Taking out interior scratches

I have some scratches on the passenger's side inside door panel (the black part just below the window). Does anyone have any idea how to fix this, or at least lessen their visibility? I really dont want to shell out $480 for a new door panel, and the little girls at COOL IT WINDOW TINT in Upland, CA (NEVER GO TO THIS PLACE!), will not man up and take responsibility for wrecking my interior.

Any help at all would be appreciated greatly.

Ted

 

Blow dryer on high, or a heat gun on the lowest setting, just heat and rub

 

Wow Zonks, That scares me. Just had my windows tinted. I got lucky , only a few light scratches in the rubber around the back windows. But i now have a few bubbles in a couple windows and im taking it back. I'm going to have to watch them like a hawk to make sure they do no damage.

 

Really?? (Spoken in a Stan Marsh voice)

 

There is a company called Chem-Pak they specialize in flaw repair spray for injection molded products. We use it at our work (we do interior products for several oems) and I have used it on a guys Tacoma as well with good results. You will need to lighten the scratches up with a propane torch not anything hotter or it will melt. Use a torch with a push button ignition and lightly pop the scratches out. then go over the plastic with Chem-Pak "A" or "AA" gloss spray for polypropylene. This will give it a even appearance. This will lighten the scratches up considerable and blend them in but will not completely repair them.

PS be sure to mask anything up that you do not want the spray on and be sure to read the mfg instructions.

 

What an awesome first post to the forum!

Welcome to Tacoma World!

 

A local audio compant put some scratches on my lower dash while installing a mp3 connection. They have a company that comes out and mixes & matches paint for touch-ups. Which got me thinking...

Why not just pop out one of your removable interior holders, take it to Home Depot & have them computer match the color. They can test it on the back opf the pop out. Usually only $6 for a QT (the smallest size I think).

 

the heat gun idea is the right way to do it.

I removed some small scratches just by rubbing them with the round smooth plastic handle of a screw driver. For the large ones I uses a heat gun on the lowest setting and used the same rubbing idea.

 

My wife complained about our belt guns scratching the chairs. I have the friends and the sidearms but not the wife.

 

going to revive an old post... but a PROPANE TORCH!?!?!?! Has anyone else tried this?

 

Sorry to revive an old thread a second time, but I just tried the heat gun method to remove a scratch on my dash (gray interior) and it worked perfectly. I didn't have to rub out the second scratch. As soon as the plastic was warm enough, the plastic kind of folded in to the scratch and it vanished instantly. For the most part, the overall texture of the dash is intact as well. Not like new, but hard to tell the difference.

Also, be very careful when heating up an area with another panel close by. Although the plastic looks the same (same color and texture), the type of plastic may be different and melt quickly. I ran into this problem with the dash tray just below the ignition.

 

To remove scratches and what have you I have heated up a clean putty knife with a bernzomatic torch .... got it red hot ... and ever so gently "smoothed" the effective area.

I tried it several times on an odd piece of similar plastic I had laying around until I got the right "feel" of doing this.

Try it on an area not out in the open.

Another way is using a bic lighter and just barely going near the surface.

These are tried and true methods.

I am not responsible for any damage to you (3rd degree burns), you Tacoma (holes melted through), or you garage (being burnt down).

 

Gave the heat gun method a try after my dog scratched up the upper door panel area. Seems to work but the area I heated looks a bit faded. Will have to follow with some plastic polish or back-to-black to see if it'll clean up. Otherwise, it may look worse than it did before...