B-Pillar Scratches : Why

[ERP]

First touch wash in months and I scratch the hell out of my b pillars on my Macan.

I was using a brand new Green Monster MF mitt, I had washed it with my other MFs before being used to break it in. I let it soak in the clean wash bucket (M707) for a bit while I foamed the body work. I’m just not sure why this happened. Big regret on buying MF mitts instead of the Caterpillar style.

Can anyone weigh in with how this happened and what would be the best pad + polish combo to fix this?

Green Monster Microfiber Wash Mitt w/ Cuff - 9.5 x 7


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[Billy Baldone]

Essence. And a fine polish pad like a white Rupes. The only thing to truly keep it from happening again, is to not touch it. I would try 2 layers of FeYlab self heal Lite to at least be able heat it up and fix it. Find an authorized Feynlab installer to apply it

 

[vobro]

It's just the nature of the beast, soft paint,at eye level and usually angled just right to capture sunlight. I just wrapped mine with ppf and it's been perfect, it's better for my household that I don't have to instruct my family on how to shut doors

 

[Bruno Soares]

Fixing will be easy but you can only do that so many times. I'd recommending fixing it one last time and putting PPF on it. It's not hard to do it yourself on a B pillar.

 

[Rsurfer]

It's just the nature of the beast, soft paint,at eye level and usually angled just right to capture sunlight. I just wrapped mine with ppf and it's been perfect, it's better for my household that I don't have to instruct my family on how to shut doors

I don't believe that the B pillars are painted, but a film.

Polished with Essence and applied 2 coats of CQuartz 6 months ago and doing fine.

You need to take special care in cleaning those pillars even when its coated. I use a clean and soft mf with a a waterless wash to clean.

I'm fortunate that my wife knows better than grabbing the pillar when opening and closing the door. If you have kids YSOOL.

 

[Loach]

Looks like a similar type of fracture that happens with the S550 Mustang's jet black plastic deck lid panel. Light polish didn't fix that in my case, it actually made it fracture more, and you've got to cut through whatever type of topcoat layer that they're putting on those things to get it clean. Not saying that's it, but if it's similar then it's super fragile, as always start out with a light polish and let us know if that makes it worse.

 

[stylo]

I feel your pain ...

I just live with it.

 

[The Guz]

That first photo looks concerning that the paint looks like it is experiencing fracturing. The second photo looks like typical defects on soft paint. If you want to avoid that then get PPF applied to them. If not then live with it and polish it from time to time and take extra care when washing and drying.

 

[Eldorado2k]

I let it soak in the clean wash bucket (M707) for a bit while I foamed the body work.

Did you actually pre rinse the vehicle or just foam and start washing?

Green Monster Mitt eh? I’ve never heard of these mitts. Are they supposed to be kind of like the Incredimitt/Smoothie mitt? I can’t really tell from the pic.

During a bucket wash, I try to only go over the pillars with a fresh soapy mitt and just a quik pass. Making sure to dry them with enough pressure so they finish spot free.

Luckily my gloss black pillars aren’t soft. They’ve remained swirl free.

 

[ERP]

I feel your pain ...

I just live with it.

Never! Unless I have too.

That first photo looks concerning that the paint looks like it is experiencing fracturing. The second photo looks like typical defects on soft paint. If you want to avoid that then get PPF applied to them. If not then live with it and polish it from time to time and take extra care when washing and drying.

The first photo isn’t great, but the scratches are have identical paths but are just stacked on top of each other. The separation distance matches the distance between the fibers in the mitt, so it’s not fracturing it’s just a bad photo on my part. Hard to capture it properly.

Did you actually pre rinse the vehicle or just foam and start washing?

Green Monster Mitt eh? I’ve never heard of these mitts. Are they supposed to be kind of like the Incredimitt/Smoothie mitt? I can’t really tell from the pic.

During a bucket wash, I try to only go over the pillars with a fresh soapy mitt and just a quik pass. Making sure to dry them with enough pressure so they finish spot free.

Luckily my gloss black pillars aren’t soft. They’ve remained swirl free.

Pre-rinse, pump foamer, rinse, then soapy mitt to freshly rinsed panel. I assumed Monster Mitt was similar with a higher than average pile, I used an Xtrafluff MF mitt the other B pillar section and it came out fine looking normal. Both sides need to be cleaned up, but the Monster mitt did a number on the drivers side.

I don't believe that the B pillars are painted, but a film.

Polished with Essence and applied 2 coats of CQuartz 6 months ago and doing fine.

You need to take special care in cleaning those pillars even when its coated. I use a clean and soft mf with a a waterless wash to clean.

I'm fortunate that my wife knows better than grabbing the pillar when opening and closing the door. If you have kids YSOOL.

I know on some vehicles they polish out, idk about Porsche. I’ll have to check Rennlist again.

Fixing will be easy but you can only do that so many times. I'd recommending fixing it one last time and putting PPF on it. It's not hard to do it yourself on a B pillar.

Xpel has precut sections for the b and c pillars so I’ll end up doing that once I get around to polishing them.

Monster mitt is either going in the trash or only for tires and rims. Haven’t decided.
Essence Polish on a light polish pad.
Xpel PPF.
Thanks y’all.

 

[Bill D]

Be sure to always CD test your mitts before use. If the CD mars, so will the car.

 

[Billy Baldone]

I forgot about the cd test..... I don’t even think our cars can play cds anymore

 

[JKDesign]

I will echo a couple others- looks like micro fissures in the plastic part as the pattern is very specifically organic looking in the close up picture. Having worked at a VW/Audi/Porsche dealer I have seen it happen with the pillar cladding a few times- even on a vehicle that was less than 2yrs old (even up here in northern New England). How old is the vehicle? If it is in fact micro fissures/cracking I would see if Porsche would be able to cover it under warranty- they are a lot better with covering items like that under warranty than VW/Audi are.

 

[ERP]

Be sure to always CD test your mitts before use. If the CD mars, so will the car.

I hadn't heard of this before, I bet the mitt scratches... I'll try and dig up a CD to test it on.

I forgot about the cd test..... I don’t even think our cars can play cds anymore

I still have one! Don't know if it's ever been used though...

I will echo a couple others- looks like micro fissures in the plastic part as the pattern is very specifically organic looking in the close up picture. Having worked at a VW/Audi/Porsche dealer I have seen it happen with the pillar cladding a few times- even on a vehicle that was less than 2yrs old (even up here in northern New England). How old is the vehicle? If it is in fact micro fissures/cracking I would see if Porsche would be able to cover it under warranty- they are a lot better with covering items like that under warranty than VW/Audi are.

It's a 2018 Macan former loaner (CPO'd) from CT living in SC. Apparently they have the same issues of the black trim underneath the plastic cracking. I'll see what I can do about getting a more accurate photo up, I don't see colors right so it's possible it's cracked and I'm just not processing it. If its the trim underneath, it looks like most people get it fixed under warranty. I'd probably still toss on some PPF either way.

 

[ERP]

Just took another look - I can’t get a better photo, but it’s got some marks on the surface but it definitely is cracked underneath.

 

[SpoiledRotten]

I install the blackout tape for bodyshops, haven't done any Porsches but they are either matte black, gloss black vinyl or some sort of plastic hard trim. If you on the inside of the door frame you may see the edge of the vinyl. Also you could call the parts department and find out if it's a piece of vinyl or plastic trim. If plastic it could be cracked, hard to tell from a pic. If it's a decal you can't polish it if it's the hard plastic if you wet sanded it I doubt you'd get it too come back to a gloss. If you could get some scrap ppf you could put it over it and see if it will hide it, sometimes you'll get lucky and you don't really see it. That's my 2 cents for the day!
Brian

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[SpoiledRotten]

I install the blackout tape for bodyshops, haven't done any Porsches but they are either matte black, gloss black vinyl or some sort of plastic hard trim. If you on the inside of the door frame you may see the edge of the vinyl. Also you could call the parts department and find out if it's a piece of vinyl or plastic trim. If plastic it could be cracked, hard to tell from a pic. If it's a decal you can't polish it if it's the hard plastic if you wet sanded it I doubt you'd get it too come back to a gloss. If you could get some scrap ppf you could put it over it and see if it will hide it, sometimes you'll get lucky and you don't really see it. That's my 2 cents for the day!
Brian

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[UncleDavy]

Scratches are typical and inevitable on the A, B and C pillars. A light polish with a white foam pad is enough to make them look new again. I use HD Polish+ with an LC white pad. Then I give them two coats of CQuartz DLUX.

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