Several parts in the Porsche 987/997 interior are made from an aluminium-look plastic. I’ve read that Porsche originally planned to make these from solid aluminium (at least the door openers) but had to abandon this due to safety reasons, but I don’t know whether that’s true. The aluminium look is painted, and the downside is that this is susceptible to scratches. These parts are also pretty expensive at approx. €200 for the door openers and €150 for each piece of steering wheel trim. The left door opener had a deep scratch so I replaced that, but I wanted to try painting the steering wheel trim, as these pieces had a bit of paint missing.
The paint is reportedly equal to VW/Audi paint code L97A diamantsilber, so I ordered a small bottle plus primer and gloss clear coat. As usual I cleaned everything with isopropyl alcohol before applying primer, two coats of paint, and two coats of clear.
I’m not super happy with the result. While less obvious, the scratches are still visible. It is difficult to get a good finish with metallic paint and a brush, and the soft paint and rounded forms are very difficult to sand for a smooth finish. But this will have to do for now. I also did this with a few scratches and spots on the right door opener and here the results were similar.
