Quote:
Originally Posted by kfscoll
That polish is waaaay too aggressive for either the LCI display or the piano black HVAC surround, especially if you try to use it by hand. You're going to shred your gauges and get nothing but micro scratches on your HVAC surround if you use that stuff. Better to remove the surround and machine polish it (with an orbital) and some very fine compound like Menzerna 4000. Just leave the gauges alone and if they get dirty blow them off with compressed air or, at most, lightly wipe them with the fluffiest microfiber towel you can find.
There's nothing you can successfully polish the gauges with. They have a matte texture/coating on them - hand polishing will scratch them all to hell and machine polishing will make them shiny and illegible in daylight. Either way you'll get to buy a new gauge cluster for $1K.
I've had luck polishing the piano black surround in my wife's X3 with a 1" pad on a Flex rotary polisher but honestly it's quite a PITA if you don't remove the trim first. If you leave it installed, don't mask properly, and are otherwise not careful the compound slings everywhere and it's hard to clean up.
Heed my words - don't polish glossy plastic by hand! You'll be sorry you tried! Either just buy a new HVAC trim piece, remove and machine polish it, or leave it alone.
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I'll take your advice and take the HVAC trim out before working on it. I have a Griots Garage DA polisher that I can put a small plate onto. You think even the Novus #1 plastic polish is too abrasive? It's more of a finishing polish than anything else as far as I know. I likely won't be doing anything to my cluster as yeah it's not smooth/glossy; just curious whether anything can be done with it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by heavyD^2
At all costs you try to avoid anything coming into contact with the LCI cluster. It doesn't matter if it's the most gentle microfiber cloth or what lubricant you use. It will scratch. If your display has scratches (many of us got them right on delivery) just live with them as trying to fix them will make it worse. Use a compressed duster if you want to clear dust build up but nothing should ever come in contact with the cluster film as it's quite possibly the most delicate surface known to man.
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Thanks for the tip. I actually did scratch it using a MFT. I'll be using compressed air going forward, and well, haven't figured out what to use if I end up sneezing on it or something lol