This is a video for our viewers who asked how to care for wood trim.
If you have a Mercedes, BMW, Lexus, Toyota, or Volvo,
a lot of these luxury cars have a wood veneer trim.
Looks kinda hot.. some people think it's old grandma but it looks kinda cool.
This trim is actually sensitive to getting scratches and swirl marks.
Then when the sun hits it, you see the swirl marks and the trim looks bad.
What causes swirl marks?
It's people doing this...
people doing this s@#t...
all this...
Nobody likes that s@#t, so we're gonna polish it off because nobody likes that look.
I'm gonna take some V36 and show you how to polish wood trim.
V36 is a cutting polish designed for paint,
but this wood veneer has a clear coat over it,
and we're gonna make sure it looks real nice.
First I'll shake it up, then use a Hex-Logic White hand pad.
I'll gently spread it on the wood veneer.
If you get it on the door panel, it's not a big deal, it'll just wipe off.
I'll just lightly polish the surface.
The cool thing about cutting polish is it removes light swirls and scratches and enhances gloss.
This wood had some swirls on it and it kind of looked bad,
now we're cleaning it up to make it look fresh and hot again.
I like my wood to look smooth and yummy.
You can see some dirt coming off from the trim.
That's from people licking it and doing weird stuff to the wood.
I'll take one of my Workhorse microfiber towels,
and buff off the wood trim.
There we go. Cool.. Fresh...
We've got a lot of shine out of the trim. It looks much glossier.
This trim has never been done. The car is from 2002, it has over 177,000 miles on it...
But now it looks real fresh and we've restored gloss to the dash.
If you have heavy swirls and scratches, you can use a machine polisher.
I'll show you that next.
I'll show you how to machine polish wood trim.
All the ladies love my rock-hard wood.
When it's shiny and looks good, we all enjoy it.
We have some annoying scuffs and scratches here.
But before you start polishing a dash,
you need to tape up the area where you'll be working.
I'm back on this side and I'll show you how to machine polish wood trim.
When your rock-hard wood looks good, all the ladies love it.
So keep your wood polished, and make sure your knobs look clean.
To do this, I'm going to use a Porter Cable 7424XP with a 3'' backing plate.
If you want to know how to install a 3'' backing plate,
check our YouTube channel for the how-to video.
I'm also using a Green Hex-Logic 4.5'' heavy polishing pad.
You may have noticed I taped up the area around the wood.
I did that because I don't want to harm the dashboard.
There's some overhang from my buffer, and I don't want to stain the dash.
This blue painters tape will not really stick to this dash,
but it should protect us enough.
I'm gonna go ahead and place a few dots of V36 on my polishing pad.
You'll notice I'm using very little polish since I'm doing such a small area.
I'll spread it out over the surface, and you'll see the tape is already doing its job.
I'll spread it out... there we go.
Before you polish your wood trim, make sure it's real wood and not vinyl.
This is what's called a wood veneer.
It's a thin piece of wood with a clear coat on it.
So I'm polishing the clear coat, not the actual wood.
I'll go with speed setting 5 for this job.
Let's go ahead and polish this!
There we go, a light polish is all we need.
I'll buff off the extra polish with a microfiber towel.
Now we have a smooth dashboard.
If you want to protect your dashboard,
you can use a premium sealant or a natural carnauba wax.
I'm going to use JetSeal because this car gets driven by me
and other Chemical Guys employees on the way to lunch,
and they have greasy fingers.
I'm going to go ahead and protect the dash from their greasy nasty fingers.
I'll just place this all over the dash, that'll seal it up and give it a nice look.
I'll give it 20 minutes to dry, then come back.
Oh! It's been 20 minutes already. Geez, time flies!
I'll go ahead and buff off any sealant that was on the dash.
Now you'll see the wood really shines.
We cleaned off any swirls, and we have a nice smooth finish.
It looks significantly glossier than this wood over here.
This wood has actually started to crack over this CD player.
You know you're legit when you have a business CD player!
Now the wood looks fresh and clean.
I'm liking it, and I know everyone who comes in the car will notice
the amazing rock hard wood!
If you have any more questions about JetSeal, or wood polishing with V36,
check them out at our website.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel for more videos on all this cool stuff.
See you next time!