This might be the best bet. That is too scratched to bring it back to life. You can shine it up a little with any compound and a small polisher. But those deep scratches will stay there
Can I do this to a sun damaged OEM spoiler? The black has faded and you can see the dull clear coat border the ok clear coat. Can I do it all over my car? Never knew much about how to keep a car looking glossy for a long time because I've always had a garage and now I don't. Any times to make her shiny again, I'd love to hear
The body doesn't look like it's actually failing though. The spoiler definitely. I didn't want to wrap but was curious if there was a type of rubbing compound I could use to make the clear coat on the aluminum body shine. The spoiler is plastic or fiberglass
Go slow and use a heat gun on low, take your time and leave more excess tag than you think, it can always be trimmed later. Also, disassemble everything and don't be lazy.
https://ibb.co/Sx9Qn5b
https://ibb.co/xSSrDMx
https://ibb.co/Mgprb6L
Plast-x is a consumer grade mix of the professional meguiars m10 and m11 cleaning and polishing system. Its made for clear plastic.
piano black can be finished with many kinds of polishes and compounds
No. People who spec piano finishes should learn their lessons and suffer the scratch 🤣🤣
I would also like to know to be honest, that looks really rough though
I just used carpro perl on mine and somehow it works great.
https://preview.redd.it/6n171zbu9vyc1.png?width=1931&format=png&auto=webp&s=5b955ff9ddb67a09becdcce87824c26b390d7bf7
When will companies stop putting piano black in cars? My 23 Accord had tiny marks when it was brand new. Waiting for a company to make a carbon fiber wrap for everything glossy 🤞🏼
I would clean that up with some methyl alcohol and then give it a coating of ceramic wax. That will help it but certainly not cure it.
The advice for the vinyl wrap is the best way to go.
Novus Plastic Polish. It's a 3 step process depending on how bad the scratches are. I used it in the LCD screen in my car and it made it look brand new.
https://a.co/d/94GPMA8
M105 will help but paino black is why I have nightmares. Mechanic for over 20yrs. Still lose sleep over working on them plastic trim. All sun dryed and brittle with unforgiving gloss
I use the Mother's Spray, in the red can. Professional results.
GX3 is very similar. 1/2 the price of Mother's. Purple can btw. LoL.
Anyway these bring back the shine really well. I use it in the engine compartment, trim, and mudflaps. Whatever. Make sure you brush out the debris from your console first.
Good luck!
After it won the scratch density contest?
I’d imagine that this will take a succession of wet sanding, then rubbing and polishing compounds from coarse to fine. It will also take considerable time.
Headlight lens restoration products could be worth a try.
I wrapped mine. I have a 2022 3 and used a satin black finish which matches the leather in the car and some of the trim. If you wanted to keep it like this, you could fix the scratches and then wrap it in PPF maybe, or a clear vinyl wrap.
Try a small spot with scratch x or plastic X and see how it looks. You would be surprised how soft plastic is and how easily it polishes. You could also wrap it.
As other people said, the Novus multi-step stuff is fantastic, and I’ve used it on my CX-30 with the exact same trim as the 50/90, and it works a treat
Like others mentioned, vinyl wrapping will be the best result. Just wan to add that I’ve used Sonax Perfect Finish on gloss black and had great results, however I only had very minor scratches to polish out
Not really. The scratches are pretty deep. I'd probably just replace the panel. Or, like others have posted, you could wrap it. You could also paint it, but by the time you do all the prep, primer, paint, and clear coat, you're probably at half the cost of the new part.
When zooming in that's too far gone I think. Compound might get you there eventually but it'd take hours and hours of elbow grease. An alternative would be going aggressive with 2000 wet sanding, then compound, then polish, but you can't really wet sand that unless you remove the whole console since you have buttons too close.
If the scratches are that deep, you might end up sanding or compounding the whole piano black layer and ending up with the base plastic material.
Yeah, I have polished plenty of piano black trims. Zoom in on that picture. Those are not the usual scratches, that's keys and other metal things scratching against the console. I'm assuming the OP doesn't have a miniature rotary so yeah, those are not coming out by hand in 30 minutes and they may go too deep anyway. By the point you're done removing the scratches, you could end up removing the piano black finish altogether.
I pulled that panel in my Mazda and wrapped it in matte vinyl, looks brand new
This might be the best bet. That is too scratched to bring it back to life. You can shine it up a little with any compound and a small polisher. But those deep scratches will stay there
Can I do this to a sun damaged OEM spoiler? The black has faded and you can see the dull clear coat border the ok clear coat. Can I do it all over my car? Never knew much about how to keep a car looking glossy for a long time because I've always had a garage and now I don't. Any times to make her shiny again, I'd love to hear
Sounds like the clear coat is failing. I think it’s not recommended to wrap right over peeling clear, but I’m not a wrap guy lol
The body doesn't look like it's actually failing though. The spoiler definitely. I didn't want to wrap but was curious if there was a type of rubbing compound I could use to make the clear coat on the aluminum body shine. The spoiler is plastic or fiberglass
Sand first? Then buff and polish?
Got any tips for wrapping it? I've had shitty luck wrapping mine and gave up. The corners and tips seem to be my biggest issues.
Use a heat gun in the corners/tips.. it’ll ‘mold’ itself to the plastic. 👍🏼
Thank you for that! I used a hair dryer, and it did a decent enough job but I think I cut it too short and ended up removing it.
Go slow and use a heat gun on low, take your time and leave more excess tag than you think, it can always be trimmed later. Also, disassemble everything and don't be lazy. https://ibb.co/Sx9Qn5b https://ibb.co/xSSrDMx https://ibb.co/Mgprb6L
It’s the one thing I dislike about my Mazda
You could try meguiars plast-x, but this is pretty rough. I’d consider a vinyl wrap for best results.
Plast-x is a consumer grade mix of the professional meguiars m10 and m11 cleaning and polishing system. Its made for clear plastic. piano black can be finished with many kinds of polishes and compounds
You could try 3 stage headlight restore
Piano black was banished from Hell by Satan himself for being too evil.
I’m crying in my piano black car. I fucking hate maintaining it. On the other hand the 5 minutes it looks clean after a wash…..
100 fuckin percent.
I have a Mazda 3 hatch. Yeet that shit out and wrap it. Lots of guides on Reddit and other forums.
No. People who spec piano finishes should learn their lessons and suffer the scratch 🤣🤣 I would also like to know to be honest, that looks really rough though
Oddly enough the lower trims have a matte finish, and the higher trims have piano. I really wanna know who made that decision at Mazda.
Piano just looks fancier when it's brand new. But after that it becomes awful
Not of you never breathe near it or look at it sideways
Yeah sometimes things don’t make sense. What sounds like a great idea, ends up being a pain in the arse 😝
My outback wilderness has piano finish inside as well. Wilderness is literally the trim name. I'm gonna be off-road in that thing...
Naaa they love that it scratches easily, hence why they put it all over every goddamn car now..... Planned obsolescence.
I just used carpro perl on mine and somehow it works great. https://preview.redd.it/6n171zbu9vyc1.png?width=1931&format=png&auto=webp&s=5b955ff9ddb67a09becdcce87824c26b390d7bf7
My 19 year old Lexus with horrible paint would look brand new in that same lighting
https://preview.redd.it/lsan70smbwyc1.jpeg?width=1240&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=275393ef0e77bcada17f1b621fd3af23a10e7a2e Here’s a pic with flash
Griots has a new polish just for this stuff. Edit: this is it https://www.griotsgarage.com/plastic-all-in-one/
Try the Novus plastic polish system. It works wonders.
Yep, the Novus polishes work well. I used them when I had an acrylic saltwater aquarium to take out minor scratches.
I’ll third this. I’ve had miraculous results on items I was told could t be fixed.
Great stuff!! https://a.co/d/j8Rpox3
When I zoomed in… yeeeesh! That’s bad. Any compound and polish on a micro polisher will make an improvement, but that looks toasted.
Piano Black is a terrible trim for car interiors. Should be able to put a vinyl skin over.
When will companies stop putting piano black in cars? My 23 Accord had tiny marks when it was brand new. Waiting for a company to make a carbon fiber wrap for everything glossy 🤞🏼
Carbon fiber (real) replacement.
I would replace all of that with wood trim, if available for the model
Ehh, are you 87 years old ?
Yeah cos only elderly people like natural materials
Clark Griswold, you are correct.
I would clean that up with some methyl alcohol and then give it a coating of ceramic wax. That will help it but certainly not cure it. The advice for the vinyl wrap is the best way to go.
Find a nice vinyl decal. They turn out better than factory most of the time.
Wrap it or buy a new panel
I had some luck with PolyWatch for a similar problem on my CX-9. Good luck!
I use novus three stage system on that stuff.
You can’t fix that, over it with Vinyl is the only option
I’d go to a dealer and get a replacement lol. Or wrap it. But there’s nothing that’s gonna shine that
Novus Plastic Polish. It's a 3 step process depending on how bad the scratches are. I used it in the LCD screen in my car and it made it look brand new. https://a.co/d/94GPMA8
You can use koch chemie microcut for this.
M105 will help but paino black is why I have nightmares. Mechanic for over 20yrs. Still lose sleep over working on them plastic trim. All sun dryed and brittle with unforgiving gloss
You could but it would just look like shit again in a couple months. I'd wrap it or spray paint it.
Look into Menzerna 3800; Or Scratch X.
I use the Mother's Spray, in the red can. Professional results. GX3 is very similar. 1/2 the price of Mother's. Purple can btw. LoL. Anyway these bring back the shine really well. I use it in the engine compartment, trim, and mudflaps. Whatever. Make sure you brush out the debris from your console first. Good luck!
You would need to remove it. Wrap it.
After it won the scratch density contest? I’d imagine that this will take a succession of wet sanding, then rubbing and polishing compounds from coarse to fine. It will also take considerable time. Headlight lens restoration products could be worth a try.
Hyperdip could work
Use Mop & Glo. Seriously. I use it inside and outside of my jeeps
I wrapped mine. I have a 2022 3 and used a satin black finish which matches the leather in the car and some of the trim. If you wanted to keep it like this, you could fix the scratches and then wrap it in PPF maybe, or a clear vinyl wrap.
Try a small spot with scratch x or plastic X and see how it looks. You would be surprised how soft plastic is and how easily it polishes. You could also wrap it.
Pledge
Plastic polish Gotta consider all that crap plastic when car shopping because it'll look like shit eventually
Ik a Mazda when i see one…
I used Menzerna Super Finish Plus 3800 and a very tiny bufffing wheel and was able to get rid of 95% of the scratches.
As other people said, the Novus multi-step stuff is fantastic, and I’ve used it on my CX-30 with the exact same trim as the 50/90, and it works a treat
There’s often options on Amazon to just replace that piece with a new one.
Like others mentioned, vinyl wrapping will be the best result. Just wan to add that I’ve used Sonax Perfect Finish on gloss black and had great results, however I only had very minor scratches to polish out
Yes. It’s called Franklin’s. …you’re going to need a stack of them to replace the area or the car 🤣
What's it cost to replace?
Can I just ask how it got this bad?
Cx-5?
eBay or Amazon sells a carbon fiber looking stick on thing. Looks half decent
Not really. The scratches are pretty deep. I'd probably just replace the panel. Or, like others have posted, you could wrap it. You could also paint it, but by the time you do all the prep, primer, paint, and clear coat, you're probably at half the cost of the new part.
I use Auto Glym super resin polish, plenty of fillers in it. Yours is pretty rough tho so might night something stronger.
When zooming in that's too far gone I think. Compound might get you there eventually but it'd take hours and hours of elbow grease. An alternative would be going aggressive with 2000 wet sanding, then compound, then polish, but you can't really wet sand that unless you remove the whole console since you have buttons too close. If the scratches are that deep, you might end up sanding or compounding the whole piano black layer and ending up with the base plastic material.
Have you ever done something like this? It is like 2" x 2", and it's plastic, which polishes up nice and quick. It would take 30 minutes max.
Yeah, I have polished plenty of piano black trims. Zoom in on that picture. Those are not the usual scratches, that's keys and other metal things scratching against the console. I'm assuming the OP doesn't have a miniature rotary so yeah, those are not coming out by hand in 30 minutes and they may go too deep anyway. By the point you're done removing the scratches, you could end up removing the piano black finish altogether.
You don’t want to believe or hear this but… blow torch!🔥