I’m looking for technical help or recommendations on: Removing / disguising scratches on plastic trim inside boot area
I bought a large terracotta pot from my local garden centre the other day. I thought I had adequately protected the boot area, but unfortunately managed to scrape the pot (which had a rough external finish) on the hard plastic trim just inside the boot at the top. The scratches aren’t too deep and they don’t cover a large area, but I would like to remove or at least disguise them if I can. Can the panel recommend a suitable product to buff them out please? I’m sure there are probably plenty of products available, but it would be useful to get some advice first. Thanks…
not an easy fix unfortunately. I ended up, with a NC, removing all the boot trims, gently smoothing out the scratches with fine grit paper, then plastic primer and satin black spray. Good enough to win a 1st at Goodwood Spring Rally! Or buy a new trim piece?
Barrie
Thanks Barrie. It will certainly teach me to be more careful in the future! I’ll probably leave it for a bit while I read around the various motoring forums to see what else I can glean. At least the damage is out of sight…
This is just a suggestion and not something I have tried but if you have any of the black plastic trim Polish the stuff you put on black plastic bumpers etc, get rid of the roughest scratched area with a fine paper and apply the back polish, might be worth a try if you have some.
I don’t know what material the trim in an ND is made from. In my NC, it is polypropylene, and scuffs vanish with gentle application of heat. Just enough to soften and shrink the sharp edges of the scratch. Too much and the pressed on surface texture also softens and goes ‘shiny’. I used a hot air gun and have done plenty of ‘touch ups’ in the car.
The places where I have made it go shiny are still better than the scratches were.
Clean the plastic first, you don’t want to melt any surface grime into the plastic.
Very ‘light’ scuffing can be erased with a ‘magic sponge’. A very kind judge at one of our shows told me this and it worked. I did not stop him knocking a point though.!!
As Mctrucky said the heat gun treatment works wonders. My ND had the same problem as yours and also the previous owner must have had a passenger with big boots and i reckon use to kick the door open, with the heat gun treatment they have pretty much disappeared, if you give it too much it does go shiny but it still looks better, word of warning, let it cool down for a while before touching it
Thanks for the useful suggestions folks, certainly given me food for thought. I’m not looking for perfection, so I accept the marks will probably remain visible after treatment. It will be a good reminder next time I load stuff in the boot. The aperture, along the axis of the car, isn’t great as I’m sure other ND owners know. Cheers.
Roger
Thanks for the suggestion Scottishfiver, I’ve read some of the questions on this product and not enough evidence to suggest it would work for me. So on that basis… I’m out… thanks again though!
A quick update…today I applied this product (see pic) to the whole panel containing the scratches and it seems to have done the trick. The scratches (which were more like scuffs) have been adequately disguised. I’m sure there are several similar products that would do an equally good job. Thanks again for suggestions.
