How to get rid of scratches on textured plastic?
 

Ford technician left a nice John Hancock on the plastic during servicing. Anyone know how to get this off?

You can scuff it down and refinish it but it'll be near impossible to duplicate the texture. Since you'd have to remove it anyway to do that, I think you're better off just replacing the piece.

I would try a plastic detail product first. One that leaves a light shine. I use a product called TKO. It is a Armor All type product. It may hide it to where you do not see it. Or make it less noticeable. Your second step would be to try a plastic dye. I used one (I believe it was called ReNu Pro) to fix all the faded plastic on my Daily. It may slightly change the color of the plastic though. So would need to do both pieces of the column cover. If that doesn't work then replacement is all that is left.

The Service Dept should replace it.

Try a heat gun.

What???? please explain. Heat guns would burn paint or melt plastic.

This sounds like the answer to me.

The heat gun will melt the thin pieces of plastic at the edge of the cuts making it slightly less noticeable.

Just lightly rub some kind of plastic cleaner or renew on the spot. It will make it all shiny and make the scratch less visible.

I work at a plastics plant making automotive parts. We do steering wheel shrouds but not for the Mustang. Your best bet is just to forget about it. It's just a scratch, one of many to come during the life of your car.

It's funny you complain about the small scratch but don't complain about the huge amounts of parting line flash on the shroud where the two pieces meet. That looks nasty.

Yep.:agree:

Dude, calm down.

There are plenty of YouTube videos on using heat guns to smooth out scuffs in plastic. Obviously if you hold it long enough it will melt, but it's effective in short blasts at smoothing out scuffs on door panels and other plastic parts.

I've heard some people mention rubbing peanut butter on scuffs. I've never tried it myself though.

I've heard of the heat gun method too. I've never tried that either.