This Subaru Forester Owner Made Scratched Piano-Black Trim Look New Again - Here’s How

If you own a modern car, you probably know the frustration of piano-black interior trim. It scratches incredibly easily and can look worn long before the rest of the car ages. The good news is this can be repaired at home for very little money. One Subaru Forester owner weighed his options carefully, did a lot of research, and ended up using a polishing compound to bring the piano-black back to life with great results. Here is the before image showing the scratches:

Here is the final result after the job.

Why Piano-Black Is So Easy To Scratch
Piano-black interior trim scratches faster than a cat chasing a laser pointer. The worst part is, it doesn’t take any unusual impacts or brushes with objects to get scratched up. It just sort of happens over time, and it is the same in every car. In fact, cleaning piano-black surfaces often scratches them if you use the wrong type of cloth. Michael explained about his scratched-up surfaces:

Michael is an enterprising Subaru Forester owner. He used the hive mind of social media to explore his options for returning the lousy-looking piano-black trim in his Forester back to like-new condition. Fellow owners and DIY enthusiasts offered a lot of suggestions, but few of them had tackled the job themselves. The owner, Michael, wanted to try to preserve the original parts and not cover them up if at all possible. He was also worried that he might remove the lettering on the shifter area (PRNDL) if he polished the piano-black surface. In the end, he got the result shown in our top-of-the-page image, which we think looks great.

I think I just used too many harsh cloths to try to clean it until it got really bad. Not smart on my part. I mean, it is not that great of material if it does not take a lot for it to be scratched up like that. Cloth should not do that, or other objects that lightly touch it, but I have now learned to be careful what I use to clean it.

We frequently test media vehicles less than one year old with badly scratched-up piano-black trim. It’s ugly, and it looks cheap and used. Luckily, owners have many options to deal with this so that their car looks new again.

3 Ways Owners Fix Scratched Piano-Black Trim
If you want the trim to be absolutely perfect and also original, you can buy the parts and then replace them. This will be the highest possible priced way to accomplish the goal, and very few owners want to buy interior parts from Subaru and have at it.

Another option that many owners pursue is to buy an overlay for the part. An overlay is just as it sounds. You buy a pre-made part designed to fit over the part you don't like the look of. One nifty feature of this method is that the color or design can be whatever you like. Colored, piano-black again, checkered, metallic-looking. There are endless possibilities, and you can find overlays online at retailers like Amazon. These are generally peel-and-stick type parts. They don’t look stock, and they may fit poorly. Once you lay down an overlay, you can forget about removing it and having the original surface look good again. Overlays are a good method if you want to do the whole interior, and if the car is a bit older, rather than in its first few years of service.

The Polishing Method That Worked
Michael was leaning towards polishing the piano-black from the outset, and he ended up doing so. Before he began, he sourced a Rupes iBrid Nano Polisher. He also suggests that anhttps://sptatools.com/collections/polishing-machines SPTA Mini Polisher may work even better. To clean the surface before he used the compound, Michael used Koch Chemie Panel Preparation spray. As a compound agent, Michael chose Rupes DA Coarse High Performance Cut-Polishing Compound, but he suggests that Maguire's PasticX or Novus Scratch Remover might be an even better option.

One big concern many owners may have is that the letters would be polished off. Michael addressed that by saying:

There is some sort of clear finish or clear plastic layer over the black because the lettering is not on the surface. You can see it through the top layer. I don't know why I never really put that together in my mind before I polished it. It might be possible to do wet-sanding, but I opted not to do that. I just stuck with only using a cutting compound polish.

What It Would Cost to Replace the Part
Michael got a quote from his local Subaru dealer to replace the shifter cover part that we are showing in the images. He was quoted $165 for the part and about $150 for labor. Add in your state taxes, if any, and this is a $350 job if you let Subaru replace that small trim piece.

Have you considered trying to polish the piano-black trim in your vehicle, or have you had good luck doing so? Please tell us about it in the comments below. 

Story Notes: Always try any polishing job on a small part first, in case the results do not meet expectations. Wear safety glasses and a mask when polishing. Torque News did not receive any sponsorship or payment from any brand mentioned in this story in return for its publication. 

Our sincerest thanks to Michael for sharing his story and images. 

John Goreham is a 14-year veteran of Torque News. An accomplished writer and a long-time expert in vehicle testing, Goreham also serves as the Vice President of the New England Motor Press Association and has a growing social media presence. He’s also a 10-year staff writer and community moderator for Car Talk. Goreham holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and an undergraduate Certificate in Marketing. In addition to vehicle and tire content, he offers deep dives into market trends and opinion pieces. You can follow John Goreham on X and TikTok, and connect with him on LinkedIn.