Polishing dash light plastic.

Afternoon all:
Needed red and amber warning lights, found some on eBay so I bought them. Came in today and they were quite a bit scruffier than I had expected. Not at all suprising considering the age. Any one have any good ideas on how to clean/polish them up.
I tried some that I had that were useless, on my hefty Baldor buffer and they melted!
Anyhow any help would be appreciated.
Cheers, Tinkerman

How about trying some of the scratch removing polish for convertible top windows and hand buffing them? Maguair, Mothers and several other companies make it, so it's not hard to find.

You may want to try hand polishing with white rubbing compound or the compound sold to buff clear coat paint. As you've learned, don't use high-speed tools to buff plastic. If they are hazy or milky, buffing away enough material to make them look good may change their shape or appearance. If that's the way these seem to be going, visit a craft store like AC Moore and look for the glass decorating supplies. You'll find an assortment of translucent acrylic paints used to paint glass. You can recoat the lights you bought to restore their appearance. Spraying with an air brush will give better, more uniform results than brushing.

Are you referring to the running lights on the outside of the car? If so, these are available new from most all the vendors. If this is not an option, I have seen the latest craze in roadside glass service, where they will fix a hole in your windshield for a few bucks, well, they are now polishing your headlights for same. Must have a special acrylic polish that will brighten them up. In my dental office, we use a Baldor lathe and a cotton rag wheel with some SureShine that will bring the luster back. You have to be really careful not to apply too much pressure as this will bring on the heat. And use lots of abrasive (SureShine).

Try going to a dental supply house and getting some bar-type acrylic polish.


Bill

Brasso. works wonderfully.

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Brasso. works wonderfully.

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BRASSO! BRASSO! I hate that stuff! Reminds my of my days in the Army. ('70-'72).


Bill

I used to have to polish my brother's and uncle's army belt buckles with Brasso years ago. I just finally got the smell off my fingers and here we go again!

I'm with Brosky on this one. Use some of that plastic window cleaner stuff. I have some Mother's stuff that works real good. I've used it on plastics other then the rear window of my Miata, and it's worked real good.

MIATA... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif I'm ducking the slings and arrows... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazyeyes.gif