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Removing Soft Touch Paint & Hydrodipping Center Console
Finally got fed up with the soft-touch paint on the center console of my 2009 997.2 C2, and also broke down and bought the Numeric shifter and cables after all the reviews I have read. Decided to turn this into a mostly DIY project, and pulled the center console out, got the shifter and cables installed and spent several weeks (mostly weekends) getting all the soft-touch paint off the center console.
The original look.
The typical worn soft-touch paint...
Note: Whoever decided soft-touch paint was a good idea should be fired, I would rather have piano black, at least piano black lasts and doesn’t break down over time…
Anyway, I read a lot on here and other places on how to remove it and wanted to share my experience, as I tried a bunch of methods;
(1) Adhesive remover; NO
(2) Break cleaner; NO
(3) Simple green; NO
(4) Goof off; Small Area Only with Care
(5) TSP; YES
(6) Denatured alcohol; Not Really
(7) Water (boiling); Not Really, be careful
(8) GOO Gone; NO
(9) Sand paper; NO
(10) Over Cleaner; YES
(11) Pressure Washer; YES
Note: Oven Cleaner didn’t make the picture… (it was in the mail)
Note: Your experience may vary, and use my experience at your own risk, I had come to terms with buying a replacement off eBay, but wanted to try this first; I made it work. Also, with all chemicals, make sure you are in a ventilated area, and have proper PPE for what you are working with!
Things that just flat out didn’t work: GOO Gone, Simple Green, Adhesive Remover, Brake Cleaner, these all just didn’t do anything, or I got bored because they didn’t work fast enough.
Sand Paper: This was a mess, I had a part that was junk and I tried it, the sand paper gets full of the paint quickly and it is a pain. If you use a low grit you will shred the parts, and if you use a high grit you will just give the paint a nice massage and discolor it… bottom line, don’t use sand paper unless it is a small part that just wont come off in another way.
Denatured Alcohol: This sort of worked, it is a bit of a pain to work with and I has better success with other methods.
Water (Boiling): This worked, well sort off, and is not something I would recommend. You need a large pot (or vat in the case of the entire center console) to execute this, it take a long time, and in my case only partially removes it. For me I use this method on the middle/rear part of the center console, I had a large pot, boiled it for like 2+ hours, and the soft touch bubbled and came off the plastic, but basically cooked the rest of it onto the part. I don’t recommend this method, but I read it on another site and tried it. I had to use other methods to get the rest of it off. I would further not recommend this because I believe the time in the boiling water warped my part, I had to use a heat gun to bend it back, and it still isn’t right.
Note the bubbles in the soft touch paint.
Boiling only partially removed the paint...
Goof Off: This works, HOWEVER, it can “burn” the plastic! Be very careful, this worked quickly, but you had to use a lot of it, and the plastic “fuzzed”, so I had to sand it to get it smooth. If you have a hard spot (small) it is great, but not for an entire part.
TSP: This was very highly recommended and I was able to source a gallon of it, and a big blue bin (see pictures) to soak the parts in, I diluted it with water. I used this on my ash tray cover, and after ~1 hr all the soft touch paint just came off, that was the first part I tried, so I went all in on TSP, the wonder chemical, but it didn’t carry through for the remaining parts with the same simple results. I soaked for a week and it didn’t “just fall off” like my first part… I would recommend this, it did mostly work, and was simple, but you need a large bin.
You can see here the TSP removed all the soft touch paint, huge initial win!
Soaking the entire thing!
Pressure Washer: This worked, likely out of desperation, after soaking in TSP, I wanted to clean the parts, and felt that it would remove it, it did, you have to get the tip very close, but it came off, and then some minor touch up with a pick finished most of this for me. I would recommend this, but be careful, and be ready to get WET!
Oven Cleaner: This was extremely highly recommended, and I couldn’t source it locally, so I ordered it and tried other things first, mistake, this stuff just works! Be liberal with the application, light sprays don’t do much, but a heavy application will make the soft-touch just orange peel up and you can then wipe it off.
Final Recommendation: Spray with Over Cleaner (heavily), wear PPE, do this outside, rinse clean off with pressure washer, use dental picks, brillo pads, and sandpaper as a must, and Goof Off in extreme situations.
In the end, I got it all cleaner off, I think the methods I used made the plastic look worse than if I used just my final recommendation, but I dropped it off for Hydrodipping and I am currently waiting for it to come back. I will update with final pictures. Tape measure was to remotely get quotes on painting or hydrodipping.
Last edited by Skube; 08-24-2020 at 05:12 PM.
Reason: fix text
So this is car work, not necessarily house cleaning work. The material is a textured automotive paint on plastic. You should sand, (wet sand) with 180 or 220 , then down to 320 and prime with an adhesion promoter, then primer, then sand with 600 or 800 and paint. Another method would be to sand down the majority with 180,220, then prime with filler primer to float out the remaining texture and paint over that.
The texture isnt necessarily do able, so normal base coat clear coat will give finish quality to match the body, to whatever color.
Otherwise you can go thru all kinds of labor and failure, just on the prep. Just do it like the pros would do it.
I got my parts back from Hydro Dipping, here are a few photos, I am pretty happy with it, I have a bit of work to get the center console back into the car, so may be a few days until I have "installed" pictures.
997ajk (09-07-2020),BLU997 (09-08-2020),Chaos (10-25-2020),Motopilot (09-13-2020),myw (09-08-2020),spookyjones (10-25-2020) and 1 others liked this post. (Show less...)
Looks good! That’s a vast improvement over the soft touch paint. I think if you added some more black, or carbon items it would tie everything together nicely.
Actually looks more sutble than I thought possible, well done.
The black control stack, and dark mats sorta ties it together.
Maybe experiment with a dark lid for armrest, and a dark E brake.
A brave move, bit it works.
Next is a black steering wheel and airbag to tie it together, but I like the idea of the under dash panels and lid/e-brake too, more to experiment with.
It is a clear coat finish, not perfect, but should last longer than OEM.
I forgot how nice it is to have the car back together, this whole process was slow (I took forever) so my car has been in peices for about 3 months as I experimented, installed my numeric shifter and cables and then finally got it painted and back in.
08-24-2020, 05:08 PM
Removing Soft Touch Paint & Hydrodipping Center Console
