Goodbye soft touch - hello faux aluminum

[IronMaiden]

I just picked up this car a couple of weeks ago and thanks to this forum, it is starting to come together.

The interior was completely trashed with dog hair from the PO and all of the soft touch was a gooey mess. I tried vacuuming out the hair as best as I could, but the more I looked at it the more I realized that the entire interior was going to need to come out to get it back to a respectable condition.

I was just going to try and clean the gooey mess off of the trim pieces, but after reading some DIY's here I decided to take a shot at painting my trim pieces.

Instead of painting my interior, I got what I needed from a local U Pull It for only a couple of bucks. This way I still have my stuff if it doesn't turn out right or I want to change it back to black.

It turned out to be a lot more work than I thought.

After cleaning the soft touch with Simply Green and wiping down everything with Isopropyl Alchohol I sprayed a couple of coats of Rustoleum Metallic Silver paint on everything. So far, so good. After a couple of coats of paint, all of the soft touch started bubbling up from the reaction to the paint and I ended up stripping each and every part and wet sanded them with 400 grit paper.

This time, the paint when on really nice and I had no issues with bubbling or checking. After a couple light coats of paint, I then laid down two light coats of Valspar Matte Clearcoat over the top and I think it turned out pretty well.

I know a lot of you guys aren't big fans of the "faux" aluminum trim, but for the money (about $30 for all of the trim and paint) I think it was well worth the effort.

As you can see I still need to put the glove box back in after expoying the hinge. I also have a set of Passat silver trim rings for the cluster and I ended up painting the center section of the front console instead of doing just the ash tray door.

Picture attached:

[turboistheanswertocancer]

have any close ups or pics under different lighting conditions?

[MarksManB]

Looks good! I hate soft touch with a passion now. I ended up going a different route that turned out not too bad. I stripped the soft touch with alcohol and a sctoch bright nylon scrubbing pad, then I sanded down the part down to 4000 grit and polished it with PlastiX. I did that with the door handles which makes them real nice, and if yours are like mine, you might get a funky swirl in the plastic from when it was molded that looks marble-ish.

With the center console, I did the same thing with stripping, but I went further and sanded down the top half (you'll notice a belt line running around the console). Now everything is smooth, solid and original.

[JayDutch44]

I began trying to do this to my Jetta today and cannot get all of the trim pieces off to paint. What's the trick? Do you have a link to good directions? Thanks!

[tjjoiner]

I just got my Jetta last week and am already annoyed by the soft touch coating. I've caught myself several times picking and scratching at it while waiting at red lights. I'm going to strip the stuff soon and either leave it or paint it -- likely just leave it.

The silver looks nice, though! Great job! How's the durability?

[jimcisme]

Soft touch paint comes right off with denatured alcohol and a rag, does not harm ABS plastic but have plenty of rags around and don’t expect to use them again.

EDIT:I actualy did have better results with the awesome and a very stiff plastic brissel brush that came off a can of carpet cleaner. Denatured alcohol does work well on a non textured surfaces but for anything textured the awesome and stiff brissel brush cleans completely and quite fast, also does not scrach the plastic.

[tjjoiner]

I'm going to start removing some of the soft touch today, starting with the parts that are easiest to remove (ashtray panel, whatever that panel is that is under the radio, etc.). Lowe's was COMPLETELY out of denatured alcohol, in all sizes, though, but I've got some other solvents that should work. VtRg6's how-to on interior trim removal looks like it will be extremely helpful.

EDIT: Do NOT use Goof Off. Let's just say that it works TOO well.

EDIT #2: Went to the Lowe's website and found some sort of 95% natural denatured alcohol that I didn't see when I went there this morning. I ordered it online, picked it up after seeing my wife on her lunch break, and spritzed some of the easy-to-remove trim pieces. It works pretty well. The stuff doesn't melt off like I was hoping - you've got to let it soak a bit and scrub it. It kind of crumbles off, but it does leave the base plastic in perfect condition. I didn't have a scotch pad, so I used an old metal scouring pad (one of those neon metallic pink and blue ones). The pad gave the plastic a nice matte finish. I definitely recommend the denatured alcohol to anyone who wants to remove the soft touch finish from their trim.

[markmk1]

Hey guys I removed all of mine a couple of months ago. I used a cleaner from the dollar general store called awesome cleaner. This worked better for me than alcohol ,I used it with a light scotch bright pad actually lots of them also from dollar general. Hope that helps just my input have fun

[tjjoiner]

I began trying to do this to my Jetta today and cannot get all of the trim pieces off to paint. What's the trick? Do you have a link to good directions? Thanks!

There is some VERY good/informative information on this subject in the Interior FAQ sticky.

As a side note, non-acetone nail polish remover works well, too, as does regular nail polish remover. It doesn't get the plastic all gooey like you think it would.