DIY repair of scratches on the plastic of the car interior

The external condition of the plastic parts in the cabin worries many drivers no less than the serviceability of the engine and other components of the car. This is especially true of the front panel, as it is constantly in front of our eyes. Therefore, car owners will find useful information on how to effectively remove scratches from plastic and avoid replacing interior elements. But first you need to classify the damage in order to determine the method of recovery.

The most common damage to plastic in a car is minor scratches. Such defects are usually found in the plural, forming a whole web, which pretty much spoils the appearance of the interior. Such scratches are very easy to disguise or completely remove with the help of special tools. Such repairs are inexpensive and take little time.

More serious troubles await the car owner, who will have to repair deep scratches on the interior plastic. Many of these defects cannot be hidden by simple methods, so you have to use cardinal methods, which are described below. With their help, even the deepest scratches on the interior plastic can be removed and thereby avoid costly replacement of the entire part as a whole.

Another type of damage to the plastic of the car interior is the result of exposure to direct sunlight. After prolonged exposure to ultraviolet radiation, the surface of the torpedo becomes dull and loses its color, and in combination with scratches, such a defect further worsens the appearance of the interior. Surface overhaul may be required to remedy the situation.

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Please note that removing scratches on interior parts is not always an easy task. If the surface of the plastic has a corrugated structure, then simple methods will not be able to cope with defects. In such cases, almost any scratch requires a major overhaul. The situation is different with smooth surfaces, since removing scratches from such material is much easier and faster.

Depending on the type of surface and the severity of the scratches, repairs can be done in the following common ways:

• removing scratches with a hair dryer;
• smoothing the surface with a source of open fire;
• removal of small scratches by polishing;
• masking of defects with special pencils;
• overhaul of plastic, including cleaning, priming, painting and varnishing.

For corrugated surfaces, only the last two methods can be used, since repair by other methods can further worsen the appearance of the plastic. For the rest, it is possible to use any of the above methods, it all depends on your efforts and the type of scratches on the interior elements. The following is a more detailed discussion of each of the above methods.

You can remove small scratches or cobwebs from them with the most common hairdryer. In this case, you can use not only a construction tool, but also a household one, since its power is quite enough to remove shallow scratches. The principle of such restoration is very simple - when heated, small defects by themselves tighten and become either completely invisible or significantly decrease in size.

To repair a car torpedo in this way, you must first thoroughly wash the surface using detergents. This will remove stubborn dirt from scratches, which will help to tighten when heated.When the panel is dry, you need to turn on the hair dryer at low power and direct a hot stream of air to the place where you want to remove scratches.

During heating, one should very carefully monitor the reaction of the plastic, and if there is no effect, then the power of the hair dryer is gradually added and the distance between the instrument and the panel is reduced.

You should also not set the hair dryer to one point, on the contrary, you need to evenly distribute hot air in order to avoid excessive heating of the part. If everything is done correctly, the damage will heal right before our eyes. Or at least it will become noticeably smaller, which will facilitate further restoration by polishing. After warming up, it is imperative to wait until the interior part has completely cooled down, and before that you cannot touch it.

Repair with open fire similar to the previous method. To remove defects in this way, you need to bring the lighter to the plastic for a very short time and hold the flame several times along the scratch. You need to act very carefully, it is advisable to practice performing such a repair on some unnecessary piece of plastic with the same structure.

After exposure to fire on the accumulation of scratches, you need to wait a while until the plastic has completely cooled down. Until this moment, it is strictly forbidden to touch it. The soot left by the flame can be removed with a cotton pad dipped in alcohol. If the defect does not disappear the first time, then it is better not to risk it and try another method of removing scratches.

One of the easiest and safest restoration methods is polishing with a special abrasive paste for plastic. Do not use products that are intended for paintwork. Their structure can harm soft and pliable plastic.

Polishing can be done either by hand or using a grinder, while the spindle speed should be set to the minimum value.

Excessively high speeds of the grinding wheel can melt the plastic and render it deplorable. It should be noted that there is not so much plastic in the cabin, so a safe hand polishing will not take long.

Removal of defects by this method is carried out as follows:

• The surface of the plastic element is thoroughly washed out using detergents. Particular attention is paid to those places that have ingrained dirt particles.
• After that, the surface is dried and cooled in a dark room.
• When all conditions are met, an abrasive paste is applied to the surface of the panel. This must be done manually with a piece of foam rubber. After applying the paste, it is given some time to work.
• You need to start polishing after the product has turned into a light-colored coating. This usually takes about five minutes.

The entire surface is methodically polished until the applied paste completely disappears, while periodically it is necessary to remove the dust that has formed from the dried polishing paste. At the end of polishing, the surface is thoroughly cleaned and washed, while doing this, you should be careful not to create new scratches.

The easiest way to get rid of defects on plastic interior parts is to mask them with a special pencil. This method cannot be called the cheapest, since really high-quality markers for removing scratches are not cheap. Although the same pencil, bought once, can be used several times, which makes such an acquisition quite profitable in the long run.

By itself, such a pencil is a bottle in which there is a special composition. If you apply it to the damaged area, then the scratch-shaped depression will be filled and thus disappear from view.

When choosing such a pencil, the selection of a color that should match the shade of the panel is of great importance.

Everything is much easier here when the panel of standard colors is black or gray, because it is much easier to pick up a restoration marker for them. The repair is very simple - the damaged areas are thoroughly cleaned of dirt and dust. The sharp end of the marker is used to put up scratches, and when the applied composition hardens, its excess can be removed by polishing, which will additionally hide the defects, leveling them with neighboring areas.

The most difficult type of plastic repair is painting. Despite the complexity and high cost of this method, there are all guarantees that it is possible to achieve complete removal of all existing defects. At the same time, it is possible to change the color of the panel, create a new interior that is more in line with the tastes of the car owner.

For such a repair, you will have to remove the part from the passenger compartment, which is troublesome, but this is the only way to avoid contamination of windows and interior trim. The part is removed from the machine in accordance with the manufacturer's recommendations, which he indicated in the instruction manual. After dismantling, the element to be restored is cleaned of dirt and washed thoroughly using detergents for plastic.

This is followed by surface grinding. If the part has a grooved structure, then nothing will work. However, today most of the interior elements are initially smooth, which greatly simplifies the maintenance of their condition, and makes their repair more realistic. The surface is sanded either by hand or using a machine, and you can take the smallest sandpaper as an abrasive.

After that, the surface is covered with a primer from a spray can; for this, a soil should be selected that does not react with plastic. After applying two layers, the surface is matted with a fine abrasive to a perfectly smooth state. If there are deep defects on the panel that do not cover the ground, then they must be repaired with a putty.

Next, the primed surface is painted in the appropriate color and optionally covered with a layer of varnish. In some cases, varnish coating is not applied - this applies to those interior elements that, due to their shape, can create glare from the sun's rays and interfere with driving. The same can be said for cases where matte paint is selected.

The flawless appearance of plastic parts in a car is as important for drivers as the good condition of the engine and other components of the car. During the operation of the vehicle, scratches inevitably appear on the torpedo and other interior elements. You can remove them yourself with minimal cash costs.

Most often, minor defects appear on the plastic elements of the car interior. These include small and shallow scratches. If no urgent measures are taken to eliminate them, over time, such seemingly insignificant damage will transform into a whole web of cracks. Small scratches can be easily removed using inexpensive tools, or carefully masked. It will be much more difficult to deal with a web of cracks. But it is possible to fix such defects with your own hands in a relatively short time.

More problems await drivers in cases where the scratches are of serious depth. It is quite difficult to hide such damage in the usual ways. We'll have to use special tools and techniques. Note that even very deep scratches are much easier to remove from a smooth plastic surface. But for the restoration of grooved bases, you often have to suffer. In most such cases, it is necessary to engage in a fairly long overhaul of plastic parts.

Defects resulting from exposure to ultraviolet radiation are commonly referred to as a separate type of interior damage. The sun's rays, falling on the dashboard of a car and its other parts, lead to plastic burnout. If scratches appear on such a damaged surface, they are immediately striking. Next, we will describe all the main ways that help restore plastic. You will see for yourself that with the right approach, repair work will not require the driver to learn any special technologies.

Depending on the type of defects, as well as on the technical features of the material from which the plastic surface is made, the repair of the latter is carried out in such simple ways:

1. Smoothing the flaws of the part with a lighter.
2. Removing scratches with a hair dryer.
3. Masking scratches with special pencils.
4. Surface polishing.
5. Overhaul is a complex measure that involves cleaning the plastic, priming it, subsequent painting and, if necessary, varnishing.

You can get rid of small scratches on the dashboard or other plastic surfaces with a lighter. We set fire to the lighter, bring it to the problem area, run it along the scratch with an open fire a couple of times. The operation should be performed very carefully. Experts advise to start practicing on an unnecessary piece of plastic. And only after the hand is full, proceed to work in the salon.

After heating the plastic part, wait a few minutes. It should cool completely. If you touch the plastic immediately after heating it, there is a high chance of getting burned. When the part to be repaired has cooled down, moisten a cotton swab in alcohol and use it to remove soot from the surface. We look at the results of the work. Has the scratch been smoothed out? We're in luck, we can move on to the next defect. If the lighter fails to fix the problem, it's best to try other recovery methods.

It is often possible to remove scratches from any plastic with a hair dryer. It is not at all necessary to use a powerful building tool for these purposes. A household hair dryer is also suitable. Its power potential is quite enough.

Before using the hair dryer, we thoroughly clean the plastic surface from dirt and dust, using auto chemicals for washing or an ordinary detergent dissolved in water. We are waiting for the part to dry. Then we turn on the hair dryer to the minimum power and bring it to the area that needs repair. Let's take a close look at how the plastic reacts to the hot air flow. If no effect is noticeable, we increase the power of the hair dryer and bring it a little closer to the scratch. As a rule, small cracks begin to decrease in size or literally tighten before our eyes. After the heated surface has cooled down, we recommend polishing it additionally.