Wrapping the Piano Black Center Console in my Polestar 2
I just don’t understand why so manufacturers use piano black plastic in their cars. Although it looks nice when the car is brand new, it will quickly get covered in micro-scratches and fingerprints. Plus, depending on where this plastic is, it can reflect sun directly into your face.
Polestar 2 has a noticeable amount of piano black, including the steering wheel controls and a large swath surrounding the shifter in the enormous console.
Although my console area is not in too bad a shape, it does have micro-scratches and does reflect sun into my face on occasion.
I had been considering options to update that big plastic piece with something else and found there were several options, in order of increasing price:
Buy material, cut and wrap it myself.
Buy pre-cut material and “wrap” it myself.
Buy a replacement panel and swap it in.
Buying material, cutting and wrapping it is pretty cheap and you’ll have lots of options for the type of material, but I didn’t trust myself to do a good job with this.
Option 3 has a cost of around $200 or so and is mostly easy as the cover just pops off.
I decided to go with Option 2, which was a carbon fiber material laser cut to the size of the center console area that cost about $25 on Amazon. This seemed like a reasonable price and the installation looked like it would also be straightforward.
Installation
This is basically done in several steps. You peel the backing from the bottom of the carbon fiber wrap one section at a time and place it on the center console. I use the included water wipes to make it easier to position things.
As you get a section in place, use the spudger to remove any bubbles and then move on to the next one. Once you are happy with how it looks you can peel off the protective coating on the top.
I think this looks pretty good, but if you look closely there are still a couple bubble I need to work out. Some of these take a while to move to the edges and out from under the warp.
The kit also includes wrap pieces for the volume knob area and shifter area, but they would have covered up the indicators on those buttons so I decided to leave them be.
Should I want to upgrade to something nicer I’ll probably just splurge and get a replacement panel. Viva Performance has a nice black ash one that is a somewhat pricey $230. I’ve also heard you can order the panel used on newer Polestar 2 cars directly from a Polestar service department, but I haven’t looked into that.
Have you upgraded the center console in your Polestar 2?