and some coatings don't lend themselves well to being abraded with the end-result having the surface look good when you're done.

Not a fun answer to give you but that's the reality of it.

Jason Rose said you could give our PlastX a try using a piece of soft, 100% cotton terry cloth but no guarantees as to whether it's going to work or not. PlastX is a product everyone should have in their garage so if it doesn't work you'll still be able to use this product for headlights lenses in the future, (or DVDs).

It might be that if you want the car to look right you'll have to get a new grill.