# How to Sort B Pillars (Piano Keys) Guide



## cossiecol

Background:
Long story short, despite requests to not wash the car when it was in getting warranty work done (for over a week) it came back in a sorry state.










They look worse in the sunlight!

So with that in mind here is my guide on how to sort the B Pillar trim: Keep in mind that I am not a Pro so some of the steps may differ if done by a profissional.

The first thing to note is usually these are incredibly soft and mark really easily.

First, start off by cleaning the pillars. I then like to take a bit of clay and clay them using good lube.

After a good dry I then tape up the pillars ready start the correction.










Usually you start with the least aggressive combination of polish and pad, however as I have previously corrected these I know that M105 on an 4" orange Hex pad will work well for me for the first stage.










This was then spread in using my DAS6 pro on a speed of 1.
I then bumped the speed up to 4.5 and did a few passes.
The residue was then wiped off in straight lines (up and down) using a plush microfibre towel with as little pressure as possible. The towel I used for this was the Eagle edgeless blue.

After the compound stage there should be a haze on the pillars and universal marks, unlike before were they were all random marks!










I then removed the masking tape from some edges as some of the glue was starting to get onto the pillars.

Now that the heavy marks have been removed you can move on to the polishing stage.

For this I used M205 with a white 4" Hex pad - again as I have used this before I knew it would work well for me.










As before this was spread in using a speed of 1 and then bumped up to 4.5 to work the polish for a few passes.

When it was ready I removed the polish using straight lines and my plush MF towel to see if it was corrected to the level I was looking for.










If you're happy at this stage you can move on to protection. As I was happy with the finish (probably about 90%ish) I then protected it with 3 coats of Nanolex Si3d.

A before and after for comparison and prior to Si3d:
















Hopefully you will find this useful, if there's any questions feel free to ask.


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## The captain

Cool - it's so frustrating that it takes hours to fix but only seconds to ruin... Nice job though.


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## Luke M

Nice write up.
Glad my b pillars are matte black.


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## A&J

Great guide and good job


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## Pittsy

Wicked write up mate, great job:thumb:


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## TonyH38

Great job thanks for the write up.


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## phillipnoke

Only trouble is they seem to get back to scratches after a while tried all this before


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## cossiecol

phillipnoke said:


> Only trouble is they seem to get back to scratches after a while tried all this before


Yup, I think that's the nature of the beast with these, why car companies put such a soft material there I do not know.

However, hopefully once there sorted and protected with a good wash method it should limit the damage.


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## WaxIsForWinners

Great job, made it look really simple. Cheers!


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## james_death

Very Nicely Done, Great result and a concise write up on the procedure...:thumb:


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## WO-WO

Nice one, this has been a problem for me since my mk6 GTi. Thanks!


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## chongo

Nice job, try Menzerna FG400 on a orange pad it leaves a better finish, then Menzerna 4000 on a black or white pad,


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## cossiecol

chongo said:


> Nice job, try Menzerna FG400 on a orange pad it leaves a better finish, then Menzerna 4000 on a black or white pad,


Might explore those as I haven't tried any Menzerna polishes yet. But really happy with Megs, also quite like optimum polishes too though.


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## TPursey

Very handy, mine look much worse on my current Focus, but part-exing so just got to keep them shiny on the new one (hopefully DLux will do the job)


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## abby606

Sorry if I should post this elsewhere but does anyone have any thoughts on how to repair what appears to be a stone chip in this plastic material? For example would touch up paint or similar work and have a glossy finish?


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## Cleanguy

Having sent hours in the past removing marks in this sooo soft plastic, only to return a few months latter. I have started using this 

VuPlex Multisurface cleaner 

I discovered it when a free sample come with a new kitchen last year. It works brilliantly on gloss kitchen doors so after some research on there web site thought I will give it a go on my high gloss plastic trim  
I'm not one who usually use products to mask over imperfections, but In this case it's one me over.
It lasts 3-4 washes & only takes seconds to reapply


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## christopherquin

Thanks for this, I'm definitely going to try this on my car next week! Also nice wee tip spreading with setting 1, then bumping it up, never thought of doing that before.


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## Oli2k

Very useful, thank you.

Should you not prime the pad first? Or as it is such a small area just leave it?


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## chongo

Yes always prime your pad, and even the sides as well.


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## MiGomes

Now that the scratches are removed, how to protect the trim? Otherwise they will be scratched with car washes, no matter how carefull you are... 

Is there some kind of hard coating that works OK? Gyeon, Gtechniq, ... ?


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## cossiecol

MiGomes said:


> Now that the scratches are removed, how to protect the trim? Otherwise they will be scratched with car washes, no matter how carefull you are...
> 
> Is there some kind of hard coating that works OK? Gyeon, Gtechniq, ... ?


How you choose to protect your car is up to you, I used 3 coats of Naolex Si3d on it and it worked quite well. However there are loads of coating so it's down to personal preference, as I haven't used many hard coatings I can't recommend one over another. However I think that both the ones you mentioned would do the job.

Personally next time I'll probably go down the route of protective film for the pillars.


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## Leebo310

cossiecol said:


> Yup, I think that's the nature of the beast with these, why car companies put such a soft material there I do not know.
> 
> However, hopefully once there sorted and protected with a good wash method it should limit the damage.


Do you know what the material actually is and how it's made up? As in does it have clearcoat or is it effectively single stage? 
I'm just wondering as to how many times these can be polished, without fear of burning through or something similar? Or is that not possible on these?


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## Libs

Very nice write up.


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## S7ephen j

This great was just about to go about correcting these on my personal car and was hunting for some info on this. This has put my mind at ease and hopefully I get the time to give these some attention this month . Thanks :thumb:


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## A&J

I did this during the weekend based on your guide and found out my B pillars had no more clear coat (on both sides) so I got some paint transfer :doublesho

On one side I used the orange hex logic + white hex logic pad with OPT hyper polish which did a good job.
On the other I just used the white hex logic pad with OPT hyper polish and found that it was enough to remove swirls without the need for the agressive pad.

I then opti-coated them for more hardness.


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## Berylburton

phillipnoke said:


> Only trouble is they seem to get back to scratches after a while tried all this before


I used Carpro Essence then 2 coats of CQUK on mine.

After a pre-wash / Snow foam, I try to wash them in vertical lines with a fresh clean mitt before washing the rest of the car. They have stayed swirl free for over a year.


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## chrissymk3

Thanks for the guide.


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## TonyH38

Thank you for the very helpful write up.


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## mb1

nice work


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## Chris Dyson

Nice job, helpful photos.


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## mb1

great Job is M105 is it a light to medium cutting Please


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## cossiecol

mb1 said:


> great Job is M105 is it a light to medium cutting Please


It's a heavier cutting polish, I would suggest you start with m205 and a white pad (if you're using this combo), you'll be able to correct most marks with that. I only used m105 as I'd done that previously so knew it would be ok.


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## v_r_s

Anyone know how many times you can do this. I have a 15plate octavia guessing its never had this done before so was wanting to attempt it. How would I know if its safe to do ect


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## camerashy

v_r_s said:


> Anyone know how many times you can do this. I have a 15plate octavia guessing its never had this done before so was wanting to attempt it. How would I know if its safe to do ect


If you do it, then get them wrapped permanent solution
I had A, B and C pillars wrapped when new £100....peace of mind


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## v_r_s

What solution do you apply


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## camerashy

v_r_s said:


> What solution do you apply


The solution is to find a Detailer who will wrap them for you at a good price and make a good job.


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## Titanium Htail

I know #Jim on his Whitedetails used Koch P202 to good effect with emphasis on slow pad speed, he needs to make it a single Vlog, nice results on this.

John Tht.


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## garycha

v_r_s said:


> Anyone know how many times you can do this. I have a 15plate octavia guessing its never had this done before so was wanting to attempt it. How would I know if its safe to do ect


You can do it as often as you want on gloss black plastic. Takes 10 mins with da. I have 2 VWs both with gloss back b pillars. It's a doddle to freshen them up with da and light cut pad.polish combo.

I protect with C2v3 and still wash carefully. These plastics are far softer than the paintwork.


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## AudiPhil

Guys has anyone had any experiance of machine polishing a roof with the same gloss black piano key finish? 
Do I treat it the same as paint?
Reason for asking is my father has a white A1 with a gloss black roof that has some minor swirls and bird dropping marks. 

Thanks for any advice.


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## v_r_s

garycha said:


> You can do it as often as you want on gloss black plastic. Takes 10 mins with da. I have 2 VWs both with gloss back b pillars. It's a doddle to freshen them up with da and light cut pad.polish combo.
> 
> I protect with C2v3 and still wash carefully. These plastics are far softer than the paintwork.


Cheers ill give it a go on a white hex pad and s17 the see how I fair 
Low speed rotary


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## cossiecol

camerashy said:


> If you do it, then get them wrapped permanent solution
> I had A, B and C pillars wrapped when new £100....peace of mind


^ This :thumb: After correcting mine a few times I got them wrapped in gloss black. Always perfect and looked good!

May or may not get my new vRS B-pillars wrapped...yet to make my mind up.


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## garage_dweller

I had my wheels in today getting a ceramic pro coating. Asked the guy about the pillars and he said he could coat them but they’ll still scratch. He suggested either PPF or wrapping them. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## v_r_s

Can you wrap yourself or is it quite skillful arm like window tinting.

How long is the ceramic Pro meant to last is that just the same as the spray on ceramic body panel sealant


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## garage_dweller

Wouldn’t fancy trying it myself

There’s different grades of ceramic pro and not sure what he would use on the pillars. The wheel coating is tough stuff though. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## tomstephens89

Fantastic work sir! Need to do this to mine.


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## garycha

v_r_s said:


> Cheers ill give it a go on a white hex pad and s17 the see how I fair
> Low speed rotary


VW Golf 7. Sonax PF with MF finishing pad 









Last weekend Used same technique and materials for scratched gloss black plastic hi fi sub indoors:














































One of those fast easy results detailing jobs IME

All sealed with C2v3.


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## chris chappell

Wife took our 3 series bee em into main dealer for warranty work. I could have died when she said they had 'washed' it!!
I had fully machine polished and finished it with Zymol concourse, the day after when stood in the sun it looked a right mess, scratched from end to end.
Rang dealer up to complain and they said, well we wash 80 cars a week here with no complaints, so I said, that doesn't mean you are washing them correctly though does it!!
Anyway, with some trepidation I let them have it for a day to machine polish and it came back 90% ok thank goodness.
The truth is that they are scratching every car they wash but Joe Public hasn't a clue!!!


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## v_r_s

Surprised they sorted it. Probably just used filler and itl look Awfull in a few weeks. Bloody ealers. U see em washing cars with one bucket car after car after car


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## v_r_s

garycha said:


> VW Golf 7. Sonax PF with MF finishing pad
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Last weekend Used same technique and materials for scratched gloss black plastic hi fi sub indoors:
> 
> One of those fast easy results detailing jobs IME
> 
> All sealed with C2v3.


Was it an easy job the pillars. Is it alot easier than paintwork ect. As iv only had a few runs on a scrap panel but seems alot safer on the pillars. As on a rotary I'm guessing 1.5 speed would suffice with some cut. The. Finish as its soft material


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## VW_Ben

Just what I have been looking for. Only hiding in plain sight for three years.


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## v_r_s

VW_Ben said:


> Just what I have been looking for. Only hiding in plain sight for three years.


 Get it done.

I did mine few weeks ago was easy and a huge difference


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## Lowlife

Swirly B-pilars are a huge let down in the overall looks if the rest of the car looks good.



















Like mentioned, installing PPF on the B-pilars after polishing them is a must. :thumb:


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## New2Bubbles

Great write up thanks, I too have fallen foul of the piano black B pillars. They aren't terrible, just some light swirls but will sort them and look to get them wrapped


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## AlpineTouring

Great write up. Mine aren't to bad at the minute, but this will come in handy at some point, I am sure.


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