Removing Scratches From Door Panels

[nighthawk06Si]

Re: Removing Scratches From Door Panels

hey mike, i remember asking that at the 8thcivic.com meguiars meet and you gave us this bottle called scuff remover... is meguiars not producing that anymore? Cause last time i saw that at work, it did the trick removing the scuffs out of door panels made by shoes and such.

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Removing Scratches From Door Panels

This question is one of the reasons we wrote this article,


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


"Some materials and/or surface coatings don't lend themselves well to being abraded"


In order to remove a scratch out of anything, metal, plastic glass, paint, etc. You must remove material around the scratch until the surface is level or equal to the lowest depths of the scratch or scratches.

The below diagram if 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 is, 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.

[Scott]

Re: Removing Scratches From Door Panels

I hadn't thought of using a soft brush. I will give that a try!

[MaxImage]

Re: Removing Scratches From Door Panels

These are small scuffs/scratches on the lower door pannel where your shoe hits on the way in/out.

Depending on the severity of these scuffs/scratches, the scuffs can usually be removed. More often than not, the scuffs are the result of your shoe's sole material being left behind on the door panel itself. Therefore, APC and either a soft bristled toothbrush or a medium-stiffness paintbrush would do the trick. Spray some APC on the affected area and with small circular motions under light to moderate pressure (all interior plastics are of different hardnesses, and their suseptibility to scratching also differs), the scuffs should disappear. It make take a couple of passes, or a couple of "rounds" of this process for the scuff to disappear. Do a TEST SPOT in an inconspicuous location first to see whether discoloration of the plastic and/or scratching will occur.

Sometimes merely a damp cloth and some elbow grease works great too!

[tguil]

Re: Removing Scratches From Door Panels

That sort of plastic isnt something you can usualy remove swirls from very well. Dressings can sometimes hide them a bit.

I agree. Scratches in hard plastic are forever. The best that you can hope to do is to mask them a bit.

Tom

[Murr1525]

Re: Removing Scratches From Door Panels

That sort of plastic isnt something you can usualy remove swirls from very well. Dressings can sometimes hide them a bit.

[Scott]

Re: Removing Scratches From Door Panels

I will have to take a look at PlastX - I didn't know there was such a thing? These are small scuffs/scratches on the lower door pannel where your shoe hits on the way in/out. I also have some small scratches in the trunk trim that I would like to remove. The trim is black so these really show up. I have tried a couple of cleaners, but they do no good.

[MDetail]

Re: Removing Scratches From Door Panels

I guess I need to read the whole thing next time

[cornflake_81]

Re: Removing Scratches From Door Panels

If the panels & trim are smooth, I'd suggest PlastX. However if they're textured, I'm not sure what can be done for them. I'm sure someone more experienced with this will chime in....

[MDetail]

Re: Removing Scratches From Door Panels

I am guessing that you are going to be working by hand. I don't have time to search, but I remeber seeing after about 5 applications of Scratch X by hand, that some decent sized scracthes were removed from a vehicle. Remember this is working by hand, if you were working by PC, the defects would be easier to remove. On your interior, do you have scuffs?

[Scott]

Just wondering what to use to remove scratches from door panels and other plastic trim pieces such as in the trunk that get scratched up. Would ScratchX work on this at all? I know it is for the exterrior, but I do not know what else to try. Is there an interrior version of ScratchX? HELP!