I had this door panel that I got on ebay and it had a lot of scratches (too many on it for me to use) so I was thinking that if I heat up the plastic and soften it, maybe they'll blend in better or come out. Maybe soften the edges of the scratch or something?

I cleaned the plastic, took a small propane torch and heated up the areas where the scratches were. Sure enough, some of them faded about 80-95% and some came out at least 50%.

I also have a sail panel (the one by the back seat) that was distressed from me bending it too far up one time. The color changed from charcoal gray to a light whiteish gray. I took the torch to it and it improve the color 75% at least, to where it's hardly noticeable.

Another spot that everybody has, between the seat and center console where the seatbelt connector rubs, was improved quite a bit. The white discoloration disappeared leaving the area much improved.

And no, plastic dressing would not fix any of these areas. Nothing would because I tried everything.

Just be careful if you try it and only do it on light scratches or discolored areas and don't take it too far. Make sure you let the plastic cool before you touch it.

 

With my luck I'd burn a hole in it

Good idea though

 

Wow, that is a great idea! I've seen a guy soften the scratches on plexiglass using the same technique.

 

also another place would be on the bottom of your door panels, where when you get out you sometimes kick them with your shoes! i forgot all about doing this, so it might be my project for tommrow night, i remeber we used to always do that on our race bikes when we got scratches on them, but you do have to be careful and not get it to hot

 

I agree with AW/whiteZ-28 i think it's a great idea but i'd burn my car to the ground!!

 

I saved a lot of money on car insurance

 

I don't know about the map pockets on the doors yet because I haven't tried them. The texture is pretty fine so I wouldn't want to get it so hot that it looked smooth or shiney.

 

how far away do you hold the torch?

 

yea, approximately how long does it take for it to get hot enough, how far away do you hold the torch, do you apply pressure to the area with a stick or something to smooth out the area, or does the plastic actually melt to fill in the scratch itself?

 

The torch I used had about a 1-2" flame which was light blue and almost not visible. I got the flame pretty close but I don't think the flame ever touched the plastic.

You'll see the plastic start looking oily when it heats up so thats when I backed off and let it cool down and the shine dissipated too. Don't touch the heated area either because you will take the texture out of the plastic.

Keep in mind that doing this may only fix very light scratches and make other scratches look better. It will not completely get rid of a lot of scratches, only improve them, but I was more than happy with the results on my car. Just use common sense.