Last time I "acuired" greygate polish it cost £1-10-oo from the back door of an raf station! still got some-good product!
removing scratches from perspex
- Thread starter deejay499
- Start date
A friend used to rally Minis in the 70s, always used toothpaste to remove grease and flys from the windscreen….. and yes, it did smell minty when it rained.
My uncle used to polish the scratches out of Wellingtons with Brasso during the war …………………… that’s the RAF for you, I just rinse mine under the tap.
H
Only one person askd so he is the lucky winner...... watch out all you genuine concours people ..... there must be brownie points for using period polish....... now I have some fifties Simonize powder somewhere.
Sent an e-mail to 3M's in the UK (The makers of this kit) to see whether it could be available here, have yet to get a reply.
Howdy chaps,
I'd go kinda easy with the headlight lense polishing kits on anything that really means something to you. Besides a one-size-fits-all approach, most lenses now have a stubborn protective coating the remnants of which assumed to be removed by the user before the real polishing can commence (that stuff don't buff), thus their "cutting" grits a bit aggressive while the finish grit too much of a step. Not so in many cases with vintage windshields and other plastic transparent covers. Good in a way, you're buffing the surface of the actual material the entire piece is made of (consistent results). So best advised to approach it like finishing a very good polyurethane or gelcoat.
Which on the latter, not to digress tooooo much but about 20 something years ago after building some forgetable machines (H..Davds..n) decided to build a classic completely over the top piece for Daytona Bike Week with the primary mission of learning what could recovered from dead and restoration techniques in general as the Vincent fever had finally taken a hold for good and I had to know when shopping in this thin air what I could save against the price being asked. That machine was this 1974 Norton Norvil Commando and what would set it apart from a sea of Commandos at the time was the finish on the Norvil Commando replica fiberglass body parts - it was going to be as slick as the best polyurethane finishes a the time. No paint, polished gelcoat.
Every sage (wag) had an opinion on what would be required to achieve that and I still have a cabinet with the remnants of those recommendations, but in the end (with a bit of work) this surface responded to good old wet sanding and fine buffing compound on a foam pad.
It worked well enough that on page 4 at the above link you'll see a 60 plus year old Indian windshield that had laid face down in the dirt in a barn until 1994 that with this discovery had clarity returned. 1500 grit for some of the bad scratches, 2000 all over followed by 2500 (3M, wet, rinsed very often to prevent contamination streaking) and a buff with a right angle drill at 1,500 using a foam dimpled pad and 3M Finesse It II.
I'd go kinda easy with the headlight lense polishing kits on anything that really means something to you. Besides a one-size-fits-all approach, most lenses now have a stubborn protective coating the remnants of which assumed to be removed by the user before the real polishing can commence (that stuff don't buff), thus their "cutting" grits a bit aggressive while the finish grit too much of a step. Not so in many cases with vintage windshields and other plastic transparent covers. Good in a way, you're buffing the surface of the actual material the entire piece is made of (consistent results). So best advised to approach it like finishing a very good polyurethane or gelcoat.
Which on the latter, not to digress tooooo much but about 20 something years ago after building some forgetable machines (H..Davds..n) decided to build a classic completely over the top piece for Daytona Bike Week with the primary mission of learning what could recovered from dead and restoration techniques in general as the Vincent fever had finally taken a hold for good and I had to know when shopping in this thin air what I could save against the price being asked. That machine was this 1974 Norton Norvil Commando and what would set it apart from a sea of Commandos at the time was the finish on the Norvil Commando replica fiberglass body parts - it was going to be as slick as the best polyurethane finishes a the time. No paint, polished gelcoat.
Every sage (wag) had an opinion on what would be required to achieve that and I still have a cabinet with the remnants of those recommendations, but in the end (with a bit of work) this surface responded to good old wet sanding and fine buffing compound on a foam pad.
It worked well enough that on page 4 at the above link you'll see a 60 plus year old Indian windshield that had laid face down in the dirt in a barn until 1994 that with this discovery had clarity returned. 1500 grit for some of the bad scratches, 2000 all over followed by 2500 (3M, wet, rinsed very often to prevent contamination streaking) and a buff with a right angle drill at 1,500 using a foam dimpled pad and 3M Finesse It II.
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