Light surface scratch on the dashboard of my 2016 Volkswagen Tiguan ... any quick fix ?

[ahmadka]

Hi guys ... I think this is my first post here in the Garage section so please be gentle

I recently got a used 2016 Volkswagen Tiguan and while moving a metal bedframe for someone today, I got two light surface scratches on the dashboard ... The scratches aren't deep and can only be seen in light from the right angle ... Still, I was wondering if there's any quick fix to completely fix them so that they're not visible anymore (to the extent possible without spending too much money) .. ? Thanks in advance for your help

 

[EXCellR8]

Yea unfortunately scratches on the dash don't have to be very deep to become un-repairable. If you can't rub them off then you might just have to live with it. If it was smooth plastic you'd be able to polish it but textured plastic is another story. You'll end up making it look way worse if you put anything to it. If it's a piece that can be replaced cheaply (not familiar with this vehicle) then that's really the only way to make it gone.

 

[trungma]

You can try to heat (heat gun) the area so that the scratches blend in better but you risk making it look worse if you leave the heat on it too long and melt the surrounding plastic.

 

[ahmadka]

Isn't there like a polish or dye spray I can use to make the scratch blend in or something ?

 

[zinfamous]

I have this same problem in my very new GTI, in the same area. I noticed it pretty quickly, too. Not sure how it got there...someone with some jangly bits on their pants or bringing a purse with some metal bits into the car and bumping the glovebox as they sat down? I'm not sure, but I've also found that it doesn't like to go away. I've only tried some normal interior detail spray and microfiber, but it essentially has no effect.

....I like the heatgun idea...I might actually try that but it does concern me.

I know you can get paint match pens for your exterior paint (VW makes their own) and there are those other aftermarket companies that make a whole line, and will custom blend the paint to your exact model of car (Dr Colorchip is one), but I'm not sure if they make something for interior plastics or, if with smaller scratches, some of those products for exterior paint can substitute onto plastics without being too noticeable?

...heh, I wonder if some of those furniture touch-up markers would work?

 

[mindless1]

This is dark gray? What I would try, and it seems ghetto but could be free and easy, is mix pencil graphite with wood glue, smear it in there, let it dry, then dampen it and wipe the excess off. It must be normal wood glue that dissolves in water, not the waterproof type with (latex?) additives in it.

Otherwise, try a dark gray crayon, or mixed to color match, latex paint. If it's black that just appears gray under the lighting present, an ultra fine tip sharpie marker might work, but have some rubbing alcohol on hand to immediately wipe the area to get excess off.

The idea with any of these is you can wipe off the excess since it will be impossible to only fill in the scratch. The sharpie marker poses the greatest risk of not coming off completely.

 

[zinfamous]

This is dark gray? What I would try, and it seems ghetto but could be free and easy, is mix pencil graphite with wood glue, smear it in there, let it dry, then dampen it and wipe the excess off. It must be normal wood glue that dissolves in water, not the waterproof type with (latex?) additives in it.

Otherwise, try a dark gray crayon, or mixed to color match, latex paint. If it's black that just appears gray under the lighting present, an ultra fine tip sharpie marker might work, but have some rubbing alcohol on hand to immediately wipe the area to get excess off.

The idea with any of these is you can wipe off the excess since it will be impossible to only fill in the scratch. The sharpie marker poses the greatest risk of not coming off completely.

hmm, I like the crayon or sharpie idea--but beware using Isoprop or any alcohol, as that can wreck plastics like this. Used very sparingly, though, and rinsed immediately, Isoprop is probably the safest.

 

[mindless1]

Isn't there like a polish or dye spray I can use to make the scratch blend in or something ?

Not really. You can overcoat the entire panel, and if it's close enough to the other interior panels, opt not to dye (paint) those, but it's not likely to match by just spot painting the scratch area, and there's no way to get vinyl dye off, it seeps into the vinyl instead of being just a top coat.

With real paint on a hard surface that can be sanded and polished, you can feather blend in a color to have a subtle transition but this can't be done well with vinyl dye.

As far as polish, if it's a black dash and you have black shoe polish, you could smear some of that on and wipe the excess off, trying to just make the scratch darker.

With anything you try, you're not going to know how well it works to hide the scratch until you've applied it. Color matching is hard enough when you have a product that's supposed to be the right color. If you want a guarantee then I would pull a pristine dash from a donor vehicle at a junkyard, and even then it might be sun faded to a different extent than your current dash.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Go take a look at PaintScratch , punch in the data on your car, find the color match, and pick up some paint pens -- primer (optional for your scratches), basecoat and clear coat -- probably about $20 for the order.

Meanwhile, obtain a good rubbing compound like Maguiar's Ultimate Compound or TurtleWax Rubbing compound.

I had some bad scratches with paint transfer on my Trooper which no longer exist as a result of varied application of paint and abrasive. I had some additional scratches that I thought were unrepairable, but the rubbing compound made them totally disappear.

 

[mindless1]

^ This is an interior dash upholstery scratch, which does not use the same techniques as exterior body panel paint.

 

[Scarpozzi]

How about getting some crazy fine sandpaper to just knock the edges off....1500-2500 grit and wet sand by hand. DO NOT oversand the area....you can still take off too much.

I have some spots on mine that I'm planning on taking this approach with.

 

[mindless1]

^ lol whut? Sanding a dash won't do anything useful, except if you had laser precision, in some theoretical way if you managed to capture the dust particles that were the same color and somehow managed to mix those into glue to apply so it color matched. I wouldn't hold my breath to do that, odds are high you will just make the blemished area larger.

 

[Midwayman]

1. The plastic on dashboards is usually soluble in cycloalkanes, which are easiest to find in typical gasoline.
2. Take a rag and soak it in gasoline
3. Rug that rag on the affected area.
4. It will partially melt the thin fibers that are refracting light and causing the scratch to appear white.
5. Continue rubbing the rest of the dash in overlapping circular motions so that you don't leave a patch that looks slightly shinier. It doesn't appreciably change the texture, but is worth doing.
6. If you're picky you can rub the rest of the similar texture panel in the car in gasoline so they all match.
7. While the panels are still moist you need to take a step to cure them.
8. Take a single wooden match and throw it on the dash.
9. Use the insurance payout to buy a car without a scratch.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

^ This is an interior dash upholstery scratch, which does not use the same techniques as exterior body panel paint.

Just looking back at this thread, I suddenly realized that fact.

I've been restoring two old cars which have both interior and exterior battle wounds. If the scratches are on the vinyl plastic you find on bumper covers or dashboards, you can use either automotive paint or vinyl paint, the former requiring an adhesive promoter.

I was able to find a match in a can of Dupli-Coior vinyl spray-paint and the dashboard of my brother's truck. In this case, I was repairing a large crack that exposed the foam rubber under the plastic. I used a Locktite vinyl adhesive to fill the crack with the flat part of vinyl wire ties as backing shoved between the foam rubber and the plastic. Something like that -- you're going to sand it before painting, which removes the leather texture you find on those dashboards. The paint was a good match; but you can see that there had been a crack in the plastic and that it had been filled. And you can see where the dashboard is entirely smooth where it had been sanded around the crack.

The sorts of scratches shown by the OP are so minor, you wouldn't bother with them on an older car. Ahmadka's car is three years old, and he's obsessing over making it look brand new. New cars are unblemished investments which age quickly with minor scrapes and scratches. You can do so much to make the damage invisible. I'd think in Ahmadka's case, you could get a can of aerosol vinyl spray paint of a matching color if you can't find it in a small bottle with application brush, spray some into a small metal can, and use a brush to dab the scratch. Even so, invisibility is not guaranteed.

 

[Muadib]

I've had sucess using this: https://www.amazon.com/Liquid-Leath...argid=aud-801738734305:pla-314923102732&psc=1

Good luck!

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I've had sucess using this: https://www.amazon.com/Liquid-Leath...argid=aud-801738734305:pla-314923102732&psc=1

Good luck!

That's probably a winner for the type of vinyl interior scratches in the OP's Tiguan. I was actually going to post a new thread -- "Experiments with Old, damaged interior vinyl" -- because I've discovered some things of interest.

The truck I had mentioned previously with the 10"-long crack in the vinyl dashboard also had a stiff vinyl leather-textured door-handle with a chunk of vinyl and the underlying foam rubber pulled off, so that the remaining foam rubber turns dirty-yellow and continues to come apart in little chunks. Maybe the door-handle "works", but it was unsightly.

Posting on the Computer Hardware thread for years, I'd learned over that time that you can sometimes find useful materials in your household trash can.

For that kind of damage, repairs can be made without a kit. First, find a vinyl milk-bottle of the quart or gallon size, and cut out rectangles of flat and right-angle pieces. [Of course -- clean off the pieces thoroughly . . ]

Second, a roll of black foam-rubber 3/8" x 1+" weatherstripping comes in handy. It has an adhesive backing, and can be used to rebuild the foam rubber in the damaged area.

An Xacto knife or Xacto saw [similar to a dovetail saw] is a useful tool.

Finally, the coup-de-grace of seeming unlikely choices: An ample tube of fresh SHOE-GOO obtainable for about $3.00 at the local shoe store or Walgreen's Drug Store. I have yet to try a product called Amazing GOOP for auto repairs, but it is probably the same thing. LockTite Vinyl, Fabric and Plastic Adhesive works, but it is too thin and sets up too slowly. Frankly, the SHOE GOO is probably the best stuff -- described as "liquid vinyl".

The milk bottle cutouts are thick enough to repair the stiff vinyl I've described. A thick-mil piece of plastic drop-cloth would serve better as backing for a rip in a soft vinyl seat cover.

You'd want a can of Dupli-Color Vinyl Paint made for interior repairs, and you can likely find a color that is either a close match or an exact match. Also, some 80-grit and 120-grit sandpaper comes in handy. You can cut the milk-bottle rectangles so that there are over-sized tabs to fit under the remaining original vinyl that has been trimmed to provide clean straight edges. Insert the Xacto knife between those edges and the existing foam rubber, and the repair pieces can then be dabbed with glue and secured so there are no "weak" spots in the repair.

First time around, my door handle now looks and feels "good enough fo' gov-mint". Next time, I can say that it's possible to make it all look invisible.

As you reconstruct odd-shaped parts of the repair, the initial infusions of SHOE_GOO may leave air pockets. You can drill holes in the milk-bottle vinyl to inject more GOO into the repair. Then, lightly scratch up the resulting surface(s) with 120-grit; mask off the repair area; shake that can of Dupli-Color, and shoot that bad-boy repair-job.

Voila!

 

[jamesbond000111]

Hi guys ... I think this is my first post here in the Garage section so please be gentle

I recently got a used 2016 Volkswagen Tiguan and while moving a metal bedframe for someone today, I got two light surface scratches on the dashboard ... The scratches aren't deep and can only be seen in light from the right angle ... Still, I was wondering if there's any quick fix to completely fix them so that they're not visible anymore (to the extent possible without spending too much money) .. ? Thanks in advance for your help

Hi Ahmadka, may I use this picture and details of scratch provided by you for my college presentation? I was doing a presentation on scratches in cars and this is a pefect real world example of that. Please let me know. Thanks in advance.