Cosmetic Repair

Thanks for all the info guys. Received quite a bit of feedback that's been helpful from several and well shared alike! Happy Holidays to you all! Audioplus

Thanks for the info, DK. There's a West Marine near my office. It might be worth a stop to pick up a tube to try. If so I'll add the results to this discussion.

Fpeel: The good news is that I found the polish. It is Seapower Plasic Polish, Stock No. SPP-1, (for all plastics), "gives that non-glare, static free shine". Seapower Marine Products, a division of T.R. Industries, 11022 Vulcan St., South Gate, CA 90280 213/923-0838. The bad news is that the product had dried up and I do not have a clue as to whether it will serve our purpose. Second bad news is that I need an additional adapter to retro fit the water filter. I will give them a call (the polish people) and see if I can pick it up localy (they are south of LA near Long Beach). If it works on CD's and if I don't end up having to polish my wife's 2500 or so snowdomes, I will be a happy camper. Later.

Looking forward to hearing the results. DK.

Fpeel: No I havn't, never crossed my mind until you mentioned it. My wife thinks that the polish may be under the kitchen sink (contained in the three story space saving jigsaw puzzle of products that utilizes every square inch of space). As we just purchased a water filter that I have to install, I might find it in the next couple of days when I get around to the chore. It definately took light scratches off of the clear plastic that makes up the souviners. I think that it may work and will let you know. Another collector friend of hers should know the name of the product if I cannot turn it up. I have always wondered what many light scratches do to the fidelity of the disks and do not purchase used ones when they have them. I have passed up a lot of good music because of this. I have a couple of scratched CD's (did it on the jewel case) that I can try the polish on.

Audioplus if the finish of the monitor is glossy you might get good results but if it's not and does have some texture or grain in it I'm affraid you'll end up with a glossy patch compared with the rest of the plastic. Maybe just very limited fine grit sanding will be enough to lessen the problem but it will depend on how the plastic surface is iluminated. If you use a plastic care product be certain that it's OK for the plastic material you're dealing with. This will diminish the gloss increase but before doing anything try in an area of the TV that is not that visible like behind the set. Hope this helps

DK, have you tried the boat polish on CDs? Sounds better than toothpaste which in my experience leaves discernable marks.

Their are plastic polishes sold at marine/boat stores that are used on fiberglass boats. I have used them on clear plastic souviner snowdomes (my wife's collection) with very good results. They polish but do not leave scratches (that I can see). Their is a bottle around here somewhere that I cannot locate, or I would mention a brand. You would want to do a test as with anything. I have never tried then on plastic that is other than clear.

The polish you can get to remove scratches from Audio CDs should work here. It is plastic afterall. Discwasher makes a CD polish and scratch remover I have used successfully on damaged CDs.

i recommend you use a product specifically designed to polish plastics. a product i've found to work very well is plasticare. it's made in englewood, colorado. i live in colo and am able to buy it at a couple of well-stocked hardware stores or from the factory. don't know about availability in other areas. if you can't find this exact product, look for another designed to clean/polish pexiglas.

You can try using an automotive polish/swirl remover then an automotive wax. I don't know what the chemicals would do to your particular plastic, so try it out first. I have found this effective to remove faint marks from automotive paint and plastics( such as mirror housings). These have a little grit in them which will scrub down the paint a little. I used to refurbish cars/jeeps, and used this to touch up my touchup work. You can use 600-1000 grit sandpaper for more extreme 'scrubbing'. These techniques may leave 'burn' marks where you have scrubbed out the texturing of the plastic. A less extreme technique would be to just use some softened canning wax in the scratch, then polish with some 'pledge' furniture cleaner. This is the safest, and probably what I would do.