caranddriver

And now they have made piano black standard for the center console in the mid-cycle refresh. IMO, it looks cheap, few people like it, and it holds up poorly. What are they thinking?

DeXel

They're adding another item to the list for the owner's OCD to kick in and start thinking about new car, "Damn my interior is all in scratches, time to upgrade". I do not know anyone who likes glossy plastic. People either hate it, or indifferent about it. The latter is usually indifferent just about anything.

BoxerBoi76

Wow! I spent ten or so minutes taping (3M’s 18mm green automotive tape) and then using Meguiar’s PlastX (was going to use ScratchX but everyone said to use PlastX instead) on my piano black trim in the console area and the results were far better than I expected.

I purchased the car new in April and it had only 3 miles on it but a bunch of light scratches you could see when the light hit them right on the black trim and I was vacuuming the floors previously and pulled the hose over to the other side and added a few more! Arghh, won’t do that again. Thankfully, all but two small scratches are gone now. I’m going to tackle those this weekend and based on this experience, expect those to be gone as well.

JDA_yeg

Can you explain how you buffed it? Did you do it by hand or with a machine?

BoxerBoi76

By hand using a microfiber wax pad - I put about a nickels worth of PlastX on the pad, folded the pad on itself (in half) to spread the PlastX, then applied in circular motions with moderate pressure until the PlastX disappeared on the inlay. I then applied the remaining from the pad (where I had folded it over) using the same circular motion until it disappeared. I then cleaned it up using a microfiber towel.

I was nervous about doing it but it was easier than I thought it would be.

Note: my scratches couldn’t be felt with a finger nail and were light but noticeable nonetheless. If you have deeper scratches, you’ll probably need a mechanical tool to assist in removing the scratch.

sirfrancis

I second Meguiars #9 swirl mark remover.

BoxerBoi76

Took another 10 minutes and successfully removed all remaining scratches from the piano black inlay!

PlastX works wonders!

vkamnyev

Finally decided to experiment with polishing my black optics inlays... my scratches were very bad from when I bought it as CPO. M105 on orange pad followed by m205 on a black pad. Very happy with the results. Will slowly get the rest of them polished.

BoxerBoi76

Wow! Great results man.

I got similar results with mine using PlastX. Have you found anything we can use to protect/seal the finish?

Something that can resist scratching perhaps?

JDA_yeg

I was told to use wax. I haven't done so yet but wonder if that's a good idea?