Type of plastic used for skirt

[JonMac46]

My 1999 Dethleffs coachbuilt has some sort of lightly dimpled plastic used for its skirt.

Two questions:

what type of plastic is it?

how can I remove some light scratches in it?

Thanks.

[Will86]

The skirt is probably of uPVC (Polyvinyl Choride). An un-plasticised material and therefore sunlight resistant.

 

Depending how particular you and If you want a test piece find a builder who has offcuts as used on building facia boards.

 

I cannot recommend anything to remove scratches as I've never tried. I worked in the plastics industry and to remove marks was almost impossible. The dies and mould faces used for plastics surfaces are to a diamond finish and in my view can never be replicated, the same goes for shaped M'H windows.

[Derek Uzzell]

The usual materials employed for motorhome skirts are aluminium, GRP (Glass Reinforced Plastic) or ABS (Acrylonitrile-Butadiene-Styrene) and GOOGLE-ing suggests that your Dethleff's skirts may have been made from ABS.

 

It MIGHT be possible to remove very slight scratching from a smooth ABS surface by polishing, but, as your motohome's skirts are dimpled, that technique is probably a non-starter.

 

It's likely that any attempt to 'mechanically' remove the scratching will do more harm than good and you'd be wise to leave things alone unless the scratches really offend you. For an effective repair you'd need to treat the task as if repairing car bodywork by filling the scratches and painting over the repaired surface.