My beloved S, like many of your cars, is bedecked with Piano Black finished interior panels. I have the blessing and curse of all Piano Black: waterfall, console, door handles. It's not entirely shame inducing yet, but there are an uncomfortable number of swirls and scratches emerging.

Anyone with wisdom on removing minor scratches?
Anyone know what the surface is actually made of?

Anyone want to join me with pitchforks and torches on the road to Gaydon so we can voice our opinion of such a fragile material? No? Just me? Ok then...

 

I've had mine for two years. No swirls. Are you using microfiber to gently wipe the piano black down?

 

Recently someone on the forum suggested a plastic polish kit for the radio face plate. Wouldn't surprise me if this product worked well on the piano black trim.

 

Depends on which pieces...

Door caps and waterfall are lacquered wood veneers over substrates (plastic for the door caps and metal for the waterfall). The lower console is black gloss paint over metal (no wood), so not really a traditional piano black.

A small, handheld orbital polisher with some fine swirl remover should do the trick for caps and waterfall. Console probably by hand since it's got more stuff in the way.

 

^^ Agree with XJRS.

It's not particularly fragile, it's just a gloss finish so you see all the micromarring. The semigloss to matte finishes on the wood veneers and carbon fibre veneers get marred, too - it's just a lot tougher to see the marring because they are not as reflective.

What drove me nuts when I had piano black was the visibility of the dust...

 

I keep a microfiber dust cloth under my seat... it has a light wax in it to attract dust and not scratch anything... I dust the dash at stoplights when needed... Probably look nuts but I think its just the right amount of OCD ... its practical but I don't need to relock the front door of the house 8 times.

 

Piano black is a pure black. It doesn't scratch any easier than a regular black that typically would have some sort of metallic or other flake in, but it shows absolutely every mark due to the fact that it is a "perfect" straight high gloss black. The additional particles in more regular blacks disperse the light and you don't notice any scratches so readily.

You will see the scratches in a piano black just from using the wrong cleaning agent or cloth type.

 

I have noticed several small cracks in my ski slope. Trying to decide if I should have it wraped or replaced?

 

My new V8V had a very fine diagonal crack in the waterfall when delivered. It was replaced under warranty.
IMO, I would simply buy a new one from one of the vendors.

 

Carnuba wax is also another option and wil be far more gentle than a plastic polish which is actually an abrasive.

 

Yeah, but that won't fix the scratches, which may still show through the wax. No way to fix scratches without an abrasive...

 

I had the same problem with some scratches on my piano black pieces. As suggested elsewhere on the forum I had great results with Meguiars PlastX. It took some time because I did it by hand. I tested it on a small area first. I am now much more careful touching the waterfall and console.

 

Yes it will, the wax acts as a coating which hides the scratches and will keep it looking new, polishing it will not help in the long run as the scratches will just come back.

 

Well I guess I have OCD, but wax is a bandaid. Better to get rid of the wound rather than cover it up. By your logic we should never polish our cars, just cover up the scratches that keep coming back. Sorry, that would drive me nuts... I'll stick to keeping scratches to a minimum with a bit of discipline, between occasional polishing.

 

I had my V8V S graphene coated last year and the car looks amazing. Supposed to be a step above ceramic. My car is Morning Frost White and it has never looked this good. I will speak to my detailer when I get back in town and see what he thinks about doing the piano black.