How Do You Clean Clear Plastic In Your Car?

sharkster · June 20, 2007

the jokers at a service station sprayed some rubbish cleaner on my uncle's N16 dashboard and now the spray doesn't seem to wipe off and has fogged up his speedo... any tips on how this can be gotten rid of?

The Don · June 20, 2007

sharkster said:

the jokers at a service station sprayed some rubbish cleaner on my uncle's N16 dashboard and now the spray doesn't seem to wipe off and has fogged up his speedo... any tips on how this can be gotten rid of?

maybe the same stuff used to clean plastic headlight lenses might help ?

Memphis · June 20, 2007

sharkster said:

the jokers at a service station sprayed some rubbish cleaner on my uncle's N16 dashboard and now the spray doesn't seem to wipe off and has fogged up his speedo... any tips on how this can be gotten rid of?

Braso. Tried and tested ...

sharkster · June 20, 2007

Memphis said:

Braso. Tried and tested ...

how confident are you? cos my uncle will kill me if it screws up further...

Hola · June 20, 2007

sharkster said:

how confident are you? cos my uncle will kill me if it screws up further...

Hi Sharkir,

Memphis actualy tried that on mine too and it worked. He just poured the contents to a cloth and gently kept wiping the clear plastic. Need to have lot of patience. And left it for a while and wiped it out. I used some warm water. My issue was the same where i accidently sprayed dash board wax to it and the clear plastic became faded. It works Shakir, try it!

Good Luck,

Hola

madmax · June 20, 2007

I've tried Brasso on clear headlamp lenses and it works. I didn't post this earlier thinking it will be too harsh on the interior plastics.

dhp · June 20, 2007

to OP, do u know what they sprayed to start with? there are 2 reasons why ur "plastic"(acrylic) could be fogged up

- first reason is the good one - they sprayed some crap that left an oily residue behind that you need to remove. I would not start with brasso for this (no offense) I would start with just rubbing it off with ur finger nail and see if the residue goes off.

- now if they used something with an alcohol or petroleum base it, could have dissolved (and then hardened) the acrylic - then u need to re-surface using toothpaste (fluoride), 1200 grit sandpaper or the beloved brasso

hope its nothing big, then again if u don't clean up u can speed and if u get caught say "its all fogged up in here sir"

Nilantha · June 21, 2007

Memphis said:

Braso. Tried and tested ...

don't use Braso on plastic. use 3M plastic cleanner. u can buy from laugf

VVTi · June 21, 2007

sharkster said:

how confident are you? cos my uncle will kill me if it screws up further...

DON'T even take the Brasso bottle inside your car. Best thing is to try a 3M clear Plastic Cleaner. That also try in a corner of the dash and see what the effect is before you try on the whole panel. SDont use anything abrasive. Try a mild detergent on a cloth and see. Use the mild stuff. Sometime the gunk will wash away if you do it slowly with damp 'paankada' with dish wash liquid or something similar. Surf Exel also works but dilute it in water and use the soapy solution and NEVER the powder directly.

nira74 · June 21, 2007

VVTi said:

DON'T even take the Brasso bottle inside your car. Best thing is to try a 3M clear Plastic Cleaner. That also try in a corner of the dash and see what the effect is before you try on the whole panel. SDont use anything abrasive. Try a mild detergent on a cloth and see. Use the mild stuff. Sometime the gunk will wash away if you do it slowly with damp 'paankada' with dish wash liquid or something similar. Surf Exel also works but dilute it in water and use the soapy solution and NEVER the powder directly.

A mild shampoo works best with cleaning plastics...... i remember way back when plastic lenses were first introduced, the optician recommended using sunsilk shampoo to clean my dad's spectacles....

The Don · June 21, 2007

Nira74 Nilantha and VVTi,

I think if you read dhp's post you might reply differently,

I think all of your suggestions are valid if the plastic is dirty per say, or something as oily residue has been left behind which needs to be cleaned out,

But if the plastic has clouded due to a chemical reaction then cleaners will not help, you need to polish out the top layer of the plastic and for this you need a fine abrasive material and from the sounds of it brasso qualifies and to be honest I have used toothpaste for this before and it has worked for me and the good thing about toothpaste is its unlikely to harm anything else around as well, and cleans out with the help of a damp cloth

Regards,

The Don

MRM · June 21, 2007

VVTi said:

DON'T even take the Brasso bottle inside your car. Best thing is to try a 3M clear Plastic Cleaner. That also try in a corner of the dash and see what the effect is before you try on the whole panel. SDont use anything abrasive. Try a mild detergent on a cloth and see. Use the mild stuff. Sometime the gunk will wash away if you do it slowly with damp 'paankada' with dish wash liquid or something similar. Surf Exel also works but dilute it in water and use the soapy solution and NEVER the powder directly.

shakir try some one else's car if you are not sure .

j/k

hefraz · June 21, 2007

3M Plastic cleaner is some what similar to Brasso, only more expensive.

You can either use Brasso or Supercut (which is available at auto paint shops). And the job will be done.

miniace · June 22, 2007

Thanks Memphis about the tip...I tried and god..it works!

I use Tuff Stuff since im getting them free from my office.

MINIACE

fuzzo · June 22, 2007

this happened to me as well and when i took it back to the guy, he put something on it and cleaned it up. he told me it was "compound" i didn't ask further details....

The Don · June 22, 2007

fuzzo said:

this happened to me as well and when i took it back to the guy, he put something on it and cleaned it up. he told me it was "compound" i didn't ask further details....

I guess very fine compound works too then

sharkster · June 22, 2007

dhp said:

to OP, do u know what they sprayed to start with? there are 2 reasons why ur "plastic"(acrylic) could be fogged up

i'll have to give it a closer look but by the looks of things at the moment it can't be easily 'rubbed' off

MRM said:

shakir try some one else's car if you are not sure .

j/k

it's my uncle's car so i couldn't care less jk

thanks for all your replies guys... we'll give the brasso a shot in a small corner of the plastic... see what happens...

Archon · June 23, 2007

Hey guys! today i removed a cloudy looking stain which was at the speedometer’s plastic lens using tooth past...it was very successful... but you have to have patience. I used my finger to rub the toothpaste gently....it leaves no scratches (not even micro scratches)...so dont be afraid to apply toothpaste on plastic lenses... but it will not help to to get rid of visible scratches.

Elvis_Pil · June 23, 2007

lol toothpaste.. I read somewhere that it cures pimples as well Shaks I got some Super cut compound (its an old Duco bottle) You can give that a try sometime

Memphis · June 23, 2007

miniace said:

Thanks Memphis about the tip...I tried and god..it works!

I use Tuff Stuff since im getting them free from my office.

MINIACE

You're welcome ..

Nilantha · June 25, 2007

Try to use Cerium Oxide.

Cerium Oxide

Ferro Electronic Materials is the world's leading supplier of cerium oxide polishing compounds. We manufacture a range of purities and particle sizes which are produced chemically and in solid state reactions. We can obtain an average particle size less than 100 nanometers. We pride ourselves on having the most consistent products in the industry.

Product Applications:

CMP

Semiconductor (logic and memory storage) devices, dielectrics and STI

CRT

Faceplate and seal edge polishing

LCD

STN and TFT glass polishing

Flat glass, Mirror

Cleaning and bevel polishing

Ophthalmic

Mass production, molds and Rx lens polishing

Precision

Polishing of high quality lenses used in the electronics and high precision optics industries; watch crystals and quartz polishing

Photomasks

Soda lime, borosilicate, quartz

Disk

Glass and glass ceramic substrates

Crystal

Decorative and glassware

Additives

Urethane, resin and rubber based formulations for wheels and polishing pads

http://www.ferro.com/Our+Products/Electron...erium+Oxide.htm

Polishing Scratches Out of Glass

Cerium oxide is the polish of choice for glass. Before you can polish scratches out of glass, you must first determine how deep the scratches are. If you can feel a scratch as you run your fingernail across it, the scratch is too deep to be polished out with cerium oxide. You must first grind the scratch out.

The grit used to grind out the scratch will depend on the depth of the scratch. It is best to use the finest grit you can to grind out a scratch. I suggest starting with 2000 grit. If that is too slow, go to 1500 or 1200 grit and if it is still grinding too slowly, try 600 grit. However, after grinding with 600 grit, you will have to re-grind with 1200/1500 and then again with 2000 grit to remove scratches from the coarser grits. Only then, can the glass be polished with cerium oxide.

An easy way to grind out the scratches is to use silicon carbide sandpaper (the black sandpaper available at hardware stores or auto body shop supply houses) with water as a lubricant. After grinding, carefully clean off the area you ground with water and clean off your tools before going to the next finer grit. It's best to use an attachment on a drill, or an electric buffer.

Mix cerium oxide with water to create a slurry that's the same consistency as milk. Put the slurry on spinning buffing pad. Harder buffing pads made out of hard felt, or leather work best. The polishing action will be fastest when the cerium oxide is damp, but not dry, or runny wet. Fill a spray bottle with water and use it to keep the area you are polishing damp.

Glass is relatively easy to polish. Therefore, you don't need to use the more expensive 99.9% cerium. Instead, the less expensive 90% Optical grade will work fine.

Edited June 25, 2007 by Nilantha