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GeorgeG Special user Thousand Oaks, CA 977 Posts |
Any recommendations on restoring a plastic surface with scratches, some mildly deep, back to a shiny, smooth polished surface? Thanks.
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Bill Hegbli Eternal Order Fort Wayne, Indiana 22797 Posts |
There is no way to put manufactured plexiglass back to the fine clear surface.
You can us pumice to try to buff, but when I tried it it just produced scratch. If you have ever seen or tried the stuff they sell for CD repair and cleaning does not work either. The polishing process is leveling the surface, the flatter and level it is the more it shines. |
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HarbinJr. Elite user I only have 450 Posts |
George,
Visit your local plastic distributor. I used to use in my show a seven foot tall plexi mirror and was always getting scratches in it. They sold me this stuff and for the life of me I cant remember the name of it but its a very very mild abrasive and you can gently buff those scratches out. Your plastic will look as good as new. The deep ones may not come out as well as you would like but you can still try though. The small ones should come right out. If I was back in Wichita, Ks I would be able to tell you what the stuff was. Hope that helps you out. Robert |
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GeorgeG Special user Thousand Oaks, CA 977 Posts |
Thanks for the advice
I did a google search on plastic scratch removers and found various products claiming to restore plastic surfaces to new conditions:
Anyone has any experience on these products or have other suggestions..Thanks |
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Mushu Loyal user 253 Posts |
You're probably looking for Polishing Compound, or Rubbing Compound. It's a fine abrasive set in wax that is used to buff scratches off surfaces such as your car, but I beleive there's a grade for plastic. Call up your local sunroom or custom plastics dealer and they can probably sell you a bit of what they use to take the scratches out of acrylic panels.
http://www.abra-electronics.com/catalog/tools/dr_8114.html |
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ClintonMagus Inner circle Southwestern Southeast 3997 Posts |
There has been some sort of stuff advertised recently on television that is supposedly formulated to take the scratches out of eyeglasses. Assuming it works better than the vinyl/leather repair kits also advertised on television, you might be able to use it.
(And it's only 19.95 with lots of free stuff thrown in...) Amos McCormick
Things are more like they are today than they've ever been before...
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sdgiu Elite user The Boonies, NC 456 Posts |
GeorgeG
I am hypothesizing here, so maybe someone can tell for sure if this will work, before you try this. In working plastic in the past, I used a buffer and some very light rubbing compound to eliminate scratches. If you could eliminate all the Light scratches, and smooth the edges of the deep scratches. I would think you could build a dam adound the area of the deep scratches(use a putty of some sort to build the wall) and use a clear casting Resin to fill the deep places. Let it set up, and buff it all out. It sounds like it should work to me, but I have only a very limited experience with the two part clear casting resins. Definitely not enough to try this on something valuable. Perhaps someone with real experience working with casting Resin can tell us if this will work. Anyway, hope it comes out ok. Steve |
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HarbinJr. Elite user I only have 450 Posts |
Looking at that list of products I recognized which one I used, its the novus. It really is great stuff.
Good Luck, Robert |
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Brad Hall New user Tulsa, Ok 40 Posts |
I've only tried to fix shallow scratches, but a good quality acrylic car polish worked for me.
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GeorgeG Special user Thousand Oaks, CA 977 Posts |
I would like to thanks everyone for their input. I decided to try the Novus products. I found a great "Buy It Now" deal on ebay..much cheaper than retailers out there.
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mkiger Loyal user 228 Posts |
Micro Mark sells a plexiglass polish kit they claim is used by airlines. They also have a number of tools that might be useful in modifying/making props.
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Magicduck Elite user Washington State 484 Posts |
Please let us know how it works. So far, I have never had any luck getting scratches off plastic. Always seems that I can spread them out, in other words, make it worse... but never fix it.
quack |
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kaytracy Inner circle Central California 1793 Posts |
http://www.tapplastics.com/ again (gotta buy stock in them soon!)
I used to have to use the polish to clean display cases at a park, where many hands, and much dust would haze the plexi up really quickly (Imagine that a little old stuffed rattler could get so much attention) anyway the stuff is a single bottle of goo, and a soft cloth to rub "wax on" then let dry, and clean cloth "wax off"! more or less, easy and works! For deep scratches, that is another matter.
Kay and Tory
www.Bizarremagick.com |
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muzicman Special user LaCenter, Wa 989 Posts |
I can take scratches out of plexiglass. I use Maguires #7 Show car polish. If it's really bad, I use a light abrasive (Maguires #2) then #7. This also works on CD's and DVD's as long as the scratch doesn't go into the silver part (or all the way through!). It really looks tacky to see finger smudged plexi on a prop. Plexi takes periodic buffing to keep it sharp. Oh, you can find Maguires products in the auto polish section of most auto parts places.
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RBerteig Regular user Monrovia, California 146 Posts |
The trick with polishing plastic is to use enough compound on a buffing wheel, and to go slowly. Buffing too hard or at too high a speed can heat the surface and cause more damage than can be easily fixed.
You can buy buffing compounds formulated especially for plastics at a good hardware store (the kind where some of the merchandise and fixtures are older than the old guy that owns the place), or at specialty stores. Online and eBay are probably good bets. Someone mentioned Micro Mark. I have bought lots of interesting tools from them over the years. They always ship when they say they will, and stock really cool stuff for the model builder.
Ross Berteig
Wizards in my Parlor |
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muzicman Special user LaCenter, Wa 989 Posts |
It's best to use a random orbital polisher. It will not burn due to friction. I have repaired plastic lenses in sunglasses with Maguires. If the scratches are really deep, it will make the scratches invisible. I can also remove scratches from watch crystals and glass with a product called Flitz. It's actually metal polish but I have discovered many polishing ideas on non-metal surfaces like glass.
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Michael Baker Eternal Order Near a river in the Midwest 11172 Posts |
I am sitting here reading the label on a can of Brasso, and it claims to work on plastic watch crystals.
~michael baker
The Magic Company |
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Miracle Man Show New user Indiana 56 Posts |
I had a plastics course in college, and of all the textbooks I’ve owned, that one has been pulled off the shelf more, over the years, than any other.
Novus Plastic polish is indeed the best thing I’ve ever come across for removing scratches from plastic. As George noted, there are 1, 2, and 3. I don’t have the products in front of me, but if memory serves #1 is the spray, (sort of the plastics equivalent of Windex), #2 is a buffing compound that will take out fine scratches, and #3 is a coarser abrasive that will remove deeper scratches. By the way, don’t ever use Windex on Plexiglas, unless you like a nice “fogged up” finish on it. As a side note, when cutting and gluing Acrylic (Plexiglas), there are different formulations of the solvent for joining the pieces. Weld-On is the product that I like to use. Weld-On #3 is water thin, and the pieces being joined must be perfectly mated to each other; #3 will not fill in gaps! Weld-On #16 has the thickness of modeler’s glue, and will fill gaps.
Tom McCormick
"The Miracle Man Show" There's only one Miracle Man, that's Jesus Christ; I just get to do a show about HIM. www.themiraclemanshow.com |
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irossall Special user Snohomish, Washington 529 Posts |
I use toothpaste on scratched CD's and it works really good.
Just my 2 cents worth. Iven
Give the gift of Life, Be an Organ Donor.
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nickpakaca New user 1 Post |
Hi everybody, recently, I used navus scratch remover for the hard plastic of my interior suv, didn't work at all, any recomendation?
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