Scratch removal from the metal trim on the fridge & cooker tops?

[Steve Lockwood]

Hi,
Does anyone have any suggestions on how to remove some scratches from the metal trimmings on the fridge and cooker work tops please?

 

[Hotel California]

Hi Steve , have you a picture of the scratches?
I think these parts are painted (grey) as on mine the paint just seem to wear a bit.
So scratched paint is hard to repair on those trims i think.

 

[Steve Lockwood]

Hi yes I have some pics

 

[Hotel California]

To me it looks like almost imposible to repair .
Maybe others may have a other view on this....?
As i said above , i think it is paint ...so scratched paint need respray.

 

[Chris Greaves]

Hi, it may be a long shot but I would try calling 'Chips away'. It's similar to repairing a body work scratch.

 

[WelshGas]

Hi,
Does anyone have any suggestions on how to remove some scratches from the metal trimmings on the fridge and cooker work tops please?

To me it looks like almost imposible to repair .
Maybe others may have a other view on this....?
As i said above , i think it is paint ...so scratched paint need respray.

Unfortunately it is not a painted finish but Satin or Brushed Aluminium.
You cannot repair the individual marks but with a bit of elbow grease you can restore a scratch free finish, but it will be different to the Aluminium edging where it continues around the front end of the kitchen unit. But if you do it all it should match and no one will notice.
I've done it on some car trim that was similar. Had to do the scratched and non-scratched sides to match.
See these videos .

 

[Hotel California]

Thought is was paint as it seems to wear in some places , guess i was wrong.

 

[WelshGas]

Thought is was paint as it seems to wear in some places , guess i was wrong.

The wear appearance is basically rubbing away the satin finish to give a polished area.

 

[pjm-84]

I thought it was paint as I have some light scratches as well.

However It could be anodised based on the coating thickness viewable in the chipped area. (Although different to the anodising I've come across in the construction industry).

Having cleaning the panniers of my GSA yesterday its not a brushed / satin finished aluminium.

 

[Swissian]

It's finish anodised I'm afraid!

No real way to repair it other than to sand it all back to the aluminium but then you have the issue of the aluminium dulling through time and contact with your fingers, etc

 

[Loz]

If you used a paint polish like farecla G3 you can get from Halfords, you could polish off the black marks and make them less visible.

But agree with the Smart repair suggestion, or just replace the top.

 

[WelshGas]

It's finish anodised I'm afraid!

No real way to repair it other than to sand it all back to the aluminium but then you have the issue of the aluminium dulling through time and contact with your fingers, etc

I suppose you could rub it all back to an acceptable finish and then laquer it.

Or just prep it and paint it.

 

[ArunAlec]

I suppose you could rub it all back to an acceptable finish and then laquer it.

Or just prep it and paint it.

I reckon this to be the easiest/cheapest option.
You could fill the deep one by building up with a few coats of lacquer.
Or try silver nail varnish!

 

[Borris]

I agree with trying Smart repair first. It is amazing what can be repaired. Two other thoughts come to mind:

1. How about having the aluminium kitchen elements wrapped. You could go for aluminium of something jazzy possibly to contrast or match one of those coloured work top protectors. This should be a quick, easy and inexpensive way of disguising the damage.

2. I don't know it it is possible but a more long winded approach could be to remove the aluminium elements of the kitchen even as a sub assembly (if that is possible) and rub them down to remove the damage. Then have them very very lightly sand blasted to reproduce a similar frosted finish all over each element. Once you have found a local company that could do the work you would need to supply some aluminium to carry out tests on before going ahead. B&Q sell various aluminium extrusions so a peice of that should do. If this method is possible then obviously you would have to mask off the remaining areas of the sub assembly e.g the glass worktop. You may find that Smart repair are able to do this sort of thing in situe.
However judging from your photos there may be a coating over the aluminium extrusion. If there is then it would make this second method very difficult if not impossible to effect.

 

[Steve Lockwood]

Thank you everyone for your suggestions. I will look it all your ideas

 

[Annik]

This does wear very easily, ours looks awful now as well and have tried various solutions to try and tidy it up, all have made it look worse : ( This is a well used part of the van and I personally think it should be more robust.

 

[jts46]

Or put up with it ?

 

[reserves]

Anyone had any success with this?

Found the kitchen worktop edges are easily scratched on the T6.

 

[KGCali]

Have a read of this old forum post ...
Post in thread 'T6.1 - Rear Headrest Paint Colour' https://vwcaliforniaclub.com/threads/t6-1-rear-headrest-paint-colour.46176/post-602001

 

[Aubisque]

Would be keen to see how folks got on with the spray paint suggested
It’s definitely not brushed aluminium on the sink top edge as I spilt some plughole unblocker on it and it stripped the paint off a bit.