Plexiglass Rub-Mark and Scratch Repair?

[John Layton]

As I've been noticing that numerous small scratches and rub-marks have been accumulating on quite a number of my framed prints plexiglass glazings...I'm looking for ideas/recommendations/resources for repairing these defects if possible, as I'd like to avoid the costly process of plexiglass replacement.

While it looks like many of the defects are quite shallow, and might lend themselves to being buffed/polished out in some way...there are other scratches which are a bit deeper, and my thought is that there might be a product with which one could fill these scratches to make them "disappear."

At any rate, if anyone here has any knowledge that such plexiglass repair might be possible (fingers crossed!), and might also point to some resources for this...that would be great. Thanks!

[Kevin Crisp]

There is an automotive product called Plastic-X (or something close to that) it is a very mild abrasive and would probably work. And, surprisingly, certain car waxes work very well. Macguire's cleaner/wax (in maroon bottle) will very gently remove scratches.

There is a line of plastic polishes called Nova or something like that. I never had good luck with those.

[Tin Can]

Also try headlight cover repair

https://buyrestowipe.com/tools/restowipe.php?affId=6E36D38A&c1=us&c2=search_broad&gclid=Cj0KCQiA-oqdBhDfARIsAO0TrGGq8ZK1PvSNjwEiMtNvIlzDBmYc4DYLZrXTjrqMiqorWJzWMUwJhFsaAsm2EALw_wcB

[Graham Patterson]

[...]

There is a line of plastic polishes called Nova or something like that. I never had good luck with those.

Novus, possibly. TAP Plastics sell them in a rage of grades. I have used them with some success on a shower stall, but I don't usually worry about optical quality in that case.

[Jim C.]

There are plenty of products to take out very small scuffs and scratches, I use the Novus line of polishes.
It it depends on how deep the scratch is , scuffs can mostly be polished out with the Novus # 2 followed by #1 polish,
but if the scratches are deep enough to catch a fingernail lightly passed over them then it's a replacement.
Polishing deep scratches out means you do the entire sheet, spot polishing will leave a noticeable shallow wave.

Sort out the plexi, the good, the bad, the ugly, replace ugly, try bad, polish the good.

[Peter De Smidt]

https://www.amazon.com/NOVUS-PK1-8-Plastic-Scratch-Remover-Bottles/dp/B002UCYRZU/ref=sr_1_1?crid=ONF6LOKPH9RR&keywords=novus+polish&qid=1671685560&sprefix=novus+polish%2Caps%2C128&sr=8-1

[Drew Wiley]

Sometimes it's more fuss to polish than to simply replace. But yeah, just go to some place like Tap Plastics and pick up the proper polish. They'll know what you need, and have it in stock.
I have on hand all kinds of polishes, special abrasive pads, and even expensive equipment for that kind of thing. But still, it's seldom worth the trouble. Easier to cut new sheets of acrylic and use the old scratched material for something else like fabricating darkroom trays, washers, dividers, lids, etc.

Something like automotive Glass Wax could be tried for filling in fine scratches, provided it's only used on the external surface. But always experiment with a guinea pig example before a valuable one.

[Paul Ron]

how are they getting scratched?

[Louie Powell]

Meguiar's PlastX - sold in automotive stores and used for polishing plastic lenses of headlights. Also used by pen makers for final polishing of wooden pens that have been given an acrylic finish.

Novus makes a similar product that is often sold in speciality plastic or glass shops. My experience is that Meguiar's words a bit better - YMMV.

Shake well, apply with paper towel, and rub in a circular pattern.

Micromesh abrasive can also be used to rub out deeper scratches. Micromesh is a form of abrasive originally used to polish out scratches on aircraft windows. Can be found in specialty stores such as Woodcraft. Always used wet (with water), progressing from coarser to finer grits, and then followed by using a plastic polish such as Meguiars or Novus.

[John Layton]

...I'm also wondering if clear acrylic nail polish would work to fill the scratches? Thinking that I'll find my smallest piece of acrylic and do a bit of experimenting!

A number of these sheets have such minor damage as to be basically not noticeable - but I would still not feel right selling prints covered by these sheets.

As for simply replacing my "damaged" acrylic sheets, a few of these are quite large - up to 36x48-ish...and being UV-protective OP-3, they are a bit pricy. I have even larger ones, but so far those are fine.

[tgtaylor]

Sometimes it's more fuss to polish than to simply replace. But yeah, just go to some place like Tap Plastics and pick up the proper polish. They'll know what you need, and have it in stock.

Good ole Tap Plastics! They were a good customer back in the day and when I got into printing my own photographs, I bought all my OP-3 acrylic for mounting from them. In November I decided to replace the ground glass protector on the 810G and brought to them the dark acrylic protector for the MII that the MAC group sold me for $35.00 years ago. They made a duplicate for me while I was there for just $17 and change. https://www.tapplastics.com/product/plastics/cleaners_polishes/acrylic_restoral_kit/629

Tap's "Brillianize" plastic cleaner ($5.85 for an 8oz spray bottle) works like a charm - makes the OP-3 look better than new if that is possible. But I didn't see it on their website.

[Drew Wiley]

Pretty hard to polish things out without appropriate polishing equipment more expensive than a stack of 0P3. But yes, experiment on scraps first, to see what you can or can't get away with in terms of minor scratches. Any kind of hard acrylic sheet if fine for that purpose. I've got plenty of the real deal kinds of abrasives and gear, and hesitate to do it; big headache.

I once had a customer who made his living polishing out scratches on tempered glass commercial store doors. Well, at a replacement cost of anywhere between $18,000 to $40,000 for those kinds of automated doors (it's not like replacing auto glass), charging four or five thousand bucks to polish out something with a sixty dollar apiece diamond pad is a bargain. With Plexi, silicon carbide or "Granat" discs, along with some salad oil lube is just fine, but is more involved technique-wise than one might think. Just a couple of mm of incorrect random rotation, and you've got a new set of scratches. Talk to the automotive polishing experts first. Of course, you could just pick up a little bottle of liquified pumice and rottenstone at the plastics shop, and a mountain of microfiber cloths, and spend your weekends doing it the show way.

Brillianize won't do a damn thing for deep scratches. But I do recommend keeping it around for very minor issues.

[Jim C.]

...I'm also wondering if clear acrylic nail polish would work to fill the scratches? Thinking that I'll find my smallest piece of acrylic and do a bit of experimenting!

A number of these sheets have such minor damage as to be basically not noticeable - but I would still not feel right selling prints covered by these sheets.

As for simply replacing my "damaged" acrylic sheets, a few of these are quite large - up to 36x48-ish...and being UV-protective OP-3, they are a bit pricy. I have even larger ones, but so far those are fine.

Depending on the quality of the plexi if you use anything that has solvent in it like nail polish ( acetone, toluene, xlyol ) it's going to make it worse.
Is the UV protective plexi integral to the acrylic ( formulated in the material ) or a coating ? If it's a coating polishing will remove it.

I thought these were personal hanging framed prints, but if the sheets are stock for your selling framed prints, why is there not the factory protective paper on them ?

Make smaller prints to salvage the larger sheets.

[tgtaylor]

Unlike the product I linked to in the post above, Brillianize is only advertised as a cleaner and using it with a microfiber cloth makes the acrylic shine. All of my acrylic is OP3 AR1 meaning that it is abrasion resistant on 1 side and you mount it with that side facing outward. I had 1 print mounted in a 17x14 Nielsen frame fall from its position on the wall to the floor hitting a cart on the way down but happily no scratches resulted which means that I had the correct side facing outward.

[John Layton]

Jim C. - these are prints which have already been out and about to shows, etc. - which have not yet sold...therefore the protective film has long since been removed.

And TG...I've been very curious about the "scratch resistant" plexiglass - thinking that I should probably just go ahead and replace everything with this...especially now as my remaining framed print inventory is a bit low.

Then again, my printing/framing/selling activity has fallen off lately as I've been focussing on other aspects of life - and I'm not yet sure when, or even if, I'll ramp up the "commerce" end of my photography once again. To be honest, I've been pretty happy being much less aggressive about selling prints...and am thinking that I might focus more deeply on another passion, and look for yet another 944 to restore.

[Drew Wiley]

Semi-hard coated acrylic, which also happens to be a true optical coating inhibiting reflections too, is available, but VERY expensive, and made in an odd sized sheet. It makes OP3 seem as cheap as paper towels by comparison. Museum stuff. It cannot be polished out. You also need to be careful what kinds of cleaners you use on it.

[pgk]

I've succesfully polished scratches out of underwater dome ports (plexiglass/acrylic) using brass and silver polishes; Brasso and Goddard's silver polish which is based on Jeweller's rouge I believe (UK). Both work fine, but as with any polishing it takes a lot of time and patience. In essence any very fine polishing compound should work on soft transparent plastic surfaces, provided that they contain no chemically active solvents which can attack the material they are being used on.

[Joe O'Hara]

Very light, but annoying scratches (not broad rub marks) will sometimes become practically invisible by simply reversing the acrylic in the frame, i.e., putting the outside on the inside. Sounds crazy but it sometimes works, so it's worth a try on marginal cases at least.