My 2006 Xterra had about 500 demo miles on it before I bought it. There are several scratches in the baggage area where the plastic sidewall liners have been scratched. Has anyone come accross a plastic touchup paint that is a good match for the original charcoal color.

Someone over on XOC found a paint marker that matched. To be honest, it's a moot point as the plastic scratches so easy that to keep it scratch free is near impossible. I gave up and live with it.

if the scratches are shallow, is there any way of buffing or wet sanding them out?

Not really. The plastic is rough, so trying to buff them out would leave the spot kind of odd looking.

The scratches are very shallow but once the top surface is removed, the plastic changes color. I am afraid that wet sanding with a fine sandpaper would just make the scratch more obvious. Unless I can find a good matching paint color, its probably best to just to leave the scrathes alone. I thought that if I could find a good color match that I would use a Q-tip to apply the paint in order to hide the scratch.

I have been looking on here for a post I just read this week about someone using something for the surface scratches on the center console. I just can't remember where I read it. I will continue to look.

Posted by user:

Matt_SR

Got my Alpine radio in last night, I was amazed at how easy the dash scratches. I found a way to buff the scratches out though, I have a chemical in my tool kit, I use it to desolve toner deposits when I'm cleaning various parts. It's citrus solvent. I put some on a cotton cloth and rubbed the scratched area, it buffs the outer layer of the dash surface off, thus removing a good deal or all of the scratch.


Link:
http://www.clubxterra.org/forums/showthread.php?t=659&page=3

If it's not to deep, the lighter trick works for me. Using a lighter, wave it back and forth over the scratch area, don't hold lighter in one place.

I made a bit of a mistake in the wording of my discription. Citrus solvent doesn't buff the plastic, it disolves the outer layer, but not in a way that damages the plastic. The interior plastic of my 2006 X scratches so easy, and has become so marked up, I don't even worry about it anymore.