Been a lurker for a long time, but recently been giving some love to my 2018 Genesis G80 Sport after buying it used last year. I wanted to share my results to hopefully help out others.
Last week, I polished out the whole car, and yesterday I tackled the window trim. I had them replaced last year under the 5year/60000 used car warranty by the dealer for free. The trim along with the rest of the car was coated with tuetlewax graphene flex spray wax. Within a few months they were already showing watersports and a year and 4 months after in Houston weather, they were looking pretty rough, especially along the driver's side front and rear window. The c-pillar twins were doing pretty good with light waterspots.
As some before recommended, it just took some brasso, 1.5 hours of elbow grease, and some microfiber towels to get everything back to shiny. See attached photos (screenshots from video since I can't upload video. Don't judge my b-pillar wrap, they were severely scratched beyond polishing when I purchased the car so I wrapped it myself).
Very happy with the results, yes the trim is a little lighter, but when comparing to my mostly pristine c pillar trim, I didn't notice a huge difference, just a tinge lighter in the sunlight. I protected them again with the tuetlewax flex spray wax, which I'm hoping will help because the underlying trim surface isn't as sensitive as the factory dark finish coating.
Some tips for those wanting to try this on their own discolored trim:
1. Tape off the paint around the trim. Don't worry too much about the brasso polish getting into the rubber around the trim because it wipes of pretty easily and doesn't stain (at least in the few hours that it sat on my car). I just gave the car a wash after, giving special care to the trim areas with a detailing brush to get into the rubber moulding. I would highly recommend you do the same.
2. Use lots of brasso. You need a good layer of brasso in between the towel and the trim. Just having some brasso absorbed into the microfiber towel didn't do too much for me. The towel should glide on the surface with the help of brasso. This makes everything come off much quicker. It also helps to keep a spray bottle of water and lightly mist the towel every few applications of the brasso.
3. Hit the trim from all angles. Once you get the discoloration and waterspots off, you have to commit and get to the bare aluminum because otherwise you are left with areas that are darker than others. Look at the trim from every angle in good lighting to make sure you're getting to the base layer.
I hope this was helpful, I'll try and answer any questions in a timely manner.
The driver side seat was showing brown wear thru it after less than $40,000 highway miles.
