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Fixing those scratched dust covers..

I'll just toss out another little suggestion, though many good ones have already been suggested:

Plexus Plastic Polish is what is used in my motorcycling circles for cleaning clear plastic parts on bikes, particularly windscreens. Its non abrasive, you just spray it on, rub it in, wait for it to dry, then gently buff it off by hand (no buffing wheel needed), with a clean towel. It really works great on swirl marks, and makes plastic look very clear and smooth. My dustcover is in pretty good shape, but after a treatment with the Plexus you can really see the difference, and I have to be careful, because it gets so smooth that I almost drop it.

Anyway, its good stuff too.

peace,
sam
 
I do work with Acrylic products, and other plastics, and have been very successful polishing with Kit ScratchOut. This is a yellow bottle, found in auto stores/departments.

If a scratch is really deep, sand with 1000 grit silicon carbide paper, then HAND polish with soft cloth using the ScratchOut.

Flitz will also work.
 
eThink said:
I recently used this to restore and refurbish a dust cover for a 20 year old Dual CS 627Q turntable.

I was very pleased with the results. Hand polishing removed 85 to 90% of the scratches. The dust cover looks much better now.

The cost is $8 a container at Auto Specialty stores.

URL is posted below.

http://www.meguiars.com/product_showroom/showproducts_template.cfm?SrcLine=PI
Click to expand...

Awesome -- I'll get some later today. And, order some Zaino's for good measure.

-- Chris
 
That's the one. Thanks very much guys. This is the most helpful audio site I've ever had the good fortune to join.
 
A quick FYI on dust cover polishing:

I found a few decades back, that toothpaste and a towel would remove haze and light scratches really fast.

First, put the paste on the plastic, then use a little water to make it slide better. Work it in with your finger, then polish off with a towel.

Cheap and effective.
 
Grainger49 said:
A quick FYI on dust cover polishing:

I found a few decades back, that toothpaste and a towel would remove haze and light scratches really fast.

First, put the paste on the plastic, then use a little water to make it slide better. Work it in with your finger, then polish off with a towel.

Cheap and effective.
Click to expand...


That was an old trick I learned many years back for clearing a yellowed convt top rear window. Effective and it smells nice.
 
I have great success removing scratches from perspex by using wet and dry paper. Start with 800 and work up to 1200 or higher. After you have the scratch out you then finish with a metal polish like Brasso. It looks bad at first becuse the area goes misty but after using thismethod several times I would recommend it to anyone.
 
I recently bought a 25 year old Technics turntable with a badly marred and etched cover. I used Janvil plastic restorer products on it and it does a fine job. :thmbsp: The cover has been resurrected from a white cloudy piece of junk to looking mint. It appears that during its lengthy storage that something in a plastic bag was placed on top of the dust cover and the plastics reacted in a really bad way.

For you old car guys, they have glass restoration products as well, but I haven't tried them yet.

http://www.janvil.net/
 
I went to find some Meguiars #17 today as someone said it works good and didnt find any....

but did find some Meguiars "PlastX" its a cleaner/polish in one and takes out haze and scratches.

my cover was pretty bad and boy did it take out the scratches and shine it up!!! looks great, good stuff!!

used it on my suburbans headlights, they are some sort of plastic covering. goodbye haze! good stuff!!!!
 
Agreed with basically all techniques listed here.

Yes, the Novus works, so does the Meguiars plastic polish, and as others have mentioned, so does auto products like 3M's Perfect-It Clear Coat Rubbing Compounds, and 3M Glazes such as 3M Imperial Hand Glaze, 3M Perfect-It Hand Glaze. Even products like Meguiars Deep Crystal Syste, products work great too.

As others have noted, don't try to get all the damage out in one try, or to keep working one small area with heavy pressure.

Some dust covers, like VPI's have seams, and I would assume others like the Ginko Custom Dust Covers do too, and one should be very careful with any polishing products around these seams, as they can be drawn in by capillary action, and will be impossible to get out.

As the very first poster has very pleasantly found, as a finishing touch, there is nothing better IMO than Zaino Z-5 for the finishing touch! After a coat of Zaino, I have never experienced such a slick feel, and such transparency on dust covers.

Most of Zaino products are not agressive products, but once you reach close to the end of polishing-restoration, this is the stuff to use without a doubt!

A truly amazing product on Lexan, Plastics, and I in fact waxed both of my mint Fender American Vintage '62 re-issue P-Basses yesterday, with the Zaino Z-1 Polish Lok, followed by the Zaino Z-5 polish. Perfect, amazing results on both the nitro-cellulose laquer finish, and the pickguards!

Yes, Zaino is a little expensive, but I'm sure glad I have this stuff on hand for those special little projects like this. Mark
 
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I've used the Meguiar's cleaners on CD's and my watch crystals. West Marine has three grades, available in small (8 oz??) bottles. Used in sequence of coarseness, they've taken out all but my deepest scratches.
 
Harvey/ Ga said:
I've used the Meguiar's cleaners on CD's and my watch crystals.
Click to expand...

Ever tried Poliwatch on your acyrilc crystals? Stuff works as good as jeweller's red and green rouge. Wayyy better than Brasso, etc...
 
Great thread, people.

I picked up a pair of old B & O turntables and the dust covers are in tough shape. When I get my act together, I will try some of the products mentioned.

Thanks for the useful info.
 
Thanks everyone for the great info! I never would have tried an automotive buffer on a plastic dustcover prior to reading this thread. I thought that I would have ended up with a cloudy, nasty looking mess. I just scored a JVC-QL-A2 direct drive turntable that looked a little rough at first but cleaned up very nicely. The dust cover had a lot of scratches and swirls on it and was somewhat yellow, possibly from long exposure to sunlight. After reading this thread, I headed to the garage and went to work on the dust cover with the Porter-cable orbital buffer and the Klasse All-In-One polish that I had on hand for use on my vehicles. I started with some white Clear-Coat safe polishing compound and followed with several rounds of Klasse AIO. I won't say that the cover looks absolutely new but it is 1000 times better than it was. It's now clear and the swirls are gone with only a few of the deepest scratches and gouges remaining. I bet that if I keep working with it, it could look like new again.

Thanks again! :thmbsp:
 
I'm back (or was I ever here)?

Hi,
I've been tapping your brains for a while, but this is my first official post so go easy! I picked up a JVC QL-Y5F with a flat black PAINTED dust cover, any shot at cleaning it up? I was thinking of sand blasting but where to go? Any realistic (sorry) ideas?
It's my first TT purchase in 30+ yrs.(last one was a new Dual 1229Q, UV-15 2400Q cart. - still spinning). This one has a RX3P cart with a Shure stylus complete with a 20° angle tilt (no info on it),. I'd like to keep it simple but I don't know if it's worth just getting a stylus or I should spring for a new cart, any recommendations? I'll be running this through a 30+ yr. old Lafayette 440 Quad receiver(back to the original surround sound!) & Sansui SP2000 fronts (questions comming on my next post) + Cerwin Vega D-3s in the rear. Eventually I'd like to replace the dust cover if I can find one or one that fits, (then the & speakers & receiver), is there a place to help cross reference parts to find a dust cover?

I have to say that if history repeats itself I'll be into this stuff up to my hips again, but this time with a bunch of folks that are as nutty as me - The only difference is you guys really seem to know what you're talking about! OK I've puked my guts up - now I only need to find my way home...
Thanks, Mark
 
vinylengine said:
I've been trying to find a source for polishing materials to get a couple of marks out of my obsidian plinth, anyone here know anything about polishing the stuff? ??
Click to expand...

You want red rouge and a buffing wheel (you can get a small one that attaches to a power drill).

Just remember you'll end up having to re-polish the entire plinth, not just the scratched areas.
 
Sorry if I missed it somewhere, but it seems with the methods mentioned elsewhere and here for getting scratches out, the methods sometimes mention clear covers only. If I try this on tinted covers, does the tint get removed, or is the tint actually in the plastic? I've tried to clean up some sunglasses before, and the tint rubbed right off. Safe for tinted TT's? Or try at my own risk?
Thanks
 
great thread-good info turn table dust cover restoring

Here I thought I would be able to just clean up one area, but no, you do have to do the entire dust cover, in most cases. I am just glad that there are several products to choose from, in case one or so are not available in my local area. Thanks everyone on this thread.
 
scratched turntable cover

:banana:

Hi all,
Went to the local autoparts store and bought some Meguiar's PlastX (Clear Plastic Cleaner and Polish - 10oz). My dustcover was really scratched up and I'd say at least 45% totally very cloudy. Purchase TT off Ebay, Sansui
SR-838, works great, I got lucky! I ended up using 1/2 bottle on the dustcover, scrubbed it for 5 hours, to the minute, non-stop while watching TV, and I really am 'AMAZED' at how well this product worked. It works like magic!!!!!! Still have 3 scratches that need to be rubbed out, possibly sanded and rubbed out, but the plastx really did the job. It looks like new clear glass. Finally a product that works!!!!! Hats off to Meguiar's. bluesky
:thmbsp: :thmbsp: :thmbsp: :thmbsp: :thmbsp:
 
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