Plastic soft touch trim refurb
Posted: Sat Oct 01, 2022 5:12 am
Hi all
The six has been sitting idle since January after launching the headliner retrim project. As is typical I then branched off into many "while I'm there" projects. One of these was to have a crack at sorting out soft touch trim.
The rear sun shade unit was in a sorry state is as usual for this horrible surface treatment.
Step 1, fix the damage from previous removals where brackets had been snapped etc.
Step 2, using a blue Scotch Brite pad and methylated spirits, thoroughly strip off all of the soft touch coating.
Step 3, thoroughly clean the part with a plastic friendly solvent, I ran out of meths so used rubbing alcohol.
Step 4, clean it again
Step 5, spray with a plastic specific primer, I did 2 coats
Step 6, 4 light coats of paint following the coat time directions.
I used Dulux plastic primer and rust-oleum Chalked ultra matt paint, Charcoal colour.
Ultimately I'm happy with how it turned out, so I'll embark on refurbishing other areas like the door handles using the same process. I've have a new soft touch trim piece (centre console cup holder) as comparison. Not a 100% match but once as much of the trim has been done in the same manner you won't know.
As for how long it'll last, it feels like a harder coating so should stand up to light scratching without gouging out like the previous coating does.
The six has been sitting idle since January after launching the headliner retrim project. As is typical I then branched off into many "while I'm there" projects. One of these was to have a crack at sorting out soft touch trim.
The rear sun shade unit was in a sorry state is as usual for this horrible surface treatment.
Step 1, fix the damage from previous removals where brackets had been snapped etc.
Step 2, using a blue Scotch Brite pad and methylated spirits, thoroughly strip off all of the soft touch coating.
Step 3, thoroughly clean the part with a plastic friendly solvent, I ran out of meths so used rubbing alcohol.
Step 4, clean it again
Step 5, spray with a plastic specific primer, I did 2 coats
Step 6, 4 light coats of paint following the coat time directions.
I used Dulux plastic primer and rust-oleum Chalked ultra matt paint, Charcoal colour.
Ultimately I'm happy with how it turned out, so I'll embark on refurbishing other areas like the door handles using the same process. I've have a new soft touch trim piece (centre console cup holder) as comparison. Not a 100% match but once as much of the trim has been done in the same manner you won't know.
As for how long it'll last, it feels like a harder coating so should stand up to light scratching without gouging out like the previous coating does.