Polishing Lenses

[maurice c]

The lenses on the bumper bar indicators on my 40 were looking a bit tired I was thinking of buying new ones and then decided that I should try polishing the old ones first. I've used toothpaste which has a fine polish in it and gave up on that and then tried metal polish instead. They have come up a lot better and didnt take too long. I've put them on a white sheet to try and show the difference.

[Dangerous Dave]

Thats looks pretty good. I might have to give this a go.

[andy]

maybe give them a clear coat of paint to keep em looking clean and shiney. it will also protect the plastic from the elements.

[ViPeR_NiPPleX]

that lens looks quite good. did the metal polish make more of a difference than the tooth paste? i hope you didn't use your current tooth brush lol

[w810sc]

hey, have you tried the brand "kitten" cream cut and polish. i tried it on the 22 parker lenses and side indicators and it came up brand new.

fonzy

[parrot]

I got some plastic polish from Autobarn which transformed mine, work a treat on the surrounding plastic trim as well, look almost brand new.

[maurice c]

The toothpaste was pretty slow and sticky, i used somebody elses toothbrush, i'll tell them in a couple of weeks. The polish I used was metal magic. I should tell you at this point to try out your metal polish on a spare lense first before ripping into your pride and joy.

[MWP]

I used toothpaste.
Just water it down a bit and rub hard with a cotton cloth.
Worked very well on my faded RA28 brake lights.

If you do clear coat them, make sure its very good quaity paint, otherwise itll fade and crack quite quickly.

[RObErT_RaTh]

hey, have you tried the brand "kitten" cream cut and polish. i tried it on the 22 parker lenses and side indicators and it came up brand new.

fonzy

I tried the green kitten no.1 cream polishing wax and that worked pretty well for me on my smokey looking indicators

[EldarO]

ive cleaned plastic with toothpaste + toothbrush before.

just wet it a bit to get it nice and foamy, and scrub a dub dub!

Eldar.O.

[SmellyTofu]

I used toothpaste.
Just water it down a bit and rub hard with a cotton cloth.
Worked very well on my faded RA28 brake lights.

This is what I'd do... also works well with scratched CDs. Just use a very very small amount with a wet cotton cloth.

[willwal98]

I just run over them quickly with the buffer wheile i'm doing the rest of the car. Works a treat. Just don't sit on them for long or they will burn.

[parrot]

The stuff I got from Autobarn was Meguiar's Plastx - Clear Plastic Cleaner and polish.

Did a bloody good job.

[MWP]

I tried the green kitten no.1 cream polishing wax and that worked pretty well for me on my smokey looking indicators

I wonder if they will go back to the way they looked after a while.

The good thing about using toothpaste or cutting compound is you know its actually removing the scratches in the plastic.

Using some polishes/waxes will just fill the scratches rather than remove them.
This may look ok for a while, but later the wax will dissapear and the scratches will become visable again.

[RobertoX]

I used the buffing wheel on mine, the one that is supposed to be for plastic, I tested it on a small part first with the plasitc polishing compound that comes with it and it melted it instantly! Then I tried a sheeps wool buffing wheel with some acrylic paint cutting compound and it worked a treat, the 20 yr old indicator almost matches the brand new one on the other side