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If you have scratches in your navigation screen, or simply dislike it how it looks in certain lighting conditions, this post is for you. Yes, you can make your navigation screen flawless and shiny, with very little risk. I had doubts about the process (reading other posts about the topic) and I hope that sharing my experience will help boost your confidence a bit if you're considering a similar fix.
First a little background. My 2017 Elite was rear-ended when it was six months old, and the battery of the vehicle which collided into mine shattered against my bumper, spraying acid everywhere. The body shop repainted about half the car, so not to leave any paint lines (all new paint meets old paint in places hidden by plastic trim). They had the vehicle in the shop for about 5-6 weeks, for much of the time with windows/doors removed.
After I got the car back, I noticed that in direct sunlight the coating was quite visible, with a dull, almost dusty look. Not sure what had caused that, whether it was a little overspray or the use of a cleaning product which reacted with the coating... Some part of me wonders if the coating just turns that way on its own with time. I advised the shop about it, and about the screen coating. They applied some very gentle polish which improved the looks of the screen a little bit, but it still looked kind of shabby in direct sunlight. The polishing process also resulted in a myriad of micro-scratches, only visible in directly light.
I've consulted a number of posts detailing experiences of those who decided to just take the coating off, and people reported positive results. I had plenty of reservations, I did not want to make the situation worse, but in the end I decided to go for it.
The product I used was PlastX by Meguiar. It works very well for restoring headlights, or any hard and smooth plastic surfaces. I taped up the edges of the navigation screen with some frog tape -- you don't want to rub the painted silver trim adjacent to the screen, it will take it off.
At first there wasn't any difference at all. I was starting to doubt that the issue was with the coating. Shortly thereafter I pressed a little harder while buffing, and all of the sudden I noticed what looked like three or four elliptically shaped long-ass "scratches". Went back over the spot with a little more compound, surprisingly the scratches disappeared and a round and clear window began to emerge, in the middle of the navigation screen. That's when I realized that those "scratches" where just the first bits of the coating to come off, and that the coating was indeed removable.
Removing the rest of the coating took some time, especially around the edges. You need really good light to see where there is still coating left, and the compound itself hides that as you smear it all over the screen.
The result was nothing short of impressive. The screen is as shiny as it will ever be, there are zero scratches in it now -- and if I were to get a scratch on it, I could buff it out with a little more compound. I'm pretty particular with my car, and I don't take making modifications to it lightly (especially by myself, a non-professional), but the results surprisingly exceeded my expectations.
Although it looks good as it is, I plan on putting a screen protector on there, to get back the anti-glare and oleophobic qualities that the coating provided (initially it worked very well, I could see my fingerprints bead up right after touching it). If you're happy with your navi screen, I wouldn't recommend undertaking this job, but if you get it scratched, remember there's a way to fix it.
First a little background. My 2017 Elite was rear-ended when it was six months old, and the battery of the vehicle which collided into mine shattered against my bumper, spraying acid everywhere. The body shop repainted about half the car, so not to leave any paint lines (all new paint meets old paint in places hidden by plastic trim). They had the vehicle in the shop for about 5-6 weeks, for much of the time with windows/doors removed.
After I got the car back, I noticed that in direct sunlight the coating was quite visible, with a dull, almost dusty look. Not sure what had caused that, whether it was a little overspray or the use of a cleaning product which reacted with the coating... Some part of me wonders if the coating just turns that way on its own with time. I advised the shop about it, and about the screen coating. They applied some very gentle polish which improved the looks of the screen a little bit, but it still looked kind of shabby in direct sunlight. The polishing process also resulted in a myriad of micro-scratches, only visible in directly light.
I've consulted a number of posts detailing experiences of those who decided to just take the coating off, and people reported positive results. I had plenty of reservations, I did not want to make the situation worse, but in the end I decided to go for it.
The product I used was PlastX by Meguiar. It works very well for restoring headlights, or any hard and smooth plastic surfaces. I taped up the edges of the navigation screen with some frog tape -- you don't want to rub the painted silver trim adjacent to the screen, it will take it off.
At first there wasn't any difference at all. I was starting to doubt that the issue was with the coating. Shortly thereafter I pressed a little harder while buffing, and all of the sudden I noticed what looked like three or four elliptically shaped long-ass "scratches". Went back over the spot with a little more compound, surprisingly the scratches disappeared and a round and clear window began to emerge, in the middle of the navigation screen. That's when I realized that those "scratches" where just the first bits of the coating to come off, and that the coating was indeed removable.
Removing the rest of the coating took some time, especially around the edges. You need really good light to see where there is still coating left, and the compound itself hides that as you smear it all over the screen.
The result was nothing short of impressive. The screen is as shiny as it will ever be, there are zero scratches in it now -- and if I were to get a scratch on it, I could buff it out with a little more compound. I'm pretty particular with my car, and I don't take making modifications to it lightly (especially by myself, a non-professional), but the results surprisingly exceeded my expectations.
Although it looks good as it is, I plan on putting a screen protector on there, to get back the anti-glare and oleophobic qualities that the coating provided (initially it worked very well, I could see my fingerprints bead up right after touching it). If you're happy with your navi screen, I wouldn't recommend undertaking this job, but if you get it scratched, remember there's a way to fix it.
