Quote:
Originally Posted by FauxDiablo
Here is the bottom line on Porsche interiors.
All of the plastic parts are a dark-gray, injection-molded ABS plastic that has been painted. Period.
MOST, if not all, cleaning products will soften up the paint because it is crap paint, probably a lacquer, and definitely not a hardened or catalyzed (2k) paint.
Once the paint is soft, it will EASILY scratch-off and give the appearance of flaking, often revealing the gray, injection-molded ABS plastic underneath. Even a mild soapy water will soften the the paint.
If you can, the easiest way to fix these paint problems is to spray the part down with "409" cleaner and scratch off the old paint with your fingernail or something just slightly less hard as the ABS plastic under the paint...and then repaint them with a higher quality paint.
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Speaking as someone who recently refinished most of the soft-touch finished interior pieces in my Boxster, you are not entirely off-base, because many interior pieces are indeed ABS. However, some are different plastics than ABS or plastic alloys, such as the interior door pocket lids being discussed in this thread, I'm fairly certain I recall being a polycarbonate alloy.
The finish actually strips off the the map pocket doors the easiest out of all the interior pieces in the car. Other interior items (especially the door sill trim pieces) have really difficult to remove soft-touch finish. 409 is not going to touch them. They are not all the same! The best soft-touch finish removal 'tip' I can offer is to get a bunch of those plastic razor blades and use them, along with a softening agent if it seems to be helping. You'll need different techniques for different pieces, but a sharp plastic razor blade won't harm any non-EPDM piece, and will speed finish removal by promoting a "peeling" action.
I had good cosmetic results (with a basically perfect color and texture match, after experimenting with many products) using SEM Color Coat 15243 Satin Black (
https://www.semproducts.com/refinish-flexible-coatings/color-coattm-aerosols ). That said, it's definitely not as durable as a 2-part finish, so it's still necessary need to use some care to not scratch afterwards. (especially on the door sill trim that get shoes scraping across them...).
I would not recommend Plasti-dip for anything except the radio knobs. The color won't match because is too light/gray. The rubbery texture is also only really a perfect match for the rubbery radio knobs (and maybe it would work well for the epdm ignition trim surround) but I believe it will not be a very close texture match for the rest of the interior pieces.