What are people doing to protect the hatchback interior, is there a film or something I can put on the weak plastic that easily gets scratched? As a side note, I am overall highly disappointed with the plastic interior. As many have noted, the texture makes it very hard to fix once scratched, and the silver plastic near the interior door handles also scratches quite easily. My old Maxima does much much better. I am sure many are using this as a family car and I shudder to think what taking a stroller in and out of this car is going to do to the interior, no matter how careful we are. Another concern is the armrest fabric seems like it is not aging very well. Does anyone around here ever replace theirs once it gets sufficiently cruddy looking?
Those are cool but I mean for the interior side of the hatchback/trunk door. We went to the beach and the beach chair left scratches on the door. It seems like that will happen to many people who put large items, sports gear, strollers, etc. As one accelerates, the items frequently shift and rub or scrape the interior of the door. I was hoping there would be a clear protective film I could apply.
The sad part is I tried to put some clothes around the beach chair but they moved during the drive. A large blanket would have worked better.
I gave up trying to protect the plastic when we bought our '99 Montana van and started hauling our 2 grandsons to baseball games, both catchers with huge bags for all that extra gear. Mind you, I tried my best to minimize damage, but I didn't get anal about it. We now travel a lot in our Prius, so that means hauling gear in/out of the car often. Again, I try my best, but I'm not going to worry about nicks, etc. If they get too bad, I'll just have the panels replaced or repaired. I guess it would be cool if there were something like Plasti-Dip or Plasti-Wrap to protect interior panels.
I keep a thick blanket under floor storage for just that. You're still going to get the scratch here and there. Totally dislike this type of plastic, so just try to be a careful as you can. We have a few wounds in the back from long trips packed to the hilt. As you found out, even with careful padding, it can still move away leaving the way open for some scars to appear. Passenger area after 4 years is still intact, but we've had to work not to mar the plastic. Maybe the solution is to cover the plastic with vinyl, like a lot of interiors were way back in time. Or was that a padded rubber substance? In any case it was very durable and hard to mark up.
Unfortunately, it is a cheap finish and choice of materials. The Asian way of making business. In your case, keep a moving blanket inside the storage area and use it as necessary
I always have a blanket on the deck: tuck the back edge of it an inch or two under the sub-floor lid, to hold it in place. If moving something messy, I'll put in a tarp. You can see the blanket just peeking thru, lower left corner of tarp:
It seems like there is an opportunity for some smart company to make something like a clear 3m product to protect interior door plastic. I might try and take a few shop towels and use painters tape to permanently cover the interior plastic of the hatchback door where it is most susceptible. Granted, it will look tacky if anyone ever sees it, but no one ever will except us I'm not sure I trust my wife to constantly be as careful as me, and this would prevent any effort being required to cover stuff at the beginning of every trip.
Film type materials will not adhere well to a pebble grained plastic panel. It will look really bad, and I doubt that you would be willing to presand the surfaces smooth before applying your protective film. You would be better off removing the plastic panels, treating them with an adhesion promoter, then using a spray on liner type protective urethane coating.
I think any treatment of the wall panels is gonna be cargo cult, and a mod that'll be off-putting when you're trying to trade or sell.
The cargo net might help in keeping some of the stuff away from the hatch. It's a cargo area. If it is used it'll get scratched. Haven't given it any thought. If you don't have protective film across the top of the bumper cover then affix a rubber strip because eventually the cargo will be dragged across it.
