Fogged Plexiglass

[jorbond]

I am in the process of converting an old cabinet to a mame cabinet and i wanted to remove the paint off of the old plexiglass that went over the monitor since it would be to expensive to create a new one. This worked great except for the fact that now the whole piece has a haze to it. If I put water on it then it will look clear until it dries.

[leapinlew]

sounds like it's has fine scratches. A long shot here - but car wax?

[danny_galaga]

plexy can go foggy over time, usually in outdoors situations. if thats the case, its had it. but if its fine scratches like leapinlew says the wax could do it especially since you say it goes clear with water on it...

[Kevin Mullins]

Yeah, go with the wax and polish it out.  Plain ol' wax.

Just don't use any kind of "polish" that has a "grit" rating or chemicals.

[RandyT]

That "Novus" plastic polishing stuff might be what you want there.  It works great, but how well it works on your piece will depend on just how damaged it is.

RandyT

[NightGod]

What did you use to clean it with? Alot of glass cleaning solvents will mess up plexiglass, you need to be very careful on what you choose.

[jorbond]

I first used some paint remover on it then it stayed cloudy so i used a mix of cleaners on it to try and fix it. Glass cleaner was one of of them. I researched it some more and that novus stuff was mentioned a few times so I am going to find some of that.

[Kevin Mullins]

Paint Remover!?!  No wonder it fogged up. That's pretty harsh on plexi.

Novus is commonly found for pinball playfield cleaning and polishing supplies.
It doesn't have to be that exact brand, although very good stuff.
What you use just needs to be "plastic" safe.
An automotive wax with an electric polisher will work.

[jorbond]

I just used that novus stuff on the plexiglass and it worked perfectly. There are still some minor scuffs on it but the plexiglass is 40 years old so it did a great job on it. I also only got two of the clothes that came with it and resused them so this prob did not help the process but now i am on to my next step.