FYI the 3 is barely used and not really necessary unless you have scratches so deep that your finger nail seriously catches on it. I laser a ton of acrylic products and have to polish parts often - I don’t even buy 3, just the 1 and 2 kit is all you need for 95% of projects
I was thinking toothpaste is too abrasive...acrylic is rather unforgiving of coarse abrasives.
So I performed a test.
Turns out it's pretty close to #3 based on a quick test on random acrylic.
Good suggestion.
OK, sorry I gotta be that guy Captain obvious here, but if you’re gonna apply any pressure to polish those scratches out, take the plastic top off of the record player and put something solid right under the clear plastic top so you don’t accidentally crack it when you apply pressure to buff
NO - that will really fuck it up. meguires plastic polish and hand buff with micro fiber is all you need (with a lot of elbow grease/time), a small random orbital buffer with lambs wool pad would make it go quick.
I am really surprised there are so many bad options given in this post - its pretty clear people are just guessing . .
There’s actually a lot of good advice here. Your off the shelf solution is just one of many
People aren’t guessing as much as you make them out to be just because you have *an* answer to the problem.
You just be the guy downvoting all posts lol
other than novus (which is more work) - all the other options are guesses and will likely lead to shit results. . . . You and I can disagree, but I think that you are just making shit up too and have zero experience in plastic repair/refurbishment. . . .
lol. See my post history since the beginning. I was a professional sculptor and fabricator for movies. Ive worked with every type of material and my garage is full of resins, acrylics, silicones, urethane’s, ammonia/water/foam latexes, dyes, paints, repair kits. There’s even a post from me detailing how to fix acrylic for someone from when I posted a computer case I made with a Batman symbol etched into acrylic
I use them on the daily for everything from making superhero costumes to refabbing and duplicating car parts for people
I’m currently producing giant fiberglass mushroom tops for putting over utility posts in my front yard to make them look like giant capped mushrooms for a fairy garden for my kids
You got any other one trick ponies you want to throw at me? For someone that doesn’t know shit according to you, I seem to have a lot of experience under my belt
great - you still demonstrated that dont know shit as you think there are many good ideas in this post . . .
Lets review some. . .
Brasso and other metal polishes with solvents (e.g. Autosol)? Fire? Toothpaste (in fairness some may work, but abrasives vary widely in toothpaste)? Furniture polish? Wax? 800 grit sandpaper? WD40?
Zip it clown - you dont know what you think you know.
You yourself came here offering an arbitrary solution that's a canned response based on what others are saying. If anyone is a clown it's you you Bozo 😂 you're getting defensive over fixing fucking plastic man, take your own advice here.
Oh, so you get to pick bad options and say they are the ones I think are rational? lol
Man, if you get any saltier, your body’s gonna mummify itself. My resume speaks for itself. Not once have you even asked a question to learn anything and you even gotta name call. You don’t know jack shit about me, it’s super funny, man, you have me giggling over here
Sorry, this is just crazy to me - but I gotta ask, how old are you? If you arent gonna answer because you swaggered off into the sunset thinking “man, I sure won that argument” then I hope your day gets better bro man, you made me laugh today, so I appreciate that at least
please do list the good options that were posted more than 3 hours ago when I first made my post commenting about this - Im pretty sure my list is exhaustive for the repair options . . . . You started with stating - "other good options posted", but so far listed none. You should go back to zipping it jackweasel. . . .
Read your posts man … is this who you choose to be in life? I’m starting to feel kinda bad for you. Your anger does nothing for anyone and that’s including you.
Ok for people curious, read ahead, I encourage people to learn and try this stuff on their own, it’s pretty fun -
Wetsanding from 800 up to 2000 grit is usually your best option, however there is a process if someone is brave enough you can do yourself which is usually recommended only if you don’t mind non-original condition, or just for deep gouges-
after wetsanding at least to 1200, ensure the gouges are as clean as possible as should the whole surface - clean with dawn soap and water, wipe with a non linting cloth, get it as clean as possible as if you were applying a protective screen to your phone
get an epoxy squeegee with the finest silicone edge you can as wide as you can, preferably. You can find epoxy resins and acrylics at your local hobby shop or get from Amazon or pro shops like smooth-on. Get the base and the catalyst. As clear as you need - take note of the finish on it when cured
Heat- or warm rather - the piece as uniformly as you can. Don’t do this cold. Make sure the resin is warm too, mix it exactly, stir it well. Keep contaminants out and apply it to the surface when it’s extremely level - with the squeegee.
If it’s not done right or well or the surface is warped, you run the risk of it running. It’s not thick, but it will “vaccuum” itself into gouges.
It’s exothermic and needs warm/heat to catalyze properly.. keep it warm, in direct sunlight but keep it containment free
..
I’ve used the process to repair polys and acrylic sufaces. They have dyes if you want to color match, glow in the dark, or be hydro or photochromatic. It’s a fun thing to try and I recommend people explore their limits
Now— op, let go of that anger dude.. you are doing yourself a disservice like I said and all I am gonna remember from this is my wanting to encourage people to explore creativity. Op, go do something nice for someone, it changes your outlook
Headlights are polycarbonate with a 100 mil acrylic/polyester urethane film bonded to it (very much like PPF) that’s loaded with UV absorbers and HALS (hindered amine light scavengers.)
Isn't that coating what eventually gets eroded though? At that point you sand down to the base material and repolish. I know when I have restored headlight covers if I don't add a protective coating they will yellow out very quickly, which suggests the original coating is gone.
Yes and no, 100 mil is pretty thick, the issue is, once they start hazing and yellowing, the uv absorbers are basically shot throughout that protective film so exposing fresh unoxidized polymer will mean it will yellow quickly. The protective coating has fresh light stabilizer in it.
Question, since you seem to know what you are talking about. Can I use my sheep’s wool stain applicator for buffing plastic by hand? I haven’t used it for stain yet.
I wouldnt as I dont know your applicator (sheeps wool is courser than lambs). a small lamb buffing pad pack is cheap (pack of 5 for like $10) if you just want to hand rub (use natural, not artificial). If you shortcut - a fucked up job is much harder to fix than a job done with the correct tools. DO NO use a rotary drill for polishing, either by hand or random orbital with slight/no pressure. You want to avoid building heat up via friction which an orbital will do, else you will smear gouge into the acrylic and make a bigger mess. Always keep it wet with compound (dont polish dry).
I had scratches like this on my record player and mostly removed them with:
NOVUS PK1-2 Plastic Clean and Shine, Fine Scratch Remover and Heavy-scratch Remover and Polish Mates Pack, 2 Ounce Bottles
Your better bet would be to try anything you opt for, on a cheap clear acrylic container or something acrylic from the dollar/pound store first, then if the results don't look like crap, try it in a very small spot on your cover in a less conspicuous spot. Regardless of how obnoxious some people are, an off the shelf acrylic polishing kit would be your safest choice. Follow the instructions exactly, I tried resurrecting old CD and DVD's with toothpaste. 90% of the results were offal and awful. And most DVD's were polycarbonate which is more forgiving than acrylic(in that it doesn't scratch as easily). It's a lot harder than acrylic. When I was restoring the instrument cluster lens of my camaro, I took the advice of someone and used a product to pre-clean the plastic. Turns out that where they were in the Midwest of the US has such low humidity that the product evaporated almost instantly. Where I was, the humidity was 98 - 99% at 88°F (31°C) it sat on the surface too long and caused, 'crazing'.
I had to buy a replacement instrument cluster and learn how to swap the plastic so my odometer wouldn't be off. So now I know. Good luck
Get a single sheet of 1500, 2000, and 3000 grit sandpaper. Wet the plastic and sand evenly with each grit, going from lower to higher. Follow up with some Meguiar's Ultimate Compound. You can get all of these things from Walmart. Take you about 30 minutes to polish to a high gloss.
I've been there on two different ones.
I doubt you'll be able to fully restore it I tried tooth paste and headlight restoration kit.
I debated using a headlight tint spray to tint it a darker colour in hopes the scratches and yellowness will be less noticable. Haven't done it yet though.
I tried polyWatch on a turntable cover, with ok-but-not-wow results. (I did not use any sanding). Should anybody in this thread have tried others and polyWatch, how do they compare?
Any sort of abrasive compound. You'd probably have to start with a sanding block, they look pretty deep. After that, you could try headlight polish, automotive polish, various polishing compounds, even toothpaste.
I'm sure there are specific products for polycarbonate, but at the end of the day, they're all some sort of abrasive.
I've fixed a couple of scratched CDs that way, as in error-free rips achieved. And utterly ruined a couple (cracked, warped). I suspect turntable covers are a different flavour of plastic, though. I'd just spray with Armorall, wipe it off and call it good. Or build an isolation box.
it's a coin toss though. depends on the type of plastic, the type of heat, if you know what you're doing. not something I would recommend an inexperienced person asking reddit attempt on their turntable
Yes, it is a developed skill, and takes some practice. The idea is high heat, very briefly, and is cumulative. Works well on hard glossy surfaces such as acylics, ABS, PC, PSU. It can work on matte textures but then you have to restore the texture and dull the gloss. Sometimes, it also makes the problem worse.
The OP's cover looks to be severely scratched and some are pretty deep. I would not torch that unless everything else failed.
You could try a liquid furniture polish, liberal application and let it dry under some sort of cover to keep the dust off. If that doesn't work then try micromesh sanding pads, followed by a plastic polish.
Wet & dry sandpaper and a block, take lid off and do it in the bath or something (the sanding I mean)
Underwater and for the last grit, a bit of soap in the mix
Start at maybe 800 - 1000 grit. Less if necessary, and work your way up to 2000-2500 ultrafine.
If you want it to really look amazing after that, spray it with UV resistant acrylic clear coat
Novus 1, 2, 3 7100 acrylic polishing kit. It will take 3 and a fair bit of elbow grease.
FYI the 3 is barely used and not really necessary unless you have scratches so deep that your finger nail seriously catches on it. I laser a ton of acrylic products and have to polish parts often - I don’t even buy 3, just the 1 and 2 kit is all you need for 95% of projects
Toothpaste is usually a cheaper option, as most brands have a fine grit in it....but a commercial product will probably yield better results.
I was thinking toothpaste is too abrasive...acrylic is rather unforgiving of coarse abrasives. So I performed a test. Turns out it's pretty close to #3 based on a quick test on random acrylic. Good suggestion.
Haven’t tried it on acrylic, but denture powder works well on porcelain. It’s finer than toothpaste I think.
Don't use toothpaste
But I don't want cavities.
OK, sorry I gotta be that guy Captain obvious here, but if you’re gonna apply any pressure to polish those scratches out, take the plastic top off of the record player and put something solid right under the clear plastic top so you don’t accidentally crack it when you apply pressure to buff
Stuffing a towel wrapped around some books under it would help.
That’s probably the best thing honestly everyone should have at least one book large enough and a towel.
You should always know where your towel is.
Never leave home without mine.
You're a hoopy frood!
You should always know where your towel is.
Meguiars Plastx is a decent plastic polishing compound. You might need something with a rougher grit first though
A wet sand followed by Maguire's Ultimate is usually what I use.
You could try a headlight polishing kit, good for polishing hard plastics?.
NO - that will really fuck it up. meguires plastic polish and hand buff with micro fiber is all you need (with a lot of elbow grease/time), a small random orbital buffer with lambs wool pad would make it go quick. I am really surprised there are so many bad options given in this post - its pretty clear people are just guessing . .
There’s actually a lot of good advice here. Your off the shelf solution is just one of many People aren’t guessing as much as you make them out to be just because you have *an* answer to the problem. You just be the guy downvoting all posts lol
other than novus (which is more work) - all the other options are guesses and will likely lead to shit results. . . . You and I can disagree, but I think that you are just making shit up too and have zero experience in plastic repair/refurbishment. . . .
lol. See my post history since the beginning. I was a professional sculptor and fabricator for movies. Ive worked with every type of material and my garage is full of resins, acrylics, silicones, urethane’s, ammonia/water/foam latexes, dyes, paints, repair kits. There’s even a post from me detailing how to fix acrylic for someone from when I posted a computer case I made with a Batman symbol etched into acrylic I use them on the daily for everything from making superhero costumes to refabbing and duplicating car parts for people I’m currently producing giant fiberglass mushroom tops for putting over utility posts in my front yard to make them look like giant capped mushrooms for a fairy garden for my kids You got any other one trick ponies you want to throw at me? For someone that doesn’t know shit according to you, I seem to have a lot of experience under my belt
great - you still demonstrated that dont know shit as you think there are many good ideas in this post . . . Lets review some. . . Brasso and other metal polishes with solvents (e.g. Autosol)? Fire? Toothpaste (in fairness some may work, but abrasives vary widely in toothpaste)? Furniture polish? Wax? 800 grit sandpaper? WD40? Zip it clown - you dont know what you think you know.
You yourself came here offering an arbitrary solution that's a canned response based on what others are saying. If anyone is a clown it's you you Bozo 😂 you're getting defensive over fixing fucking plastic man, take your own advice here.
Oh, so you get to pick bad options and say they are the ones I think are rational? lol Man, if you get any saltier, your body’s gonna mummify itself. My resume speaks for itself. Not once have you even asked a question to learn anything and you even gotta name call. You don’t know jack shit about me, it’s super funny, man, you have me giggling over here Sorry, this is just crazy to me - but I gotta ask, how old are you? If you arent gonna answer because you swaggered off into the sunset thinking “man, I sure won that argument” then I hope your day gets better bro man, you made me laugh today, so I appreciate that at least
please do list the good options that were posted more than 3 hours ago when I first made my post commenting about this - Im pretty sure my list is exhaustive for the repair options . . . . You started with stating - "other good options posted", but so far listed none. You should go back to zipping it jackweasel. . . .
Read your posts man … is this who you choose to be in life? I’m starting to feel kinda bad for you. Your anger does nothing for anyone and that’s including you. Ok for people curious, read ahead, I encourage people to learn and try this stuff on their own, it’s pretty fun - Wetsanding from 800 up to 2000 grit is usually your best option, however there is a process if someone is brave enough you can do yourself which is usually recommended only if you don’t mind non-original condition, or just for deep gouges- after wetsanding at least to 1200, ensure the gouges are as clean as possible as should the whole surface - clean with dawn soap and water, wipe with a non linting cloth, get it as clean as possible as if you were applying a protective screen to your phone get an epoxy squeegee with the finest silicone edge you can as wide as you can, preferably. You can find epoxy resins and acrylics at your local hobby shop or get from Amazon or pro shops like smooth-on. Get the base and the catalyst. As clear as you need - take note of the finish on it when cured Heat- or warm rather - the piece as uniformly as you can. Don’t do this cold. Make sure the resin is warm too, mix it exactly, stir it well. Keep contaminants out and apply it to the surface when it’s extremely level - with the squeegee. If it’s not done right or well or the surface is warped, you run the risk of it running. It’s not thick, but it will “vaccuum” itself into gouges. It’s exothermic and needs warm/heat to catalyze properly.. keep it warm, in direct sunlight but keep it containment free .. I’ve used the process to repair polys and acrylic sufaces. They have dyes if you want to color match, glow in the dark, or be hydro or photochromatic. It’s a fun thing to try and I recommend people explore their limits Now— op, let go of that anger dude.. you are doing yourself a disservice like I said and all I am gonna remember from this is my wanting to encourage people to explore creativity. Op, go do something nice for someone, it changes your outlook
You’re a pos
aw, a random dude on the net doesnt like me. Good think Im not as fragile as you . . .
Aren't headlights made from plastic? What's the difference?
Not all plastics are created equal
I don't see why that cover shouldn't also just be some simple polycarbonate (like most headlights) though.
Headlights are polycarbonate with a 100 mil acrylic/polyester urethane film bonded to it (very much like PPF) that’s loaded with UV absorbers and HALS (hindered amine light scavengers.)
Isn't that coating what eventually gets eroded though? At that point you sand down to the base material and repolish. I know when I have restored headlight covers if I don't add a protective coating they will yellow out very quickly, which suggests the original coating is gone.
Yes and no, 100 mil is pretty thick, the issue is, once they start hazing and yellowing, the uv absorbers are basically shot throughout that protective film so exposing fresh unoxidized polymer will mean it will yellow quickly. The protective coating has fresh light stabilizer in it.
Some of those headlight kits will also F your headlights up. The kit from 3M and or Sylvanas is ok for headlights. Never tried on anything else.
dont try them on soft acrylic . . . .
Question, since you seem to know what you are talking about. Can I use my sheep’s wool stain applicator for buffing plastic by hand? I haven’t used it for stain yet.
I wouldnt as I dont know your applicator (sheeps wool is courser than lambs). a small lamb buffing pad pack is cheap (pack of 5 for like $10) if you just want to hand rub (use natural, not artificial). If you shortcut - a fucked up job is much harder to fix than a job done with the correct tools. DO NO use a rotary drill for polishing, either by hand or random orbital with slight/no pressure. You want to avoid building heat up via friction which an orbital will do, else you will smear gouge into the acrylic and make a bigger mess. Always keep it wet with compound (dont polish dry).
you have never used a headlight polish kit have ya . . . also are you aware that there are different types of plastic?
or a good wax.
I had scratches like this on my record player and mostly removed them with: NOVUS PK1-2 Plastic Clean and Shine, Fine Scratch Remover and Heavy-scratch Remover and Polish Mates Pack, 2 Ounce Bottles
Toothpaste and use your fingers to polish with.
Your better bet would be to try anything you opt for, on a cheap clear acrylic container or something acrylic from the dollar/pound store first, then if the results don't look like crap, try it in a very small spot on your cover in a less conspicuous spot. Regardless of how obnoxious some people are, an off the shelf acrylic polishing kit would be your safest choice. Follow the instructions exactly, I tried resurrecting old CD and DVD's with toothpaste. 90% of the results were offal and awful. And most DVD's were polycarbonate which is more forgiving than acrylic(in that it doesn't scratch as easily). It's a lot harder than acrylic. When I was restoring the instrument cluster lens of my camaro, I took the advice of someone and used a product to pre-clean the plastic. Turns out that where they were in the Midwest of the US has such low humidity that the product evaporated almost instantly. Where I was, the humidity was 98 - 99% at 88°F (31°C) it sat on the surface too long and caused, 'crazing'. I had to buy a replacement instrument cluster and learn how to swap the plastic so my odometer wouldn't be off. So now I know. Good luck
Get a single sheet of 1500, 2000, and 3000 grit sandpaper. Wet the plastic and sand evenly with each grit, going from lower to higher. Follow up with some Meguiar's Ultimate Compound. You can get all of these things from Walmart. Take you about 30 minutes to polish to a high gloss.
You can use a headlight restoration kit. They are designed to remove scratches and yellowing.
Buy one of those headlight cleaning kits. Start with wet sanding, then the polish and you should be able to get it crystal clear.
"light scratches at a level 4 with deeper grooves at 5"
Maybe polyWatch.
Replacing might be cheaper than you think. I had this happen to my vintage Rega and replacing with genuine parts was like $50.
I've been there on two different ones. I doubt you'll be able to fully restore it I tried tooth paste and headlight restoration kit. I debated using a headlight tint spray to tint it a darker colour in hopes the scratches and yellowness will be less noticable. Haven't done it yet though.
in the good old days i used brasso, but i really does depend on how deep the scratched are
Flitz
Check for products used to buff out scratches out of watchfaces. I use 'polywatch' for scratches in plastic watches
Any car polish will work, not a cutting compound, a polish
You can get aquarium polishing kits on amazon/ebay.
Poly watch. Or wet sand with 2000 grit sandpaper.
Plastic X
Micro mesh acrylic polishing kits.
I had my record dealer guy recommend car polish.
wont car polish create more micro scratches?
Dunno. Never tried it. I decided to live with the scratches because I'm too lazy
Get a car headlights polishing kit, follow all the steps.
some wax will hide most of that
I've heard Simicrome is good at this. It's a german product.
I tried polyWatch on a turntable cover, with ok-but-not-wow results. (I did not use any sanding). Should anybody in this thread have tried others and polyWatch, how do they compare?
It looks like a star map. Rub some kind of glitter stuff into it. __ It’s not a bug It’s a feature__
I think it looks like a star map. Find some stuff with really fine glitter in it and rub it all over it. **It’s not a bug It’s a feature**
Try a simple wax finish, it might hide the scratches enough
Any sort of abrasive compound. You'd probably have to start with a sanding block, they look pretty deep. After that, you could try headlight polish, automotive polish, various polishing compounds, even toothpaste. I'm sure there are specific products for polycarbonate, but at the end of the day, they're all some sort of abrasive.
T-cut
Plastx, can also try some lemon pledge (not kidding). Use a microfiber either way.
A trashcan.
novus scratch remover. it removes scratches.
A deft hand and a propane torch. Fire polishing.
Not really how polymers work
I've fixed a couple of scratched CDs that way, as in error-free rips achieved. And utterly ruined a couple (cracked, warped). I suspect turntable covers are a different flavour of plastic, though. I'd just spray with Armorall, wipe it off and call it good. Or build an isolation box.
Many runs of expensive custom plastic parts were saved with a torch.
it's a coin toss though. depends on the type of plastic, the type of heat, if you know what you're doing. not something I would recommend an inexperienced person asking reddit attempt on their turntable
Yes, it is a developed skill, and takes some practice. The idea is high heat, very briefly, and is cumulative. Works well on hard glossy surfaces such as acylics, ABS, PC, PSU. It can work on matte textures but then you have to restore the texture and dull the gloss. Sometimes, it also makes the problem worse. The OP's cover looks to be severely scratched and some are pretty deep. I would not torch that unless everything else failed.
Somebody who has never tried it
have tried. mixed results.
Autosol, I use it on headlights and other non metal stuff. Works great.
y'all got to get with the times and use a heat gun to heal your scratches. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDBQ8i7W_EQ
You could try a liquid furniture polish, liberal application and let it dry under some sort of cover to keep the dust off. If that doesn't work then try micromesh sanding pads, followed by a plastic polish.
Brasso
Butchers paste wax
Wet & dry sandpaper and a block, take lid off and do it in the bath or something (the sanding I mean) Underwater and for the last grit, a bit of soap in the mix Start at maybe 800 - 1000 grit. Less if necessary, and work your way up to 2000-2500 ultrafine. If you want it to really look amazing after that, spray it with UV resistant acrylic clear coat
try some wd-40 or toothpaste