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Can scratches be removed from clear acrylic/plexi?
Le Chuck:
Break out the steel wool and blowtorch. It's time to practice "flame polishing" then when you fail miserably and have a charred yellow bubbled mass you'll be really glad you followed my advice!
Or you'll totally succeed in restoring that damaged plastic.
Xiaou2:
Steel wool is good. But if its deep... you may need fine to mild grit sandpaper first.. to get down far enough past the scratch depth.
Im using grade 0000 steel wool for restoring some laptop lids. Scrub down past the scratch, and then lightly feather the area. As the dust build.. if can clog the wool a little.. making it hard to remove material. Spank it clean with a few hard taps, nearest the floor and or over a trash can / papers. The end result should be a hazy spot, but smooth to the touch...
Then I use this polishing wadding that has seed-oils.. called "Never Dull".
The stuff is a Miracle in a can. Amazing mirror finish results, with very little effort. Rub it on and polish away.. then wait a few seconds for it to haze over.. and use a paper towel or cloth to buff it to a gloss finish. Repeat as needed, until you get the gloss level you desire.
Practice on a scrap piece first.
I would stay away from the flame trick. Its nearly impossible.. and only certain kinds of plastics are workable at that.
Even the most experienced flamers - ruin plastics on accident. Ive watched it happen.. and then asked him for a different pinball ramp that wasnt warped / bubbled.
BadMouth:
The headlight restoration kits contain a little 2000 grit sanding pad, an either slightly smoother or rougher pad (can't remember atm), the polisher drill attachment and plastic polish.
If you already have some sort of buffing pad, you can just buy the plastic polish.
You're probably going to need more sandpaper anyway. You might need to start out with a more aggressive grit depending on how deep the scratch is.
Basically what you're going to do is sand the the scratch until the area around it is just as low as the bottom of the scratch. At that point, the scratch will no longer be discernible from it's surrounding area. (it will all look messed up) Then you'll use progressively finer sandpaper to make the scratches created by the previous round of sanding smoother. When you work your way up to 2000-3000 grit sandpaper, you can then move onto polish (which is like even finer grit sandpaper). The polishing stage should make it clear again.
It's a lot of work removing enough material to get past the scratch, then getting the surface smooth enough to be perfectly clear again.
Personally, I'd rather just pay the $30.
lamprey:
Any chance you would consider just buying glass as a repalcement?
Xiaou2:
Ive done the sandpaper stuff before.. but I have to say, the fine grit steel wool is far superior in results, takes far less effort and error.
Also, the great thing about "Never Dull" is that its very easy to get good results quickly with it.. and unlike typical polishes, it doesnt make and or leave a smeary then flaky mess. (common to polish such as Novis) Working the buffer / buffing discs.. is a real pain. That crayon like substance flies off the wheel and gets on everything.
So far, Ive only used this on black laptop lids, that have deep scratches and a matte paint finish. Im able to make them shine in high gloss, and you would never know there had been scratches / damages. One lid of average damages takes me about 8 minutes. More or less.. depending on the level of damages... but even the worst cases.. take less than 12 min. I believe.
Have not tried this on other materials yet, but will be testing soon.
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