Changing Colour of Interior & Door Panel Prep ~ Scratches

[CDN72SE]

Doing some colour changing of the interior parts of my 72SE, I'm using SEM Super White, as we know it's not a vinyl dye but as the can says, " Color coat is a fade resistant, flexible and permanent coating". So my panels have not always recieved the proper care and have some scratches and some chalkiness to them.

Is there a a method for reducing the visibility of the scratches in the plastic? In addition I am following the steps by using the SEM cleaner and adhesion prep.



The offending panel:


Previously sprayed panel that was in nice shape:


Scotchbrite green pad? Steel wool? Any suggestions? Thanks.

[ODZKing]

I just went through this and what I did didn't work well.  So I am interested in seeing you results.   

[CDN72SE]

BTW your '73 looks amazing, congrats and excellent work!

[Dino]

It's near impossible to remove a scratch in a grained plastic without leaving marks.  Removing the scratch itself is easy enough but now you end up with a smooth patch and that's gonna jump out badly.  Find a vinyl repair kit, most auto parts stores carry them.  They have a compound to fix vinyl and they have several small pieces of reversed print vinyl in the package.

After smoothing the scratch you need to rub on the compound, find the vinyl that matches your door panel grain the best and dab it in the compound to recreate it.  Once dried you can take a light sand paper and knock down the high spots created when you pulled the swatch out of the compound.  Once you're done with that it's the usual cleaner, primer, adhesion promoter and so on.

[CDN72SE]

Thank you very much for the detailed response Dino, guess I'll head out to get the vinyl kit and will report back with how it turns out. ~ Alan.

[remta1]

another option is to prep it nad sprat it with a filler spray putter .Set the air pressure so that it splutters out of the gun and will give you that grain look to hide the scratch , paint and finish 

[ODZKing]

I had an old A pillar that was badly "chalky" so I thought I'd experiment with scratches and texture/finish.
I used steel wool like this and basically scrubbed over and over to get the sandiness out. It took out much of the grain but left some and actually put some in as well because of the scratches it left.  Perfect, no, but better than the gouges from before. I actually left a portion so I could see the difference and it does not look all that bad, especially if you have nothing else. I will post a pic later when I get home.