Keeping Wood Trim Scratch Free??

[SF Space Grey]

Hi all,



I have a bmw with the typical interior wood trim. A few months back, I had the car detailed and the interior trim polished. It looked pretty good after that, but in the intervening months, the hairline scratches and swirl marks have come back. It's only noticeable in the sunlight, but it drives me a little crazy especially because I can't imagine how they've come back. I use the softest plushest edgeless microfiber towels to gently clean the wood trim with plexus (which has a ton of lubricity). Otherwise, I don't touch it. It seems to be coated with the softest plastic known to man.



How do you guys keep your wood trim swirl-free? I don't have a DA so any polishing has to be by hand.



I'm also wondering whether anyone has Opti-Coated their interior wood trim? Seems like this might be a way to coat it with something way less prone to scratching, but I don't want to be the first one to do it.

 

[Accumulator]

..How do you guys keep your wood trim swirl-free? I don't have a DA so any polishing has to be by hand...

In most cases I simply *don't* keep it marring-free OK, the stuff in the S8 is mighty close, but on daily drivers we do our best to avoid marring it and then just live with what does happen. Yeah, guess that's more of my Autopian Heresy, but hey..."real life" and all that.



Products with gentle abrasives (don't want to thin that oh-so-soft coating) and fillers work well when I do decide to fix it up, followed by a LSP....just like paint. A few times I've used moderately aggressive polishes, followed by a finishing polish, to do the job right, but those times were mighty few and far between.



The OptiCoat is an intriguing idea!

 

[Bill D]

I used Opti Coat on all my exterior emblems maybe now ill just apply it to the highly polished plastic interior panels in my A4

 

[David Fermani]

My new Ford Fusion has black wood-like center console trim that is an absolute nightmare to keep perfect. I'm gonna wear the finish off it with all the polishing I do!

 

[Bill D]

My new Ford Fusion has black wood-like center console trim that is an absolute nightmare to keep perfect. I'm gonna wear the finish off it with all the polishing I do!

David I have a friend at Ford who I made this aware of I doubt that means it could change anything about it but I just passed the word along to somebody who works for Ford.



She says that's probably the smallest problem among the many that vehicle has

 

[Accumulator]

My new Ford Fusion has black wood-like center console trim that is an absolute nightmare to keep perfect. I'm gonna wear the finish off it with all the polishing I do!

That's how I justify not correcting the wood trim in mine, at least not on a remotely regular basis.



With my intention (oughta say "our" as my wife never wants to replace her A8) to keep our current vehicles forever, I'd rather have marring than wood trim issues. E.g. , the wood's finish in my '85 Jag is barely hanging on in a few places despite hardly any correction at all, and I don't want to get into refinishing it.