a tip for removing scratches

[Kevin_Mc]

after tinting the windows of my Escort WRC i noticed a small drip from the can of PS-Smoke had landed on the outside of the polycarbonate shell, right in the middle of the rear window.

I knew not to use solvents, acetone etc. (from a thread i posted on here) and decided a wee rub with wet 1200 grit would sort it. It didn't - it ruined the look of the rear window with a big circular scuff. I cursed myself and left the shell for a bit.

I came back to it last week and gave it a better rub down, again with 1200 grit (making the scuff slightly wider) then moved to wet 1500 over a bigger area again and then finally a polishing cloth with a product called Plast-X (which i think was Meguiars). It's designed to polish clear plastic car trim, like headlights, and worked wonders on the rear window.

I'll post a picture up of how it turned out, i was really impressed as the rear window is now in perfect shiny condition again and the polycarbonate has not been weakened or stressed by the process.

[TenzoR]

You can also use toothpaste

[Kevin_Mc]

i never thought of that but it's the same principle when you think about it, as long as you're using the grainy type lol

wouldn't have been sure it it would damage the lexan so didn't try it but that's a good one too

[WillyChang]

you stopped at 1200grit?

1200, 1500, 1800, 2400, 3000... then you start with the polishes, ending with a quick wax

[Kevin_Mc]

the highest i have is 1500 grit and then some polish and it's back the way it should be

[mr crispy]

+1 for toothpaste. I've been using this to clean up model aircraft canopies for years. "Whitening" types are best I've found.

[Kevin_Mc]

"whitening" ones will have little polishing beads in them i'd imagine, this must be how it works.

[Kevin_Mc]

"whitening" ones will have little polishing beads in them i'd imagine, this must be how it works.

[actualday]

Would agree with the toothpaste trick, as i had a scratch on my wrist watch that turned out to be a plastic lense type as opposed to glass... A few cloths and a few more cotton tips and the thing came up like new... Go for the smokers kind of toothpaste as it seems to safely 'grind' out the scratches....

[TamiyaDan]

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[caddyshack @ the chop shop]

I put a post on here afew yrs back about some stuff forgot the name of it but you use it on caravan windows great stuff , only about 5 uk pounds a tube,

craig

[Live Steam Mad]

That's really easy to solve... like others mentioned, use whatever grade of grit is needed to remove the scratch completely then go upwards to P3000 and then use wax.

I did that to a Tamiya Frog window once, I used toilet roll on it when I had a paint run of Tamiya PS spray. BIG MISTAKE... made huge deep scratches in it So I used P400, P600, P800, P1000, P1200 of Silicon Carbide (used wet) that I got from a local Auto Electrical / Car Paint shop (40 pence per A4 sized sheet) and then P1500 then P2000 (both are available easily from Tamiya) and then P3000 (bought some off Ebay) and then polished the window with Turtle Wax car polish. Made it really clear as the wax fills in very fine scratches. Don't use the wax if you want to paint on that side!

I ended up doing the Frog shell with PC Tamiya brush on paints. The end product was catalog box art perfect.

Also works with Tamiya's clear windows on the F150 XLT (SRB buggy). The window had Superglue stains and scratches and it was renovated so perfectly I could hardly tell there was a window in it at all, it worked too good...

Novus Plastic Polish #2 is also incredible stuff for jobs like this...

Cheers,

Alistair G.