Removing Anti-glare coating and getting out scratches

[Jack Burton]

I recently acquired an NEC Multisync FP950 desktop CRT monitor.  

It is a very good monitor, but at the auction I purchased it from someone had written a lot number on the screen with a permanent marker.  I scratched it off with my fingernail and washed it with windex.  

When I turned the screen on I noticed that part of the anti-glare coating had come off.  But surprisingly, the area underneath looked much better!  Very bright and vibrant.  

I have read on arcadeotaku about some guys removing the anti-glare coating from their monitors and decided I might give this a try myself.   I only paid $5 for this monitor so what do I have to lose?

I tried using paper towels and windex, but that was extremely slow going so I switched to a brillo pad.  This took about an hour but in the end it worked.  My monitor is nice and bright now.

As I did this I had a completely white pattern up on the screen to see where there was still anti-glare coating the screen.  What I didn't know was that the brillo pad was leaving tiny scratches all over the surface of my monitor.  

Now on a screen with black and white contrast, you can see the tiny scratches coating the screen.  It's not too noticeable, and the monitor is still completely usuable, but it bothers me because it ruins the aspect of CRT's I love most, contrast.  

Additionally, I realized I didn't remove every last bit of the coating, and there is now a strange prismatic effect going on in places on my monitor now against some backgrounds.  I believe this is also due to scratches.  

I have heard of using Jeweler's rouge, or car buffing products to remove the coating and the scratches. Do those work well?

I believe this monitor has the potential to be extremely good.  The section at the top that I buffed with only a paper towel looks better than any LCD I've seen.  I'm hoping to get the rest of the screen back into that condition.

What products would you recommend to fix this problem?

[Kevin Mullins]

Any kind of fine "polish" should work.
Car polishes, Novis polish, heck even toothpaste......

[SirPeale]

Oh man...IIRC, Brillo has a warning label on it regarding glass surfaces.

Which I did not know about at the time.  There are scrubbers that look like Brillo that are safe on glass, and that's what I used at home.

So when I wanted to clean the windshield of the van I was borrowing from my then boss, I wanted to REALLY get it clean.  So I grabbed the pads from our cleaning rack and went to town.

Didn't even see the scratches until I got into the van.  Needless to say I was sweating bricks until I told him about it.  He wasn't pleased.

[Jack Burton]

Thanks for the replies guys.  I hope this turns out well.  I tried a product called plastX I had laying around and it only exaggerated the problem!

[Pac-Fan]

Novus 3 for deep scratches, Novus 2 for fine might help a bit on glass even though they're meant for plastic. They are just very fine grit (1600, 3200?) polishers.

Also, I have used a wet Magic Eraser (melamine foam) to lessen the impact of a deep scratch on a picture tube and it's worked quite well. Try that, though it may take a bit of elbow grease and time, but if your scratches are shallow enough to not get a finger nail caught in it, then you might get good results.

[anyeyeover]

I'm not familiar with the grit of a brillo pad, but you may have to sand the monitor glass down with finer grits so the scratch remover works better.  With clear plastics, I get better results by step sanding pieces down to 800-1000-15000-2000 grit before using a scratch remover.  Its a lot of work though.

[RobbyMac]

Just be cautious, and wear some safety glasses or something in the odd chance it implodes on you

[ckong]

Here is how I did it. http://forum.arcadeotaku.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1251&p=13762#p13762

might be helpful

DON'T ever use brillo or sanding paper.