Not sure if my dashboard is too shiny or too mat...

[KingK0ng]

Hello everyone !

When i bought my car i noticed that on the driver side, so around the airbag that the dashboard was more glossy compared to the other side. The strange thing is that between the mat and gloss side it's a clean separation, i mean it's not the entire dashboard and i found this very odd because if you apply some kind of cleaning or glossy product you do all the dashboard not 1/3...

Ok here is the pictures so you can clearely see what i'm talking about and yes, it piss me off when it sunny outside and i have one shiny dashboard on one side and mat on the other one..Also if you look closely you'll see that it extend near the glove box as well but it''s less pronounced.

 

Now i found this very confusing, why only 1/3 of the dashboard ? First i though that the previous owner or maybe the merchant were i bought the car ( because when i arrived i remember seeing him cleaning the car with different stuff ) did apply some kind of product to make the dashboard look shinier but then decided to not apply it to the entire dashboard for some unknown reason or maybe he wanted to try a new product but wasn't satisfied and stopped it ? Whatever happend at first i though it was no big deal and once i''ll get time i'll clean this with hot dish soapy water and make the dashboard mat again. But nope...it didn't work at all and i couldn't make this shiny effect disapear.. the result was exactly the same as previously.

Now i'm thinking that perhaps they apply a simple ( non gloss ) cleaning plastic product but didn't make the rest of the dashboard ? What i mean is that the shiny side could be just a clean plastic while the mat side would be a tarnished plastic ? I don't know... Thing is i like the mat side but not the shiny, glossy, clean or whatever side.. So now i don't know what i have to do to make my dashboard look uniform again.

What do you think guys ? is the 6gen dashboard mat or a bit shiny from factory ? Because right now i'm confused and i don't know if i have one side too glossy because of some whatever poop product or if i have a too tarnished plastic on the other side...

Any advise would be very helpful and please don't hesisate to tell me how yours is looking so maybe we may know if my dashboard is too tarnished on one side or too glossy on the other and then i could try to treat the culprit side.

 

Thanks for reading guys

[PTR200S]

Bit odd,  that, I wonder if someone has used a silicone type spray on it and its gone shiny....

You could try a water based "solvent" cleaner....NOT a solvent unless you want drooping plastic !!!!

Test a small area of the shiny part first and see if it helps. 

I use a  Matt or semi matt spray finish on my dashboard, one called Armour All works well to finish it off.

I hate shiny dashboards as they reflect in the windscreen....ugh !!!

 

[KingK0ng]

Hi Peter,

It's very odd indeed..i think my door panels are too shiny as well and i suspect they applied something onto them too.

So you think that the mat side is how it should normally be ?

[KingK0ng]

I'm thinking of trying the Sonax eXtreme Cockpit Cleaner or Nextzett Plastic Deep Cleaner . Do any of you have any experience with any of them ?

[PTR200S]

Matt or semi matt would be the way I would go but someone  may have used a gloss dashboard cleaner and it may take some time and effort to get them how you want them.

Sonax would be the stuff I would use but maybe some experimentation will be in order !!

[KingK0ng]

I've read that both are equally good but the Nexzett is slightly for more severe cases so perhaps i should try this one first and see how it goes.

I may sound a bit pessimist but for some reason i'm not very confident i could get it back mat like the other side..if i couldn't i may be very very pissed off..

 

Ps : I forgot to mention one thing, the shinier surface is not sticky at all, it's dry just as the mat side. If it was silicon based product that was applied shouldn't it be sticky ?

[AhsyV6]

Have to say that is very odd. I would do exactly what’s been suggested to in that you need to strip the dash of any after market coating that has bonded to the dash and see if that takes it back to a matt finish. 
 

With that said, I had a very tiny dirt spot on my glove compartment which you couldn’t really see unless you were looking for it. However me being me decided I needed to remove it and I tried all kinds from my Arsenal to remove it but it did not budge. What it do do though it make the tiny area shiny so it was almost like under the matt surface it was shiny. I might have removed some of the dye or maybe someone previously had attempted it and now it looks a tad darker or dirty. I have added a picture below and circled it. So what you might find is that someone has used a quite a harsh product and stripped it of its factory finish which I hope isn’t the case. It is very usual that there is a straight line as well. 

I found that both my coupeS passenger airbag covers were a slightly different sheen when stripped of all the layers of dash cleaners and silicone. I just blend it all in by having a sheen on the top part of the dash and then a slightly more deeper sheen on the lower part of the dash where it meets the AC console. 
 

Failing all the above, you could just make the matt half shiny so you have a uniform look although you don’t like the shiny finish. 

 I use Autoglym Vinyl and Rubber care which can be changed to matt, sheen or shiny. Or there’s 303 Aerospace Protectant which is more matt to sheen. 
 

[KingK0ng]

Thanks for your input Ahsy,

Yes i can see the spot on your glove box. So at the end of the day you wasn't able to fix it ? One other option and seems the easiest one is to replace the glove box and you're done, that's what i'll do if i was you especially if there is no way to bring it to normal again.

As for my dashboard i don't think someone has rubbed it hardly for some unknown reason. First is because this shiny texture extend on all the 1/3 and is uniform. what i mean by this is that it goes all around the airbag and in the rear near the window as well. So it clearly indicate that someone has uniformly wiped with some product all this 1/3 of surface and then stopped making that clean separation between the shiny and mat side. Maybe a passenger has spitted some drink or something and they had to clean the dashboard but seems unlikely because the tweeter fabric doesn't show any trace of any particular liquid. Also the texture pattern is intact on the shiny side, if it was rubbed hardly it will have fade a bit but it's doesn't to be the case. It's just that the shiny side look like more "hydrated" while the mat side look totally "dry" if it make any sense.

As i said the door panels are shiny as well and i'm pretty sure they put something onto them aswell, maybe the same product as they applied on the dashboard. I know for fact that prior i buy it and when i came to see the car the merchant has cleaned it and i could see some trace of dust polish in some place around the body of the car. So i'm pretty sure the interior poop cleaning was his business...

As i said the shiny side is not sticky at all, it feels the same as the mat side. Peter supposed it may be some silicon product based but i don't know if silicon can give a shiny apparance without being sticky at all. Knowing if it's silicon or not i may then treat it with the appropriate product.

I've read many things about shiny dashboard cleaning and many advise some APC dilued with water but i don't want to take any risk and damage the dashboard so i prefer to take the safe route and try a well known product detailer for this specific material and purpose.

To start i'll give a try the Nextzett Plastic Deep Cleaner and see how it goes, this product seems highly praised..

Oh one last thing which worry me a bit, doesn't usually the products that leave a shiny gloss effect tend to fade overtime ? because this shiny thing on my dashboard have been the same since i bought it last year, it didn't fade one bit since then...

Your though or ideas are still welcome, thanks.

 

 

 

[KingK0ng]

Today i made a further inspection, i took a torchlight and put it on the dashboard so it's razor light the dashboard. This way i could see if the texture ( fake leather pattern ) where it's shiny is damaged or smoothened by hard rubbing or something. Actually the texture looks intact just like the mat side, no difference at all and when razor light it i can't see a difference between the shiny and mat side anymore.

As i said this glossy thing expand near the glove box as well on the upper left which is visible on the pictures but fortunately it stop there and doesn't extend more lower. While checking i notice that when i open the glove box where the vinyl come inside the box, i can see there a separation between the gloss and mat on the vinyl and the separation look like the product have sunk a bit because he was doing it while the glove box was closed so he couldn't reach that small portion of the vinyl that come inside.

All this to say that i'm now certain that there is something right there, as Peter said probably it's a layer of silicone which tend to flatten crevasse on textured surfaces like our dashboard and vinyls like in our car and make the surface more shiny/glossy.

I finally ordered the Nextzett Plastic Deep Cleaner, should comes early next week. If this doesn't work i'm going to be hopeless...

 

[AhsyV6]

Look forward to the results on the Nextzett.

BTW our Stu gave me a glovebox years ago and I’ve yet to install it as it’s not really visible. Sitting it the car now and have just given the interior a deep clean and looking at the spot on the glove box I can live with it.

[KingK0ng]

1 hour ago, AhsyV6 said:

Look forward to the results on the Nextzett.

BTW our Stu gave me a glovebox years ago and I’ve yet to install it as it’s not really visible. Sitting it the car now and have just given the interior a deep clean and looking at the spot on the glove box I can live with it.

I'll come back to post the results, feel a bit nervous about the outcome already.

Replacing the glove box should be pretty easy job isn't, why you didn't once you received it ?

[AhsyV6]

2 hours ago, KingK0ng said:

Replacing the glove box should be pretty easy job isn't, why you didn't once you received it ?

Along with sheer laziness I can live with it and may update it one day or just give it back to Stu when I sell the car. 

[PTR200S]

23 hours ago, KingK0ng said:

Ps : I forgot to mention one thing, the shinier surface is not sticky at all, it's dry just as the mat side. If it was silicon based product that was applied shouldn't it be sticky ?

No, not all the silicone stuff produces a sticky residue, does seem as if someone has attacked it with something that has actually coated the surface rather than just cleaned it.

[PTR200S]

20 hours ago, KingK0ng said:

To start i'll give a try the Nextzett Plastic Deep Cleaner and see how it goes, this product seems highly praised..

Go for it ! let us know what it does 🙂

I WOULD test it on a small area first of all though, somewhere out of sight, certainly an area where you 😆 cannot see it whilst driving !!!

 

[PTR200S]

1 hour ago, AhsyV6 said:

Along with sheer laziness I can live with it and may update it one day or just give it back to Stu when I sell the car. 

two minutes of a job, !!!....any time left in your lockdown schedule, Ahsy??😛

[KingK0ng]

2 hours ago, PTR200S said:

No, not all the silicone stuff produces a sticky residue, does seem as if someone has attacked it with something that has actually coated the surface rather than just cleaned it.

Good to know Peter. There is no doubt the merchant i bought the car from used some products to "clean" the car. My door panels are also too shiny/glossy in my taste and doesn't look normal or "factory looking". I think he used the same product on the door panels and the dashboard because the gloss is very similar. 

As for the 1/3 of the dashboard i think either this guy received a call or had a duty to do or something and forgot to finish the dashboard or he run out of the product to continue and leaved it this way.

So basically if you don't try to remove this silicon by any way it can stay forever and never fade out ?

[PTR200S]

On 5/7/2020 at 12:01 AM, KingK0ng said:

So basically if you don't try to remove this silicon by any way it can stay forever and never fade out ?

It will fade (degrade?) with time, dust will help it fade for sure ! .....it tends to linger longer than none silicone type coatings though.

You will need to be patient and test those cleaners out to see if anything will help, I would suspect the more you clean it will start to fade but I would not be applying lots of pressure whilst cleaning....you don't want to wear the original surface away!  The "holes" in the surface are almost certainly filled with whatever the stuff was that they used.

[KingK0ng]

The postman will deliver the nextzett today so earlier than expected. So today will be the day of truth !

The way i will proceed is spray it on the incriminated dashboard part then use a soft brush to spread it out evenly and let sit for 3 minute like the instructions suggest and then wipe out with a clean microfiber cloth and repeating this process probably few times depeding the results.

Good lord i'm nervous...this devil thing HAS to go the F#!@ out of my car ! 😠

[KingK0ng]

I'm back with the results. I started yesterday and continued today a bit.

When i first tried with the Nextzett product i saw no improvment at all. Once the surface was drying the shiny/gloss reappeared back to where it was. I tried 2-3 time and still the same results. At that point i was devastated, no way i could use my car and keep seeing this abominaton while sitting in it.. At this point this dashboard was done to me thanks to an asshole who had no clue what the heck he was doing.

Just when i was to give up i though since the dashboard is done to me anyway let's try something different but perhaps something that may make it even worse. But at this point i was all in or nothing and i took my chance. I took my bottle of 99.9% isopropanol pour it to the microfibre towel and started to rub the dashboard quite hard. I then noticed that something was changing but not quit sure if it was in a good way or bad way but it was different than the mat side. In my mind i was like ok now i certainly made it even worse but didn't really care because of how pissed off i was.

Then i took the Nextzett and applied it and noticed that the shine started to fade but just a smidge. Then i applied again isopropanol and after Nextzett and was doing this several times between the two. Everytime it was going better and better until at some point where i couldn't see the difference anymore between the two side.. i couldn't believe it....i did it. So the combination of those two products was perfect.

Don't know what kind of devils product was applied on this dashobard but never saw something sticking so badly on a plastic surface..

The results

 

Now that the dashobard is done i attacked the door panels, but it seems that it's even more difficult to dull them because its vinyl and not plastic and thus more porous.

I managed to dull them a bit but i can't do more than how they are now and don't want to insist too much in order to damage the vinyl.

Maybe is the door panels vinyls that are that way don't know.. I noticed that the dashboard vinyl is more mat and open color while the doors vinyl are slightly more shiny and a tad darker. Maybe they used a different vinyl for the doors from factory ? If someone with the same color interior as me could confirm that would be appreciated. 

[Laird_Scooby]

Looks much better now!

[AhsyV6]

Wow what an improvement and based on the pictures has a lovely sheen to it now so not completed matt. 
Try a leather cleaner on the leather inserts in the door to see if that helps? I use Autoglym Leather Cleaner and then followed by a cream/conditioner of some kind like Autoglym Leather Balm, Megauiars Gold class Leather Cream, Gliptone Leather Conditioner etc. 

[PTR200S]

That looks great now , what an impressive change ! 

Gold medal for perseverance and achievement that man !

[KingK0ng]

6 hours ago, AhsyV6 said:

Wow what an improvement and based on the pictures has a lovely sheen to it now so not completed matt. 

Thanks everyone, glad with the result just back to factory looking again, can't notice any difference anymore.

Ahsy, i think the sheen we see is because the dashboard is completely clean now 😂 Prior to that there was lot of dust on the mat side and the plastic was very dry looking. Now it look perfect to me, nor too mat nor too shine just where it should be.

As for the doors he didn't put anything on the leather inserts but on the vinyls only. The Nextzett is for plastic and vinyls but this alone didn't really help i had to use the isopropanol to dull them a bit just like i did with the dashboard. Thing is i don't know how they look from factory so i don't know how they should really look. If someone with the same color interior could tell me if those vinyls inserts look totally mat or slightly shiny would be helpful.