Dashboard Cleaner

August 30, 2011

You may have noticed that I have just bought a second hand Prius (see thread elsewhere if not).

As I usually try to do, I made sure that I got to the dealer selling the car before he had time to clean it up for display. That way, you get to see the real condition of ther car before he has worked his magic.

For example, just before seeing this one we walked away from one two years younger becuase we could see that the last owner had not cared for it all. It had a dirty, "lived in", dilapidated look and feel which the dealer could have hidden behind some decent valetting and careful touch-up.

The other side of the coin is that you have to assume that whatever you look at will clean up OK.

This time we got it slightly wrong (note the "we" there - how I segue from "my" good idea to "we" as in "she" getting it wrong). Overall, the car looked as good as new when we picked it up. However, the last user must have had some sort of phone holder attached to the dashboard immediately to the right of the Power button. It has left white streaks on the dash which we suspect are glue residue trapped in the texture of the dashboard.

(I could have rung him up or driven to his home to ask him, because he didn't think to delete the relevant details from the Sat Nav and phone book but I thought I had better not).

The manual advises against using solvents on the dashboard which would, presumably, damage the palstic.

Any suggestions as to how I might clean this off?

Thans in advance.

Geoff

August 30, 2011

Autoglym tar remover is very good for this, but try it somewhere inconspicuous first, just to make sure it doesn't harm the plastic (it shouldn't).

August 30, 2011

I do not know if this works as I have not tried it. Warm the area with a hair drier do not concentrate the heat on one area for too long. A chap who works at a car factory told me this is the method they use in the factory to remove blemishes on the dashboard. No harm in trying it. Hope it works!!!