After all these years the bezel around the nav screen - and the vents and buttons below it has picked up a lot of scratches on the deck just below the screen.

How has everyone dealt with this? My first impulse was to mask it off and hit it with Krylon before I came to my senses and realized I would be lucky if it only looked like c@@p.

Has anyone removed the bezel? I've pulled the lower center stack members off to add the Sirius module but I haven't pulled this and don't know the scope and tricks to avoid breaking things.

Then paint it or replace? Thank you in advance....

 

Don't think you'll find a replacement part. You might have to buy the whole navigation screen with it.

Although I know someone tried painting not long ago. They had decent results. Tried the search feature?

 

Yup, you're right. The consensus seems to be paint rather than the expensive part replacement - which seems to be around $400 depending on the source. It doesn't bother me that much!

Paint seems to run between spray with a rattle can, touch up carefully with a small brush or bring it to an "interior" shop.

I didn't see a good source for the matching paint. Some seem to go to an auto paint store and others to Home Depot. I think I'll try the auto paint store route and let them match me a small container I can brush on with a "3 hair" brush. Langka.com sells "Blob Eliminator" which I use to gently "melt" down the blobs from touching up the exterior paint. It might help here too. I suspect my touch up paint work will leave angry welts that are obvious.
I was hoping for a more elegant solution or at least someone with a shopping list of interior colors available in touch up bottles. Oh well....

 

Someone did a write up a couple months ago.they brought a piece to home depot or something and did a color match. He said it was pretty close match

 

I think you should try to find the right paint color. And then have a shop sand it down and give it a good spray with an air-gun, that way you should expect OEM finish, if done right.

Maybe a specialized shop would be able to make their own mix of paint that would be able to match the old color and interior.


Be sure to document your trial, I am sure a lot of people would love to re-do their scratched bezels, as they are starting to show up at the moment, this car is only getting older, thus making the car available to more and more people. Thanks.

 

I've read about the scratched bezel before. Yes it's super expensive to replace as a member mentioned above. Painting or refinishing might be an option, but I would leave it to an expert or you may be taking a chance of making your interior looking worse. Sometimes, leaving it alone is your best choice and see if you can get used to it. I've been lucky to have a flawless bezel and am very careful when I use the Nav or have the interior cleaned.

PS......Whenever I get a chance to look at Nav screens on used LS430s most bezels shows signs of damage.

 

I think they take the shift **** into Home Depot to get a color match.

 

Paint matched to the shift **** is only useful if you need to touch up the shift **** or steering wheel leather.

 

Yes I did a post on this several months a go. Doesnt make sense to spend all the money to replace an entire unit for such a small zone w scratches........the steps u need to follow for pretty darn good results....

I used wet sanding paper very high number.....slowly and carefully sand bezel. Interestingly the paint on this bezel is very thin and sands right off w very little work. Now if you are looking for a very clean job you will want to tape off the area u are sanding. The trick is finding the spots where you will put your tape line on each side....and top and bottom.

Anyway....I taped.....sanded......primed.......then painted.

I was a freak to get the color correct.....Never could find the right color so I used two diff colors...a light base coat followed by a very light top coat. I am OCD for sure and those scratched bugged the crap out of me.....now I can drive my car and I never even think about the bezel......

I think my original thread was titled sanded my bezel today....or painted my bezel today...something like that. I will include a pic or two......

 

The pics might confuse u a bit because I changed my mind during the repair and decided to continue sanding beyond the lip and have the tape lines be straight up and down vs across the lip. Note....Im no painter.....had no sprayer etc. For those whom no what they are doing this job would be simple,,,and I suggest lightly sanding down the paint lines......hope this helped.....good luck

 

I just spray painted my Nav bezel last week (March 2022).
I used Dupli-Color BFM0360 Dark Shadow Gray (CX) Replaces T299 0-26916-71408-4
Pic 1 - Original bezel as in car when purchased (Oct 2021):

Pic 2 - Spray Can Match:

Pic 3 - Spray Can Label:

Pic 4 - After cleaning with rubbing alcohol (Obviously do not do this as it attacked the existing good paint):

Pic 5 - Installed in car today:

 

I wanted to bump this post as I’ve seen a couple of recent comments about the scratched bezel issue in sales threads.

there are a couple of easy solutions with painting as above, or even easier in place using vinyl as described here

 

The cause of all these scratched bezels is the rings ya wear on yer right hand.
I've never seen a scratched bezel this side of the pond as we use our left hand instead and very few men wear rings other than wedding rings.
I did see someone who found some wrap that matched but can't find the thread.
That spray job is a really good match. 😁

 

lol maybe you mean the thread and product link I put in the post just above yours?

 

Yes, that. <LOL>
Sorry, I missed your post.