Washing Polaroid Type 54 prints

[David Leblanc]

I have a Polaroid Type 54 print that came into contact with the negative sheet s hortly after it was developed (about 3-4 minutes after they were peeled apart). The print looks fine when looked at from a slight angle, but when looked at dire ctly you can definitely see some gunk where the two sheets came into contact.

I was thinking of trying to wash the surface of the print with a lint-free cloth and distilled water, but I'm afraid that wetting the "caustic paste" will only make the situation worse.

Does anyone have some suggestions (maybe some chemical) for removing this kind o f stain? It appears to be just on the surface and not deeply ingrained.

Thanks

[mike rosenlof]

Give Polaroid Technical Support a call 1-800-343-5000 or E-mail (root around www.polaroid.com) and see what they have to say.

If I were to make a completely uneducated (which this would be!!) guess, I would suggest one of:

1) Leave it alone

2) Use one of the wipers of coating goo from either type 55 or type 52.

But call Polaroid, they're much more likely to have a correct answer than I.

[Jim Galli]

Get a good scan before it gets any worse.

[David Leblanc]

I gave Polaroid a call (thanks for the number Mike) and they strongly suggested to leave it alone and re-take the shot if the damage was unacceptable.

However, they did say that if I was willing to sacrifice the print I could try to wash it off with plain water and then Photoflo. I did this and the print is quite waterlogged (ie. warped), but the goo does seem to be gone except for a very faint trace when you look at a certain angle. After spending the night sandwiched in a big book, some of the warping is gone but I'd say for all practical purposes the print is ruined. Maybe if I'd been more careful with the washing I could have avoided the warping, but, basically, I wouldn't recommend this solution to anyone!

So the moral of the story is -- if this happens to you, forget about it and reshoot.