Plastic Polish

Forums › Home Workshop DIY › Plastic Polish

Oubadah

676 posts

Ultimate Geek

#151386 23-Aug-2014 17:24

What's the best polishing product for glossy perspex/acrylic plastic? I need something extremely fine, and I'm looking for a polish to remove tiny scratches and scuffing, not a wax that fills them.

freitasm

BDFL - Memuneh
79250 posts

Uber Geek

Administrator

ID Verified

Trusted

Geekzone

Lifetime subscriber

#1114166 23-Aug-2014 17:37

Toothpaste?

Coil

6614 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#1114167 23-Aug-2014 17:38

Works well on head lights too!

Oubadah

676 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1114168 23-Aug-2014 17:41

I've already tried the finest toothpaste I could find and it's too coarse.

SATTV

1648 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

#1114169 23-Aug-2014 17:58

In intermediate school we used braso to polish cut perspex ( we made perspex salad servers in woodwork )

Worked very well

John

I know enough to be dangerous

richms

28168 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1114186 23-Aug-2014 19:27

The novus range of acrylic polishes are what a friend uses on his aquariums to get them back to totally transparent from when they are scuffed up.

Richard rich.ms

robjg63

4096 posts

Uber Geek

Subscriber

#1114208 23-Aug-2014 21:14

Brasso certainly used to be the stuff for perspex etc. Think the supermarkets still sell it.
Its finer than toothpaste.

Think there are also polishes now for plastic headlight restoration that supercheap and repco sell.

Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself - A. H. Weiler

gzt

17104 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#1114368 24-Aug-2014 01:33

+1 Brasso. But the professional thing is "polishing compound". Call anyone that sells a range and ask some questions. It is usually used with a polishing tool. I have used it on acrylics (the red bars iirc) with a random cloth and elbow grease with good results. It can be purchased from anywhere selling industrial abrasives. It is very very fine and feels and looks like wax.

I'm looking for a polish to remove tiny scratches and scuffing, not a wax that fills them.

So I'm thinking you might have some already.

If you want to remove large scratches you will need to start the process with something coarser. Iirc I once used Jif on perspex for this purpose but it was a long time back and the surface was absolutely atrocious to begin with. Ymmv.

Equinox IT

Cloud spending continues to surge globally, but most organisations haven’t made the changes necessary to maximise the value and cost-efficiency benefits of their cloud investments. Download the whitepaper From Overspend to Advantage now.

Niel

3267 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#1114548 24-Aug-2014 14:03

I have never (or not on purpose) tried this before, but if you have a scratched off cut then run a heat gun over it (not too slow) to melt the surface into a gloss. Don;t use a flame, it will leave burn marks. I would not do it on headlights though, too expensive when it goes wrong.

You can never have enough Volvos!

eracode

Smpl Mnmlst
8846 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

Subscriber

#1114581 24-Aug-2014 15:07

Niel: I have never (or not on purpose) tried this before, but if you have a scratched off cut then run a heat gun over it (not too slow) to melt the surface into a gloss. Don;t use a flame, it will leave burn marks. I would not do it on headlights though, too expensive when it goes wrong.

Whoa!!