I have a bit of minor rash on the bottom of my left lower fairing (cowl), about 1" x 3". Hard to see, but I know that it is there. Otherwise, the cowl is in excellent condition. Has anyone been successful in sanding out scratches in this black plastic part?

Thanks in advance!!

Marc

 

There are a couple of ways you can do this. First remove the panel as it's much easier to work with. You could then use 2000 grit or finer sand paper to wet sand them out. If you wet sand, make sure that you use hot water with a couple of drops of household dish detergent. The dish detergent breaks down the molecules of the residue that would build up on the sand paper and therefore wouldn't scratch the panel with even finer scratches. Once you have removed the scratches, then you could use a swirl remover compound to remove the ultrafine scratches that the sand paper put in the panel. This does work and takes a little time, but patients will pay off.

The second method, which is more complex is to use a like a hair dryer to heat up the plastic slowly. Make sure it's slowly, as you don't want to discolor the plastic. By heating the material up, it softens the plastic. Then you could use something like rubbing compound. Try 2 different grades, like medium grit, then fine grit. Last, I use something called machine polish and it brings that satin color right back into the lower panels.

Best of luck.

 

Thanks Illushun, makes perfect sense. I might give your first method a go this coming weekend.