I never could figure out if our dashs are painted or just polished plastic... anyone know cause if its painted I think I might throw some wax on it...

 

wax it... as long as you don't have alloy patina...

 

My painted dash has a protective plastic coating over the paint. Not sure wax would anything.

 

I just wipe my dash off with a damp cloth, followed by a dry with a soft towel. My Mini is a 02 and the dash still looks shiny. You might ask your dealer or Mini if waxing is an option. I'd really hate to wax the dash only to find out it might fog it up instead. Good luck with it though.

 

if you are scared... just spray your microfiber towel with spray wax and then wipe down the dash plastics... that will be sufficent... and just to make sure we are NOT talking about the top portion of the dash... we are talking about the verticle surface wheere the airbag covers and speedo surrounds are!

 

Actually, I have alloy patina. I know real patina is when you purposely put swirls in paint, but how did MINI achieve this with the panels? Anybody know.

 

Go ahead and wax it, the anthracite dashes are painted. Just like the ones painted body color. If it's alloy patina, I don't know do anything but Interior Quik Detail it.

Richard

 

its a coating that is applied. Its almost like a thin vinyl that has been stretched over it. i can't say that its vinyl for sure, but it is a vinyl like material. It is defenetly a coating placed over plastic.


and yes don't use interior quick detail, use spray wax of any kind on the alloy paitina. even meguires quick spray wax is fine...

 

Why would you say don't use Interior Quik Detailer but use spray wax?? I say just the opposite. Maybe that's just my preference, I'm glad I don't have that finish.

 

[quote=OctaneGuy;1292163]Why would you say don't use Interior Quik Detailer but use spray wax?? I say just the opposite. Maybe that's just my preference, I'm glad I don't have that finish. [/quote


i guess its just preferance... i thought the interior quick detail was too shiny... i just like the clean look of the spray wax. I know that the spray wax will NOT fog it up too... like i said, its likely preference.

 

Strange, my Meguiar's Interior Quik Detailer leaves everything matte, not shiny. You are referring to the black spray bottle right with the lemon scent?

 

honestly... i cant remember... it was so long ago that i just switched to using spray wax... mainly because my last two MINIs have had the anthracite dash... and for the rest i just use a warm damp cloth... i have a sensitive nose to smell, and some smells bother me that others can't even smell.

 

So how can you recommend against using a product that you can't even remember using????

 

alright... lets take a step back for a second.

they asked what they should use. I told them of my experiance. I prefer the spray wax over teh interior detailer... and i/we said that was personal preference. You then brought up what the bottle looked like. I couldn't honestly tell you what it looked like because that was a total of 3 minis ago... my last two minis have had anthracite and i prefer to use spray wax on it.

to sum it up, i prefer to use spray wax versus the interior detailer because i prefered the matte finish vs. the glossy which i felt the interior detailer left. Perhaps, i used a differnet interior detailer than you... i cant remembe which i used... that was like 3 or so years ago.

i apologize for any confusion

 

Yeah that's fine, I'm just saying you're not being consistent with your response.

First you say
"wax it... as long as you don't have alloy patina..."

I reply
"If it's alloy patina, I don't know do anything but Interior Quik Detail it."

Then you say
"and yes don't use interior quick detail, use spray wax of any kind on the alloy paitina. even meguires quick spray wax is fine..."

So now you're saying go ahead and wax alloy patina????

Do you see the confusion???

Then you say that you don't like Meguiar's Quik Interior detailer because it's shiny, yet you can't remember what the bottle looked like?? They have 3 quick detailers in the consumer line--the burgundy one for the regular exterior quick detailer, and the the transparent blue one for NXT Speed Detailer which is also exterior, and then they have the black bottle for their only interior detailer.

There are many different protectants on the market--some are shiny, some are matte. Besides the conflicting responses you made, you also made an inaccurate recommendation based off of poor memory. I don't see that as being helpful to the community.

Just my 2 cents.

 

1st okay thats why i apologized for any confusion.

2nd of all, in my first post i said wax it as long as its not alloy patina... and i thought about it a little bit more and I pictured someone taking a paste like wax (not a spray wax) and waxing the patina. That would likely be very messy and could get stuck in grooves and things like that. so that is when i said spray wax it.

I admited to my poor memory in the post, thank you for calling me out on it yet again, just to banter with me.


Bottom line, SPRAY WAX the dash, or now that you have chimmed in and said that you like to use whichever bottle of interior quick detailer that YOU recommend. I don't care! I shared my experiance... And after you chimmed in i didn't battle with you on what product you felt worked well. I didn't continue to insist that he should use spray wax and only spray wax, use either one... you can't go wrong and no it wont fog the dash.

there i think the posters question has been answered

 

Just making sure the facts are straight. Glad we're in agreement now.

Btw, I didn't battle with you. It was your conflicting statements that caused the confusion. I don't care what products people use, just as long as someone else reading this doesn't get further confused about whether they should wax their alloy patina or not.

Lighten up.

 

alright the octane-reinforced detail sophmore here...

what you do is clean the interior using Interior Cleaner.
then go over it with Prima Nero. www.detailersparadise.com

dont spraywax. that's for exterior. i mean, i use Griot's SprayOn
wax and the new to me Prima Hydro on the door jams to do a
wipe down (super lubricity), but not for the majority of the interior.

you can even Nero your leatheretts!

 

I have the Alloy Patina (not my 1st, or even 2nd choice, but when buying used, you get what you get), and dislike it. A lot. Looks like someone made a mistake. Is there any way to strip the finish and start fresh? Something that is not going to wreck the base material? Mine still has bits o' airbag sticker residue on it and I'm afraid to even try to clean that off.

 

you can probably just sand it down with 800grit to give the new paint
something to grab onto and just paint over it.

 

If you have are trying to clean your dash board fascia that is either anthracite, silver, parklane, se7en, or body colored. YOU CAN USE SPRAY WAX it is a painted finish! There is absolutly nothing wrong with using it. I have used in on alloy patina as well and have had sucess. if you guys have found something to work better on patina, cool. Use that!

 

You're probably better off searching on eBay or NAM marketplace for dash panels taken off another MINI. I've seen them run anywhere from $75 to $150 for a set. Or maybe even swap with a fellow NAMer?

Richard

 

sure why not.

 

Real patina is purposely made to look messed up. It's a procedure some "rat rod" enthusist do to make the car look, well "ratty". I didn't care for it at first, but my wife ACTUALLY likes it. I couldn't believe that, but that's a different story. So, for now, the only parts getting any paint on them will be the trim pieces, ie tach and speedo ring, shifter base, etc.

Go into the market place and see if anybody is selling any panels, or ask if somebody wants to trade. I'm sure there is somebody out there who wants alloy patina. Or, just keep it, even if you think it's ugly, it's definitely different. Kind of like my old Solid Gold Cooper.

 

Thanks for the info. I always wondered how they did it. But it does appear as something is stretched over it. It kind of reminds me of a silk screening.