Re: Wood Treatment-Scratch Remover

["Scott Mo." <scottmo@teleport.com>]

David,

I don't know how the wood in the A4's was made, you may want to check the
owners manual for details on cleaning/preserving your wood dash.

The 1989-91 200T/Q's used a thin wood veneer (~0.020 inch) which had a
lacquer or plastic coating over it with about the same thickness. The
thickness of the clear coat varies over the wood surface depending on how
it was applied and the contour of the wood. The thin veneer was laid over a
wood frame with vents for the front dash pieces. The side door panels have
a formed alloy frame which has the wood veneer layed on.

On this type of "wood" I have used "Scratch Out" from KIT which is sold as
a Auto Finish Scratch and Haze Remover for clear coat and other auto paint
finishes. This stuff works very well for removing some minor scratches and
improving the shine in the wood clear coat on these cars. Avoid getting
this stuff on the interior vinyl as it can leave a white residue similar to
car wax.

I have also used this "Scratch Out" for cleaning up scratches on the clear
plastic instrument cluster face plates, and on other clear plastic covers.

If you have some deep scratches in the dash clear coat you can carefully do
some wet sanding with 1000, 1500 or 2000 grit paper and then polish back
the shine with the liquid scratch remover. (lots of elbow grease) Be
careful on the edges, as it is easy to sand through the clear coat, and
down to the wood.

The early 200's with the cloudy clear coat wood are difficult to fix, in
some cases you can sand down through the cloudy area, and then polish back
some shine. I am not sure if it is worth the effort, but in mild cases it
can bring some improvement. Best bet is to get the wood pieces out of a
wrecked 1991 200TQ, they seem to have the nicest looking wood around...

I would imagine that other products for removing scratches from paint
finishes or on plastic would work. It is always a good idea to test new
products on a small obscure area, in case it doesn't work....:-)

HTH
Scott Mockry

http://www.teleport.com/~scottmo