"soft touch" interior paint / solutions?

oilhammer said:

You know it is funny, I am in and out of lots of these cars every day...some are REALLY bad and some hardly anything. Strange.

Our 2004 is still perfect, 84k miles and 4.5 years of use. Yet I have another 2004 here in the shop with 96k miles that looks like it was beat up with a hammer. Then a 2002 right next to it with 140k miles that has minimal (but some) wear. Maybe some people are just harder on things than others I guess.

That silver treatment pictured above looks nice, looks like the newer Audi interiors.

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sorry for beating a dead horse, but i think i know how the soft touch wear is accelerated... Windex! when i used a bottle with ammonia it just started coming off. i'm gonna go buy some alcohol now...

Perfect. This is very timely...Jim

p377y7h33f said:

sorry for beating a dead horse, but i think i know how the soft touch wear is accelerated... Windex! when i used a bottle with ammonia it just started coming off. i'm gonna go buy some alcohol now...

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I have the dire need to do big sections of my NB. I just need to figure out a way to do it "fast". I had read about using bug & tar remover and it works, but is slow going.

I'd also like to paint the pieces, but i'm not sure what color. I ponder it as I sit in "car line" waiting to pick up kids! LOL!

I like the silver posted - but I don't think that would work in my Tecno Blue NB. I'd be ok going with a darker charcoal I think. I'm also pondering asking the ex if he will teach me how to spray them myself. Because you know, I have all this "spare time" to paint! (single mom, 3 kids- 1 special needs, full time student, what spare time???)

But, i'm going to go grab some alcohol and see how it works. And I have a gallon of windex....

Thanks for the windex tip, the door handles are "clean" now! It is definitely taking the plastic paint off one layer at a time, I tried it first on the door panel where it meets the dash. This was intact but sticky. It is still sticky, but clean and minus a layer of soft touch paint. I never was able to get down to the raw plastic on it. But the stuff around the shifter came right off.

I wonder if I will look odd sitting in car line with a gallon of windex and some shop towels? And I wonder if spraying it on works better than pouring it on the towels?

Oh and on the door lock piece I used my target card to scrap the gunky paint off. A cheaper way of using it right?

How difficult is like the glove box door for istance?

Too bad it's not like the headliners that seperate all by themsleves...

I only attempted small pieces - and I think if you took parts off it would work easier (well, unless you have a nice garage and don't live in hot, humid florida!). It comes off easy enough with the Windex - no elbow grease needed really. The windex doesn't bother my hands - but as the towels got paint on them i could feel them reacting. I was happy I had bought the select-a-size shop towels because that is about all the paint I could take.

One wipe of the wet blue shop towel on anything netted me a black or gray towel depending on what I was "cleaning". Soaking the part on the door panel had gray windex running down the door.

I left the towels and windex in the car - I have 30 minutes to kill later in that stupid car-line so I'm going to hit up on other parts.

I really like that silver, a graphite grey would looks really good too I think. Or color match oem wheels would be cool too. My car has 180,000kms now and my soft touch is still perfect though. Not sure why others peel and some don't?

CGDoig said:

I really like that silver, a graphite grey would looks really good too I think. Or color match oem wheels would be cool too. My car has 180,000kms now and my soft touch is still perfect though. Not sure why others peel and some don't?

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Sun? IT's brutal on cars down here I think. Also, I'm guessing what it was cleared with over time doesn't help either. The windex taking layers of it off can't help - if you had a perfect surface and took the first layer off you'd end up with a mess (in my opinion).

My car only had 68k miles when I bought it, but was 11 years old. YOu can tell it was garage kept - and they had seat covers on and so the seats are like brand new. But the soft touch is crap.

I attempted to take more off in car line - but it was raining and well, that ended up not being a good idea!