scratches in plastic lense -- how do ya get them OUT

is there anyway to remove small scratches in a clear plastic speedo lense. i have some in a 53 chevy speedo i'm using & would like to try to remove them... they're bugg'n me.........thanks....joe

 

I use a light-abrasive polishing compound on plastic, followed by regular polish or wax...by hand! Mother's Plastic Polish works good for a final application too, but it doesn't take heavy scratches out.

 

Wet sand to 600-1000 grit and clear coat them.

 

There's a process called "Micro-Mesh". It is a series of sandpaper starting at 1500 up to 12,000. It is how we polish aircraft windows out. Don't know the cost but it works good.

 

Also most boat places sell a specific wax for marine winshields and such

 

Wetsand with 600 getting finer and finer with whatever you can come up with usually keeping within 100 grit of the last sanding and use brasso metal polish. Works like a dam. To just take out swirls and dullness use brasso only. Will make it clear as glass. Works on plastic tailite lenses too. Nutz.

 

The old Dupont No.7 chrome polish works too.

 

1. If they're very fine scratches or haze, try some toothpaste before you spend $$ on products specifically intended for plastic. That's all my Chevy instrument panel needed... and it reduced plaque buildup as well

2. Motorcycle shops sell plastic polish for faceshields. Honda brand polish works very well.

 

Blue Magic works great. I have even used it to restore CD's that wouldnt play anymore.

 

Also "brasso" old navy trick!
JimV

 

thanks folks, i will give some of these a try.....joe

 

On the DIY channel, they polished a back window on their cheesy resto program. Looked pretty easy as they filmed him doing it, and it didnt look all cut to shots either.... (where they cut out the hard work and show the fast progress). I bet you could find the products they used and probably a how-to on the DIY channel home page. FWIW, their stuff is usually pretty cheesy to border-line bad information, but I found that episode really informative.

 

first sand with as aggressive a grit as required to remove the scratch, be careful to support the lense so that you do not crack it during the sanding, I finish up by wet sanding with up to 800-1000 grt, then polish with Novus plastic polish, after this I use Future Floor wax; It fills the polishing marks, and is very tough. I dip the part, and let the excess drain off on a paper towel.

 

I have no idea if this would work...but I wonder if the repair formulas/tools used to fix scratched CDs would work well?

 

The Wax Shop's "Safe Cut" has taken scratches out of a ton of stuff for me...